Clay Today: A Group with a Vision
The ‘Clay Today’ group was a dynamo and catalyst for a number of central events and activities that pushed and changed the Danish ceramic world during the early 1990s. ‘Clay Today’ came into existence out of a need for a platform to exchange of knowledge and experience among ceramicists, a platform which might also promote Danish studio ceramics to the public. Throughout the 1980s things began to happen in the milieu for ceramics in Denmark. ‘Multi Mud’ was set up as an exhibition collaborative in the early 1980s by: Karen Bennicke, Peder Rasmussen, Lene Regius, Heidi Guthmann Birck, Aage Birck and Gunnar Palander. The artists Bodil Manz, Malene Mullertz, Gunhild Aaberg, Beate Andersen and Sten Lykke Madsen have also exhibited together as a group, called Keramiske Veje since 1985. For ‘Clay Today’ the purpose was not only to exhibit together, but also to create a network for cooperation and dissemination. Their stated aim was to “further the knowledge of the latest developments, within both the professional and the artistic realm of ceramic making”. Their intention was always to approach this in a two-fold way: among ceramicists and the general public.
‘Clay Today’ was borne following a visit in 1987 by Peter Tybjerg, Betty Engholm and Nina Hole (together with several other Danish ceramicists) to the exciting American event in 1987, held each year in a different state, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) in Syracuse, USA. Here, among one thousand participating colleagues and in a city which focused on ceramics during the whole week, the Danes realised the importance and possibility of exchange of knowledge and ideas between colleagues. They also witnessed the differences in comprehension and appreciation of ceramic arts and design. The Danish participants were “surprised to see how the Americans work freely and independently without referring to Applied Arts, unlike the tradition in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe”.
Nina Hole, Peter Tybjerg and Betty Engholm established valuable contacts among the American ceramicists and later in the same year, Robert Shay visited Roskilde and demonstrated his techniques and shared
