Speaker: Kirsty Hartsiotis
1 August 2023
From St. Ives to Coleshill to Winchcombe, many of the early studio potteries were in the South West and were inspired by the potteries of the area. This talk explores the history and characters of the ceramics scene in the region since Bernard Leach set up his pottery in Cornwall in 1920 and looks closely at the work of Leach’s first pupils Michael Cardew in Gloucestershire and Cornwall and Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie in Oxfordshire, as well as examining the many potters and potteries that followed, from Ray Finch to William Worrell, from Ivan and Kay Martin to Toff Milway and many more.
Profile
Kirsty has been the curator of decorative and fine art at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham since 2008 and prior to that was the curator and manager of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. At Cheltenham she looks after the Designated Arts and Crafts Movement collection which includes the important private press archive, the Emery Walker Library.
Passionate about sharing her deep love for and knowledge of the arts, Kirsty is also a freelance researcher, currently researching Arts and Crafts war memorials and the work of Arts and Crafts designers in churches in the South West. She has also been an oral storyteller for over 20 years and has published a number of collections of stories. She is the newsletter editor for the Society of Decorative Art Collections and a regular columnist for Cotswold Life, and she writes for diverse other publications on art history and folklore.