Curatorial Statement
The Artists-Invite-Artists Residency provides artists with the opportunity to have a small focused amount of time for their studio practice that may or may not be possible during their normal, daily routines. The Red Lodge Clay Center keeps the months of June, July, and August open and available to the AIA Residency Program. The artists who are selected for the residency might have day jobs that range from academia to administration to full-time studio artist. We provide them with the time and space needed to work in a creative environment with their peers and colleagues in the field of ceramics. Dialogue, collaboration, and influences can and will happen during their time spent together in the studio. The Red Lodge Clay Center is pleased and excited to host an exhibition that showcases the artwork of the summer AIA groups into one exhibition to start the summer season in the Loft Gallery.
Bede Clarke has organized our first group coming in June this summer. Bede is a Professor at the University of Missouri and also an artist. He has invited Stephen Robison, Kathleen Guss, Dan Murphy, and Greg Van Dusseldorp. They all have the connection of being students at the University of Iowa at different times, with Bede being the thread that ties them all together.
Jeremy “Jr.” Kane has coordinated the second group coming this summer in late July. Jeremy is a Professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, artist, and Blue Grass musician. For this group, Jeremy has invited Teresa Shannon, Karen Foote, Josh DeWeese, Bob Shay, Hunter Stamps, Amelia Stamps, Ernest Forward, and Martin Tagseth. Over the years, all the artists included in Jeremy’s group have been colleagues in some way at the University of Alaska by way of students, teachers, and visiting artists. Jeremy states that his group knows how to stay out late, but also get up early and start the day in the studio.