Join Greenwich Historical Society Assistant Curator for Interpretation and Collections Kelsie Dalton and Curator of Exhibitions and Collections Maggie Dimock for a lecture and guided tour exploring connections between the lives and legacies of ceramic artists Leon Gambetta Volkmar (1879-1959) and Katherine Choy (1927-1958). Volkmar, whose pottery enterprise Durant Kilns was based in Bedford Village, New York from 1910 to the mid-1940s, was a prominent figure in the New York art pottery world. His handcrafted and sensitively glazed ceramic vessels were nationally recognized and collected broadly by Greenwich-area connoisseurs, including the Bush-Holley House’s one-time resident Constant Holley MacRae.
A selection of Volkmar pieces on display in the Greenwich Historical Society Permanent Collections Gallery will form the basis for an illustrated lecture on Volkmar’s life and work, to be followed by a special guided tour of the exhibition Radical Pots and Cooperative Hands: Katherine Choy and Clay Art Center focused on the legacy and influence of art potters of Volkmar’s generation on Choy and her fellow pioneers in the studio craft movement.