Ceramics Program Offers Summer Seminar and Symposium on Islamic Ceramics
This July, the Ceramics Program of the Office for the Arts at Harvard
will present both a three-day symposium and a three-week seminar highlighting
important Islamic contributions to world ceramics. The programs will address
the development and creative use of brilliantly colored and intricately
painted glazes, lusters, and geometric design patterns as well as Islamic
architecture, aesthetics, and culture. The three-day symposium will take
place at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum and at the Office for the Arts at
Harvard’s Ceramics Program on July 15th -17th, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
with a Keynote address on July 15th at 7 pm. The three-week seminar-workshop
will meet for the symposium presentations and on weekdays mornings, 9:30-12:30,
at the Ceramics Program studio July 8th - 12th and July 18th - 26th.
The three-day symposium, which runs from July 15th - 17th, is the fourth
in a series of annual symposia and seminars on major cultural traditions
in the ceramic arts offered by the Ceramics Program. The symposium will
feature scholars and artists presenting slide lectures, master classes,
and collection tours on the technology, history, and contemporary legacy
of Islamic ceramics.
Lectures will be held at the Sackler Museum auditorium and demonstrations
will take place at the Ceramics Program studio. Collection tours will
be led by Mary McWilliams, Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and
Later Indian Art at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard, and Julia
Bailey, Islamic art specialist and Assistant Curator, Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston.
The symposium’s keynote address will be presented on Monday, July
15th at 7 pm by Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, foremost leader in introducing
Islamic intellectual heritage to the Western world through his writings
and teachings on perennial philosophy, Iranian studies, and Islamic science
and spirituality. A popular and eloquent speaker, Nasr is a Harvard University
graduate who is currently University Professor of Islamic Studies at the
George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and President of the
Foundation for Tradition-al Studies. Dr. Nasr has written over fifty books
and five hundred articles including Man and Nature: the Spiritual Crisis
of Modern Man (Kazi Publica-tions, 1998), Religion and the Order of Nature
(Oxford, 1996) and Knowledge and the Sacred (SUNY, 1989).
Distinguished scholars in the field of Islamic art history and ceramics
history will present symposium lectures. Alan Caiger-Smith, former Chairman
of the Crafts Centre of Great Britain, is a potter specializing in tin-glaze
earthenware and reduction lustre. He is author of Lustre Pottery: Technique,
Tradition and Innovation in Islam and the Western World; Tin Glaze Pottery
in Europe and the Islamic World, and Pottery, People and Time. Wasma’a
Khalid Chorbachi, instructor and Artist-in-Residence at the Ceramics Program
of the Office for the Arts at Harvard holds a PhD in Art History from
Harvard University, and her research and artwork focuses on the development
of Islamic Design. Walter B. Denny, Professor of Art History at the University
of Massachusetts, Amherst and author of Gardens of Paradise: Ottoman Turkish
Tiles 15th-17th Centuries (Istanbul, 1998), will lecture on the 16th-century
Turkish ceramics of Iznik. Henry Glassie, Folklorist and College Professor
at Indiana University, has written books on Turkish and Bangladeshi ceramics,
including Turkish Traditional Art Today. Glassie will lecture on the contemporary
traditions of Turkish Ceramic Art.
Additionally, a group of visiting artists who create ceramics that are
influenced by Islamic ceramics traditions will demonstrate and give presentations
about their work. Sanam Emami is a studio artist who creates vessels and
tiles inspired by Islamic forms and design. Neil Forrest, Associate Professor
of Ceramics, Nova Scotia College of Art has lectured, demonstrated and
published internationally on architectural and Islamic ornament, and he
creates installation systems inspired by Islamic design. Liz Quackenbush,
Associate Professor of Art, Penn State School of Visual Arts, creates
vessels and sculpture inspired by Islamic tin-glazed earthenware and lustre
traditions.
The symposium programs run from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, with a two hour break
for lunch from noon to 2:00 pm. The tuition is free for Harvard undergraduates,
TAP elegible, and open to the community for $350 plus a $35 application
fee.
In conjunction with the symposium, works by the artist presenters and
other contemporary artists creating vessels, tiles and sculpture that
are influenced by Islamic ceramic traditions will be featured in an exhibition
at The Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, July 6th - August 24th.
The intensive three-week seminar-workshop, which runs from July 8th -
26th, will combine the study of Islamic ceramics history, symmetry design,
and technology with creative studio work. The symposium programs run from
9:00 am to 5:00 pm, with a two hour break for lunch from noon to 2:00
pm. The tuition costs $350 and there is a $35 application fee. During
the second week, the participants will attend the Symposium’s slide
lectures, master classes, and collection tours. In other sessions they
will work closely with visiting artists and the seminar instructor, Wasma’a
Chorbachi, on the development of their skills as artists and educators.
Seminar participants will have access to the studio facilities seven days
and evenings per week from
July 8th - August 31st. Seminar hours are 9:30 am - 12:30 pm for the sessions
from July 8th - 12th and July 18th - 26th. Tuition is free for Harvard
undergraduates, TAP elegible, and open to the community for $680 plus
a $35 application fee.
To apply for the seminar and symposium, download application forms from
the Ceramics
Program website or contact Nancy Selvage, Director of the Ceramics
Program of the Office for the Arts at Harvard. The Ceramics Program is
located at 219 Western Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02134. Nancy Selvage
can be reached by phone at 617 495-8680, fax at 617 496-9787 or email
