Keeping the Burners Lit is an exhibition of the diverse work of 13 Scottish Ceramicists from the North of Scotland which took place from 3 – 25 July 2010 at an talla solais in Ullapool.

HI-Arts talks to Ceramicist Allison Weightman just prior to the opening of the exhibition and also finds out about her concerns regarding the future of the teaching of ceramics in Scotland.

Scottish based ceramic artist Allison Weightman, and Committee members of an talla solais, have prompted the exhibition which is entitled ‘Keep the Burners Lit’ to highlight the quality and skill in the tradition of ceramics in Scotland and the demise of the subject in regard to education in the subject throughout the curriculum in both lower and higher education.

Allison had been a self-taught ceramicist in the years prior to being accepted and subsequently graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in the last year of the Ceramics Department. Allison says about her time at ECA: “This was a strange time to be at the end of something, (which seemed as a subject and material to be as important and valid as it had always had been)”.

an talla solais understands that Glasgow School of Art will close its department next year when the current students graduate, it will retain the facilities but there will not be a department focused on the subject regarding specialiation in the subject .

Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen still offers Ceramics as part of a design course, but again it is not a course that specialises in the subject. Across the rest of the country the departments are closed, and although there may be kilns in the colleges, the subject in its own right, has gone.

There are, however, studios in the Central belt, with enterprises like the Glasgow Ceramic Studios, based in the WASP studios. Edinburgh also has similar communal run studios, These spaces are occupied by those who have generally been through art school and are trying to make a living from being a maker. Some of these makers offer short courses but it is difficult for these studios to be utilised as a permanent learning environment, (as space is always an issue), and if they are big enough, there is not funding for the teaching.

Work by Patricia Shone

an talla solais is looking at the moment to secure future funding to build ceramics provision on to the existing building, they hope that this will be a purpose built space, which will allow them to run courses and offer a working environment to students, and facilities for schools and visiting Ceramic Artists to use.

an talla solais also intends to dedicate an exhibition per year to the subject, as part of their already busy programme. It is hoped that gatherings such as the ‘Keeping the Burners Lit’ exhibition and its related events will maintain and develop a profile for the subject.

Work by Veronica Newman

Teapot by Fergus Stewart

“Maybe the subject needed to die the death that it has been sentenced to, so that new shoots will emerge that will be sustainable?”

Ceramics is a subject that takes a lifetime to master, and the experimental years offered to students attending art college are invaluable. Without these years of foundation, it is difficult to imagine how a young person with a passion for clay will be able to find a facility that can compare to that offered by a degree course. We have to accept that Ceramic provision in Scotland as we knew it, has gone.

But what we don’t have to accept that the subject is lost. As long as there is a passion, it will survive.”– Excerpt from Article Printed in The Ceramics Review Magazine issue 244 July/August 2010 written by Alison Weightman

Allison Weightman, June 2010

The exhibitors who are participating in this exhibition were: Daniel Kavanagh, Lotte Glob, Nickolai Glob, Allison Weightman, Gavin Burnett, Illona Morrice, Morag MaGee, Fergus Stewart, Tom Butcher, Veronica Newman, Jym Brammah, Steven Paterson and Patricia Shone.

Find out more about an talla solais by visiting their website on www.antallasolais.org