Delta Clay - Environment & Art

Catalog description

New Orleans sits at the edge of the continent on layers of alluvial clays and sand, on a delta barely 5000 years old. The low elevation and shifting nature of the ground has influenced the growth and construction of the city, and provided a resource of clay for building and ceramic art. This class will explore the ground under our feet, examining the makeup of the geology of our city, the river that formed it and some of the ways geography and geology has influenced the growth and character of its neighborhoods. As climate change magnifies the forces that shaped the delta, the natural processes of flooding, erosion and subsidence are accelerating with serious consequences for the New Orleans and South Louisiana. Our environmental exploration will take us out to find and dig local clay, prospecting at the Studio in the Woods and the Carrolton river bank at the “Fly”, experiencing the land in a direct way. The clay we dig will be refined in the ceramics studio and used it to make vessels and other botanical forms inspired by the historic enterprise of Newcomb Pottery. Founded within the Newcomb Art Department in 1896, the Newcomb Pottery enterprise utilized local clays and employed talented women graduates from the Art department, developing unique and beautifully crafted forms that emphasized designs drawn from indigenous plants. Special tours of the Newcomb Art Museum’s collection of the historic pottery will provide models for our own works, made from the clays we dig and fired in the modern kilns of the Newcomb Art Department.