Jul 17, 20233 min read

WORLD CLAY COLLABORATION

Napier’s Community Arts Centre

16 Byron Street | PO Box 1083

Napier 4110

New Zealand

06 835 9448

www.thecan.co.nz

When the City of Las Vegas invites Clay Arts Vegas to do a show in city hall we strive to curate new work that holds together as a harmonious experience. This time we wanted to celebrate the art and artists of Las Vegas, but we also wanted to reach beyond the boarders of our city. In today's world there are to many walls being put up. Art serves as a bridge that unites people, both makers and viewers. It is a common language that is the shared collective experience of being human.

When Dr. Coni Kalinowski relocated to Auckland NZ from Las Vegas she was interested in bringing her two cities, and her love of clay together. We had many conversations on how to do this. The first step in bringing us together is this show. We look forward to future opportunities to share our love of clay art. When this show comes down from city hall in Las Vegas, it will travel to North Dakota, Wyoming, Pennsylvanian, then travel to New Zealand. Then off to several other destinations Covid19 willing.

The concept for bringing our communities was to pair artists from Clay Arts Vegas with artists from Auckland Potters Studio and asked them to collaborate. Collaboration can have many meanings from working on one piece that they sent back and forth, to making pieces that interlocked together, to just sharing a common idea and each creating their own work on a topic.. We feel that the most important part of understanding others is conversation and sharing. How better to do this than to make art together. As we developed concepts, we figured why stop with New Zealand? As a growing leader in the ceramic arts we felt we should spread the net wider and include artists from all over the United States and beyond. In the gallery of Clay Arts Vegas we regularly bring in work from some of the worlds top ceramic artists these people have become part of the artistic voice of the studio. By inviting these artists to collaborate with Las Vegas artists we are trying to do our part to expand the voices of our community and trying to raise the profile of Las Vegas as an international arts city.

We hope you enjoy Clay Arts Vegas Collaborative International Exhibition. In this display you will get to share in the collaborative process of local people with new friends from: New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, Netherlands, France, Australia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, North Dakota, Wyoming, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, Alabama.....

Clay Arts Vegas (2020)

We need to not only thank the artists, and galleries who made this show possible. Most importantly we need to thank Dr. Coni Kalinowski. Dr. Kalinowski is the force behind so many things that have made Clay Arts special - Coni was our very first student, provided great wine and sushi, has made it possible to us to have a resident artists program, a voice of reason, coordinated and paid for the shipping of the work from Pennsylvania to New Zealand, and most importantly an amazing colleague and friend.

Clay Arts Vegas 2023