NEWS SUMMER 2010  

Recent Acquisitions - Magdalene Odundo: We are delighted to have acquired a piece of work by Magdalene Odundo OBE, the internationally renown Kenyan born ceramicist who has been living and working in the UK since the early 1970s. The work was purchased with grants from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Art Fund. The tall bottle in burnished terracotta is currently on display in the gallery as part of an exhibition of new acquisitions since 2005. The exhibition also features work purchased during the last three International Ceramics Festivals.

BBC Antiques Master: Examples of studio pottery from the collection will feature on the BBC programme Antiques Master, the series presented by Sandi Tosvig where amateur enthusiastics compete against each other. The programme is on BBC2 at 8.30pm every Tuesday for 6 weeks from July 6th.

Curator of Ceramics and the Archive, Moira Vincentelli has recently been appointed to a personal chair at Aberystwyth. During July Professor Vincentelli will be presenting papers on aspects of her work on oral history and ceramics in Wales at conferences at the Victoria and Albert Museum , at the Theorising Wales conference at Gregynog and at the NAASWCH conference in Arlington, Virginia.

A list of works from a recent acquisition by the German-born ceramic designer and artist Grete Marks is now available on the website. Grete Marks studied at the Bauhaus and set up a factory in Germany in 1924. When times became difficult for Jewish people in the 1930s, she sold the factory and eventually settled in England . Bringing her continental modernist style to the UK , she worked as a ceramic designer selling work through prestigious outlets such as Heals and Liberty ’s. In the post-war period she turned more to painting and studio pottery. This group of works was kindly donated by her daughter, Frances Marks. Click here to read her biography and see her work.

Family Learning will recommence in September 2010 click here for details.