Area potter Art Baird will return to View to instruct a pottery class, Pottery Making: The Next Step, on Mondays from March 5 through April 9.
Art Baird
The class at View will include instruction on wheel-thrown and handbuilt pieces and is open to all aspiring potters who have taken at least one pottery class.
Baird studied pottery at Munson Williams Proctor Institute as a New Hartford High School student.
He earned a college degree in geology, followed by a two-year internship with a cooperative of about 40 potters, called Pottery Northwest in Seattle, WA.
He and his wife moved back to the area in the early 1970’s and in the 1980’s he returned to Munson Williams Proctor as an instructor.
He currently works in the studio he crafted in an old barn behind his Holland Patent home.
Baird said he works in porcelain and stonewear and mixes his own clay and glazes.
Inspiration for his pieces are drawn from nature.
“The sights, textures, and rhythms of the natural world in our garden, in the woods near our house, and in the Adirondack wilderness shape the way I think about my work,” he said.
Baird is currently working with sandblasting designs in the surface of finished pieces. Some of his works were available at View’s Chili Bowl Luncheon on Tuesday, February 19.
Baird’s work is sold in galleries around the U.S., at arts and crafts shows, and online, at www.artbairdpottery.com.
Baird’s pottery classes at View will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The fee is $180/$150 for members. Materials are an additional $35. Students are asked to bring one to three pieces of their own pottery to the first class.
Registration is available by calling View at (315) 369-6411, ext. 201, or email info@viewarts.org.
