Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics
The Muskingum County Community Foundation (MCCF), the Zanesville Museum of Art and the Artist Colony of Zanesville, with support from the Ohio Arts Council, are partnering with the Potters Council, the membership organization of ceramists worldwide, to present the Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics, the largest best of show prize in ceramics in the Western Hemisphere. The second Zanesville Prize Best-of-Show award will be $20,000. An additional $10,000 in prizes will be awarded to other successful competitors. This event is the second of an annual competition for the Zanesville Prize.
The jurors will select up to 100 finalists from the thousands of images of works that will be submitted worldwide to the competition. From those finalists the jurors will choose the Zanesville Prize recipient and the other award recipients. The three jurors are Garth Johnson, Curator of Ceramics, Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe; Julia Galloway, Professor & Director, School of Art, University of Montana in Missoula; and Doug Jeck, Associate Professor & Chair, School of Art, University of Washington in Seattle.
The idea for the Zanesville Prize came after a group from Zanesville, sponsored by MCCF, visited Paducah, Kentucky, where the city hosts an annual quilt competition. The community captured the attention of quilters with a $25,000 best of show prize more than 25 years ago. The quilt competition is the second largest tourist event in Kentucky, second only to the Kentucky Derby. It brings millions in tourism dollars to the Paducah area each year during the last week in April.
In a series of meetings following the Paducah visit and with the help of Harvey Sadow, ceramist, educator and founding director of the Paducah School of Art, the creators of the Zanesville Prize (David and Katherine Mitzel, Rob and Susan Sharrer, Michael and Kathy Seiler, Jim Warren and Linda Regula) decided to organize the event. Michael Seiler, President of the Artist Colony of Zanesville, gained the commitment of his organization to the event.
MCCF provided seed money and held meetings with artists and supporters of the arts to plan the event. During the planning process, organizers met Carolyn Dorr, the Director of Potters Council, at the Alabama Clay Conference and found out that she was a Muskingum County resident. Soon the Potters Council became a partner in the event.
The 2015 Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics show will be held at the Zanesville Museum of Art from September 25, 2015 through January 2, 2016.
In addition to the Zanesville Prize activities, ceramists and ceramic arts students will attend a one-day conference in Zanesville on September 26, with demonstrations by the three Zanesville Prize Jurors.
During the public viewing of the show (September 25, 2015 – January 2, 2016) all finalist entries will be offered for sale with the commissions used to support the Zanesville Prize competition in 2016.
contactus@zanesvilleprize.org
1 (740) 453-5192
Zanesville, OH 43701