Wholly Dedicated: Baltimore Clayworks' Studio Satellites in Inner-city Neighborhoods

Baltimore Clayworks was established in 1978 by nine clay artists with a defined aspiration to create a studio where artists, students and the public could experience and learn about the ceramic arts. It opened its doors in 1980, where the last 28 years, it has worked successfully to establish a national reputation for artistic excellence, artist support and community involvement. It is housed in two historic buildings in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Baltimore City: the first, a former Enoch Pratt public library built in 1919, houses artists’ studios, classrooms, kilns and other specialized equipment. The organization’s second building, a former convent built in 1883, was given to Clayworks by the St. Paul Companies in 1999, opened in September 2000, and today houses a suite of exhibition galleries, meeting space and offices. Our community arts programs got underway in 1988 when, during the simultaneous residencies of African-American sculptors Sana Musasama and Winnie Owens Hart, these visiting artists with strong support of the organization organized clay activities at Morgan State University and workshops with several large African-American congregations.

To realize its mission to develop, promote and sustain an artist-centered community, providing exceptional artistic, educational and collaborative programs in the ceramic arts, the artists, staff and board of trustees of Baltimore Clayworks provide accessible and affordable classes and studios, as well as galleries free and open to the public six days a week at our main campus in Mt. Washington. Since 2003, Baltimore Clayworks has also established and maintained stand-alone studio facilities in communities in inner-city Baltimore that we call “satellites.” We believe that we are the only arts organization in Baltimore that has a main facility and also operates a satellite studio.

The Space: Wholly Dedicated to Clay

Kids’ class at Baltimore Clayworks’ Mondawmin Mall Satellite Studio Click here to enlarge

For the first 11 years of our community arts programs, Clayworks staff and artists traveled throughout the city, holding numerous afterschool programs in partnership with other organizations; these programs were sited in the partners’ facilities or in local schools. Many of those partnerships continue to thrive today. From 1998 to 2000, Baltimore Clayworks received a special grant of $100,000 each year that designated 12 specific Baltimore community organizations for partnerships. Each community organization received artist-led programs for middle-schoolers in ten-week sessions, twice weekly, in three cycles during two calendar years; there were 1200+ students enrolled annually. Baltimore Clayworks determined that when the grant period was over, a long-term goal would be to identify and cultivate those middle-schoolers within those 12 sites who were most engaged in the artmaking, and provide carefully planned long-term clay activities at no charge to them at our Mt. Washington studios. We were not successful in meeting that goal. Our “Best and Brightest” program, which started with 50 young people, had only six two years later.

Hearing from the young people and parents that transportation to our site was a barrier, we organized and funded a van service for individual participants. Even though the young people had the same artist-teachers and had transportation and access to far better gallery and studio facilities in Mt. Washington (which has a majority white constituency), the dynamic was not the same as in the community centers, which were majority African-American and close to home. After extensive talking with and listening to the young people, their parents, caregivers, public-school teachers and our artists, we finally determined that the neighborhoods in which our economically marginalized participants lived were “comfort zones,” and provided a level of familiarity and belonging that was conducive to creativity and community building. Our focus shifted, and Clayworks’ undertook to create a place in a majority African-American neighborhood to provide access for children (and now elders) to connect with artists and art materials. Our first satellite was a 4,000-square-foot former store located in the Mondawmin Mall; our second was in the Forest Park Senior Center; and our current location is in the Pimlico Road Art and Community Center. Under development are satellites in three other Baltimore communities.

What is the difference between satellites and partnerships with community-based organizations? The satellite is a space wholly dedicated to clay. Another entity (the host) may own it, but Clayworks controls the space, keeps the work of its students and artists visible and safe from harm, promotes and funds its own programs located there, and draws its participants from the neighborhoods around the satellite. Clayworks outfits the satellite with claywork-conducive equipment, tables and shelving. Clayworks negotiates a letter of understanding with the host, and pays its pro-rata share of utilities or other expenses, has 24-hour key access, and carries insurance for activities held in the satellite location. Our preference is not to lease, but in the right circumstance, we might do that. Each satellite has had a different set of parameters about the fee structure, but the commonality is in our organizations’ control of the space, and the welcoming invitation and willingness of the host to have Baltimore Clayworks in its facility. In every instance, we were led to the location by one of our students or a concerned community resident.

The Artists: National Profile and Local Talent

At the heart of all Clayworks’ activities are ceramic artists; our mission clearly states that Baltimore Clayworks is an artist-centered community and that working, professional ceramic artists supported by the organization connect with the communities we serve in a direct and influential way. Baltimore Clayworks positions itself as having two hands that work in partnership. One hand consists of a network of nationally known artists/teachers to whom we provide affordable studio and exhibition space and opportunities for career development. Five fuel-burning kilns, 11 electric kilns, 40 potters’ wheels, extruders, slab rollers, a spray booth and a fully outfitted glaze lab enable any clay artist to create fully within the discipline, from small tiles to monumental sculpture. A comfortable apartment with private bath and access to a kitchen and garden provide comfortable accommodations to visiting artists in our Gallery Building across the street from the studios.

Resident artist Lawson Oyekan working with students at Mondawmin Satellite Studio Click here to enlarge

The other hand of Clayworks holds the broad and diverse communities of Baltimore City’s youth, families and senior adults who participate in classes and programs taught by Clayworks artists/teachers. The hands work together in concert, creating an advantage to the working artists, those whom they teach, and the Greater Baltimore community as a whole. Our “two hands” mentality is extremely important not only for the community of Baltimore but for the teaching artists as well. They become resources for each other and in turn inspire each other to make more thoughtful learning experiences. This fulfills one of Baltimore Clayworks’ closely held beliefs: that clay is a powerful tool for teaching, sharing and communicating; it is a dynamic vehicle that leads to profound personal growth.

The residency program at Baltimore Clayworks is highly regarded in the field of ceramics nationally and internationally. Besides the 13 artists who are in residence for an average of three to seven years, Clayworks invites ceramic artists with a high national profile to work in its excellent facilities and to connect in numbers of ways with the citizens of Baltimore. The visiting artists, many of whom are also professors of ceramics in universities are on site from two weeks to four months at our Mt. Washington site, and serve as master teachers and mentors to the more emerging artists in our teaching pool. Since 1988, Baltimore Clayworks has hosted visiting artist residencies for more than 22 visiting artists, the majority of whom are artists of color. Satellites add another dimension to a residency: It is its own well-equipped and outfitted workspace, and it is always ready for a visiting artist to connect with the young people, their families and our well-established community of continuing elder clay students.

Each Satellite Has a Story

When Clayworks responded to our community participants’ desire for a permanent ceramic studio in inner-city Baltimore, the result was Baltimore Clayworks Mondawmin, which operated from July 2003 through August 2006.

During its operation, 900 enrollments were taken at Baltimore Clayworks Mondawmin from young people, senior adults and many families in programs that included a variety of topics. The site gained in visibility and respect in the community for its excellent programs, offered for registration fees of only $5-$15 per eight-week term. The afterschool programs were always free. Visiting artists at Mondawmin were David MacDonald, a Syracuse University professor and African-American potter who helped Clayworks set up the studio; Nigerian sculptor Kwabena Ampofo Anti; and Ching-Yuan Chang and Shin-Yu Wang (Taiwan). While the satellite grew and prospered for three years, redevelopment plans for a mall made continuing at that location impossible, and the site closed on August 31, 2006 (a Target Store has been built on our “footprint”).

By October 2006, the doors of our Forest Park Senior Center satellite site were opened. In fall 2006, Bill Stewart, a New York artist and professor, spent a month at Clayworks and at Forest Park where senior adults and teens of Baltimore interpreted the theme “Everyone Deserves an Ark.” A 16-foot-long ark-shaped pedestal displaying 56 whimsical animal sculptures toured the Baltimore Visitors Center and the World Trade Center in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. In spring 2007, Kyle and Kelly Phelps, visiting artists and professors from Ohio, came to Baltimore for five days to run a workshop titled “Figure in Relief,” specifically targeted to our senior adults. The success of the program was witnessed not only in the enthusiasm from our participants but also in the quality and sophistication of the student’s artistic work. However, the Forest Park executive director changed in our sixth month and a reconfigured board of directors at the center supported her vision of expensive rental space to church congregations. The “welcome invitation and willingness to host” had gone, and Clayworks relocated to in December of 2007 to Pimlico Art and Community Center, two miles away, at the invitation of the Northwest Community Development Corporation and its partners.

Pimlico provides the space and comfort zone that our community constituents need, and all but two of our students came with us from Forest Park. Since beginning with clay at Pimlico three months ago, we have retained our 30+ senior adults and increased the number of young people in our classes. We began a new class for young children at Pimlico – a new kind of program for us, but one that the Headstart program, also housed in the complex, needs. A “Pizza and Pottery” class for older teens is preparing to launch in the spring. In that neighborhood, gang activity has flourished, and we hope to provide some alternatives for young teens.

At Baltimore Clayworks we believe that our ability to live our mission is possible only through our capacity to change, transform and evolve with the needs of the community. As a result, our organization has gone through a period of tremendous growth over the last few years, both physically and programmatically. The establishment of satellites is part of that growth. It is new work for us, and there is much to learn and much to share. Clayworks is committed to presenting sustained, authentic, artist-led programming in Baltimore’s inner-city neighborhoods where people need and want to work in clay.

This essay is part of the Community Arts Convening & Research Project, 2008, funded by a Nathan Cummings Foundation grant to the Maryland Institute College of Art. The essay was reviewed and selected by the project's Editorial Board: Ron Bechet, Xavier University of Louisiana; Lori Hager, University of Oregon; Marina Gutierrez, Cooper Union; Ken Krafchek, Maryland Institute College of Art; Sonia Mañjon, California College of the Arts; Amalia Mesa-Bains, California State University Monterey Bay; Paul Teruel, Columbia College Chicago; and Stephani Woodson, Arizona State University.

Deborah Bedwell is founding director of Baltimore Clayworks and a working, exhibiting ceramic artist and teacher. During her tenure as director, Bedwell has crafted more than 24 community collaborations with a wide range of agencies and institutions statewide, primarily to benefit children in underserved neighborhoods in inner-city Baltimore and in rural Maryland.

Original CAN/API publication: December 2008