ARTS & CULTURE


cations around the country. Seasalt, the Cornwall-based retail clothing store, generously provides an annual bursary for an ap- prenticeship at the Leach Pottery. In addition, three and five day classes are offered for people who want to improve their throw- ing skills and also for beginners, who need more basic training. Instruction for this takes place in Leach’s original studio. Hand- building and throwing classes are conducted in the evening, and MPhil and PhD research is heartily encouraged. Tere are four or five selling exhibitions per year in the main


Gallery at the Pottery and Te Cube Gallery exhibition space features a different show every six months. Following on from the major Reunion: Potters from the Time of Bernard Leach show, which featured work of all known surviving potters who studied under Leach, there’s now a solo showing of the East Asian in- spired work of lead potter Roelof Uys, which runs July 7– October 7 2018. An ongoing programme of talks, masterclasses, workshops and


demonstrations are given by visiting potters, lecturers and staff members. Apprenticeships and volunteer placements are avail- able too, and long term volunteers have the opportunity to live on-site. A great recent addition to the Pottery is a resource and


seminar room as well as a library featuring, at last count, 700 books. Although Bernard Leach was born in Hong Kong and spent his


first few years in Japan, he was also active in England and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. It was in Japan, though, that he came to create pots, alongside Hamada, in Mashiko. Leach’s best known work, A Potter’s Book (1940), is one of the


most significant potting handbooks of the 20th century. And the high-profile position enjoyed by Leach meant that he attracted at- tention to Japanese and Korean arts and crafts, particularly within the American and European artistic communities. He and his pub- lications were influential and his association with Soetsu (Muneyoshi) Yanagi (1889-1961), the philosopher, art critic and primary force behind the Mingei (Folk Art) Movement, played a critical role in the development of the concepts which Leach es- poused throughout the course of his long and varied career. Leach met Yanagi in 1909 and they forged a relationship which survived for decades. When Leach returned to England in 1920, it was Hamada who


accompanied him and together they created the Pottery in St Ives. Te first East Asian style climbing kiln in the West was constructed


20 FOCUS The Magazine July/August 2018


www.focus-info.org


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