Clay Commons

Eva Masterman

A podcast about community ceramics and clay as a force for good. Clay Commons is a six-part podcast hosted by artist and educator Eva Masterman, co-produced by AiAi Studios. Each episode presents conversations with teachers, artists, activists and community leaders, all using clay as a tool to build community. Focusing on the UK and America, Clay Commons explores the rise of a diverse movement of community ceramic practices, and investigates how clay can play a central role in creating alternative solutions to arts education and new systems of value in society.

  1. 06/11/2023

    Outro: Until Next Time

    Until next time! This is a beginning, a jumping off point, a carrion cry to all those interested in clay as a force for good. Keep following, keep listening, lots more to come. @clay.commons

    1 min

  2. 06/11/2023

    A Manifesto: To You and Clay and Beyond

    I'll let this one stand on its own - a little something from my current phd, to end on an intent for the future.   To You and Clay and Beyond.

    5 min

  3. 06/11/2023

    Episode 5: The Leaky Boat of Capitalism

    VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN! Let’s end with a bit of hope and imagine together what we might build together. If we start to shift our creativity towards communities and away from capitalism. It’s a long road ahead, but we’ve got to start somewhere!   In this final episode, we talk about the importance of spaces to gather and talk about ideas. There’s lots wrong with universities, but they did give us a space to get together and talk about things that we cared about, deeply, over time. How many other places in society can we do this? Clay studios, that’s where!  Let’s face it, zoom isn’t going anywhere, but the importance of face to face organising cannot be forgotten. Holding spaces for community and discussion is even more important as our governments come for drag story time and police our reading lists. How we might start to create these spaces with values at their core, where we start to practice ways that challenge capitalism and the capitalistic ideas of extraction and exhaustion and individualism that we’ve been indoctrinated into? Definitely not tying myself to Marx, but he did suggest that as capitalism emerges as a failed economic system, the failed state would erupt into violence. He also said that we must go through capitalism to get to the other side, and that this violence would be an indicator that capitalism was in its death throws. …Seen any violence lately? At a point when it feels like a kind of Russian roulette as to which will do us in first, war or climate catastrophe, surely it’s time to start imaging and enacting what might be on the other side?   Contributors: David Raileanu, director of Red Ink Community Library  https://www.redinkri.org/thestory Liz Welch, director and founder of Anyhow Studio https://www.anyhowstudioprovidence.com/ Clay Commons was written and produced by Eva Masterman, editing supported by Travis Roush. This podcast was supported by Newcastle University, and the Northern Bridge AHRC Consortium. Artwork created by Kelly Jade Audio credits: -       "Ambience, Children Playing, Distant, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org -       "Ambience, Seaside Waves, Close, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org

    26 min

  4. 06/11/2023

    Episode 4: We Are Dreamers

    Episode 4 is about positioning this work within traditional practices and rooting it in grassroot, activist, community organising. Speaking to Les Monarcas de Barro (the butterflies of mud), this amazing organisation talks to me about immigration, South American pueblo ceramic traditions, and the disconnect between ideas of land and earth, and our Western understanding of ceramics.  So many of our studios and clay practices have been built around handbuilding 1, handbuilding 2, with a focus on skill devoid of context, spirituality or even general connection to each other. How many of us have entered a studio and worked without taking off our headphones, barely speaking to the others around us? I’m all for a bit of alone time, but this compelling episode talks about the importance of not working and living in a silo, to move beyond individualism and towards the collective. We also talk about the importance of getting clay and traditional making back into the hands of people who’ve been severed from their lands and histories, to make small steps towards bringing back a connection that has been taken from them.  This episode is about trying to make change wherever you can, and starting to view clay as not just handbuilding 1, handbuilding 2, but as a way of understanding ourselves, where we come from, and who we want to be.  Contributors: Vanessa Cabezas and Kevin Escobar, founders of Les Monracas de Barro https://www.facebook.com/LesMonarcasdeBarro/ Clay Commons was written and produced by Eva Masterman, editing supported by Travis Roush. This podcast was supported by Newcastle University, and the Northern Bridge AHRC Consortium. Artwork created by Kelly Jade Audio credits: -       "Ambience, Children Playing, Distant, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org -       "Ambience, Seaside Waves, Close, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org -       Music in the background of this episode are clips from indigenous street performers in Mexico City and a street festival in Oaxaca City from my travels in 2022.

    22 min

  5. 06/11/2023

    Episode 3: Voices at the Table

    So, this one doesn’t really mention clay, but allow me some poetic licence and imagine for a moment that clay is also land (which it is). I’m ashamed to say that the Land Back movement was not something I’d really engaged with or had even heard of much before this season. This is the battle for indigenous nations and people to get back land that’s been stolen from them. And yes, this is meant literally. Give it back.  Many of the bigger organisations I went to mentioned things like ‘land acknowledgments’, which seems like a step, but when we’re talking about up to and over 200acres of privately owned land in some cases, what does a mere acknowledgement that it was stolen, actually do? Not a huge amount, practically.   And land means so much. It's not just resources, though that's important, it's also culture, food, education, autonomy, commuinity. We take so much for granted. And so much of what we have was built on the profits of genocide and unspeakable violence. Not to be a downer, but we really need to start doing more than ‘acknowledging’ this. What does collective liberation look like in a world so divided? How can we start thinking about redistribution and changing our thinking from growth to thrive, from scarcity to abundance? These are not easy questions to answer, but I hope we can start to work through them together, on whoever’s land we might be standing on right now.  Contributor: Jeremy Dennis, President of Ma's House  https://www.mashouse.studio/   Clay Commons was written and produced by Eva Masterman, editing supported by Travis Roush. This podcast was supported by Newcastle University, and the Northern Bridge AHRC Consortium. Artwork created by Kelly Jade   Audio credits: -       "Ambience, Children Playing, Distant, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org -       "Ambience, Seaside Waves, Close, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org -       Music in background is kindly given by Jonathan Hawk @ambient_techno and his recording Youngblood Singers - Grand Entry Song - Shinnecock Pow Wow 2022 Saturday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NVmX7I7M_Y

    24 min

  6. 06/11/2023

    Episode 2: Do The Work

    Episode two is about DOING THE WORK y’all! And that means slowing down, decentring yourself, centring the community, challenging the status quo and constantly reflecting on your organisational structures and being open to your blind spots. This conversation flits between Watershed Centre for the Ceramic Arts in northern rural Maine and Black Hound Clay Studios in Philadelphia. And whilst the concerns of rural v city are obviously specific and different, the ideas that underpin how to run these spaces are not so. They are both heavily invested in building community through education, providing spaces for those who can’t access higher ed, and the importance of place and making people feel welcome and like they belong.  What emerged many times during this trip was the idea of administration as an act of care and as a container for creative practice. That the labour involved in running these spaces was as important as the work that was created in them. Within that is a shift in the idea of learning, away from short term, once-accessed exam-based institutions, and towards a life-long embedded practice, creating places people can access throughout their lives. Obviously financing this is a massive issue, but we touch on that too – ever thought of sliding scale financing? Redistribution? Mutual aid? This episode is all about how we can do things better, and the importance of having a reflexive practice as an organisation, to ensure that you serve the entirety of your community, not just the ones who can pay.  Contributors: Black Hound Clay Studio https://www.blackhoundclay.com/ Watershed Centre for the Ceramic Arts https://www.watershedceramics.org/ Clay Commons was written and produced by Eva Masterman, editing supported by Travis Roush. This podcast was supported by Newcastle University, and the Northern Bridge AHRC Consortium. Artwork created by Kelly Jade   Audio credits: -       "Ambience, Children Playing, Distant, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org -       "Ambience, Seaside Waves, Close, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org

    23 min

  7. 06/11/2023

    Episode 1: Future in Deferral

    I realise now that episode 1 of season 1 also started with the institution of ‘school’ in some ways , but oh well, at least I’m consistent!  Ep 1 is talking about craft schools, mainly, but also what it means to have a craft education. What’s it for? What has it missed out? What does it promise?  In the US, many of craft schools were made possible through the GI Bill, a state fund from the mid 40s that supported initiatives and education for returning veterans. Seems kind of unlikely in our current climate, but much of this government money was funnelled into craft and art education. A well known beneficiary might be Black Mountain College. Other schools like Penland School of Craft, and Worcester Craft Center began life as schools for European colonial-settler women to learn and perpetuate handcrafts to make a living.  Both of these origins struck me as interesting, as, whilst we’re obviously acknowledging the whiteness and colonialism that is inherent to this narrative, the schools were arguably set up with a social directive. The looming beast of capitalism means that the utopian promise of craft suggested by the likes of William Morris, Bernard Leach, or – in this episode –  MC Richards, doesn’t really operate that way, but I loved this idea. That if we look at the underpinnings of what craft education can offer us, and how it’s operated in society, it offers us a way of being in the world that centres: people, environment, community, and not: profit, extraction and indoctrination into a failed state.  Anyone interested….? Contributors: Michelle Millar Fisher https://michellemillarfisher.com/ Tom O'Malley, director Worcester Craft Centre https://worcestercraftcenter.org/ Sara Clugage https://dilettantearmy.com/ Fabio Fernandez, director Greenwich House Pottery https://www.greenwichhouse.org/pottery/ Clay Commons was written and produced by Eva Masterman, editing supported by Travis Roush. This podcast was supported by Newcastle University, and the Northern Bridge AHRC Consortium. Artwork created by Kelly Jade   Audio credits: -       "Ambience, Children Playing, Distant, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org -       "Ambience, Seaside Waves, Close, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org

    22 min

  8. 06/11/2023

    Intro: Clay Commons Season Two

    It’s finally here! Welcome to the second season of Clay Commons! I’ve gone for something a bit different with this one so let me explain a bit.  I maaaaay have mentioned the incredible few months in Summer 2022 that I spent travelling up and down the East Coast of North America, visiting craft schools and ceramic studios. Why? Because the idea for the Clay Commons came out of the rising number of community clay studios in the UK, and, if you listen to Ep2, Season 1, you’ll hear about how American models have massively influenced this. So, I wanted to go to source and see what these organisations might look like 10, 20, 100 yrs on. What ended up was so much more than a history lesson, positioning this work within much wider contexts of ethical feminist business models, indigenous land back movements and socialism. As usual, I couldn’t fit all that I learnt and experienced into this podcast, so went for more of a soundscape, picking up on overarching themes. There was something so special about being physically in these places, so I’ve tried to embody some of that sense of being in place and context throughout this season. Please do try and forgive some of the sound quality - turns out wandering around with a hand held microphone on windy coastlines and in noisy studios isn't the best way to record a conversation!  Hope there’s some useful ideas and provoking thoughts in there! Enjoy!

    3 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

A podcast about community ceramics and clay as a force for good. Clay Commons is a six-part podcast hosted by artist and educator Eva Masterman, co-produced by AiAi Studios. Each episode presents conversations with teachers, artists, activists and community leaders, all using clay as a tool to build community. Focusing on the UK and America, Clay Commons explores the rise of a diverse movement of community ceramic practices, and investigates how clay can play a central role in creating alternative solutions to arts education and new systems of value in society.

Information

  • Creator
    Eva Masterman
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2023
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2023 Clay Commons
  • Show Website
    Clay Commons