Making Place Matter

To inaugurate its new building in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, The Clay Studio will present an exhibition, symposium, and publication organized around the complex meanings of place. Ceramists Molly Hatch, Ibrahim Said, and Pew Fellow Kukuli Velarde will explore this concept through pieces that consider personal history and cultural memory. Each of these artists is known for work reinterpreting historical objects tied to their own heritages: Velarde summoning pre-Columbian entities in clay, Said employing skills passed down from his father’s work in a centuries-old Egyptian pottery town, and Hatch creating large-scale reinterpretations of her family heirlooms. A diverse exhibition council will convene to design and create programming for a “visitor engagement gallery” where audiences can connect their own ideas of place to the exhibition and interact directly with the artists during their residencies at the Studio. Making Place Matter builds on a Center-supported discovery process that engaged Kensington community members to develop an exhibition plan for this project.

Additional unrestricted funds are added to each grant for general operating support.