“Great art is made when many hands work together.” -- Susan Whelan

Make a Clay Figure Demo with artist Susan Whelan

The MAD Celebration of the Arts (CoA) is an annual community event to showcase excellence in the arts by representing many artistic styles and the breadth of Kingston’s cultural diversity. The 6th Annual MAD Celebration of the Arts has been radically altered due to the restrictions of COVID-19.

This year we are unable to come together as a community for a daylong gathering of art making. Instead we’re inviting the Kingston community to join us for a month-long clay project while keeping our distance! As of August 15, Bailey Pottery, our generous event sponsor, has produced 500 lbs of clay pugs for our community and we’re preparing the first firing of several hundred figures! Amazing!

Prompt: Create a commUNITY clay figure. MAD provides the clay, see below for pickup/dropoff info. There are only three rules to follow:

Must be hand sized
Must stand up
Must have a face!

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Pick up some Clay! -- 2 Ways to Participate throughout August

1. WEEKEND WORKSHOPS at The D.R.A.W. Directions

Saturdays, August 29, 10am-2pm
Sundays, August 23, 10am-2pm

Watch a demonstration and have an opportunity to create your commUNITY figure in our new studio space at Energy Square. Following all CDC and NYS Department of Health requirements, only six unrelated participants will be allowed in at a time and your temperature will be taken. Masks are required and available.

2. PICK-UP / DROP-OFF ONLY Make your figure at home.

You can pick up clay for you, and your group if you need more, at these locations:

MAD in the 20 Cedar Street Lobby, Mon-Thurs, 10am-2pm and during Weekend Workshops
Kingston Ceramic Studio at the Shirt Factory, 77 Cornell Street on the 3rd Floor Daily, 9am-7pm

Return your finished figures to a drop-off location and MAD will collect them for firing at Bailey Pottery.

Clay figures will not be returned but will become part of a bigger project representing all of us: The commUNITY Clay Project display will be on public view at the MAD Studio at 20 Cedar Street late August or early September 2020.

This project is made possible with the support of Bailey Pottery Equipment and Ceramic Supply.

CommUNITY clay figures, various Kingston residents and artists.

Learn More About mad’s Community clay project

This project was inspired by Antony Gormley’s dramatic installation, “Field for the British Isles.” Gormley’s project included 40,000 small terracotta figures. “The figures were created in collaboration between Gormley and the local community. They were kiln-fired in brickworks and subsequently displayed en masse. The respective local communities were made up of local children and their extended families. Each person was given a small ball of clay with which they shaped a standing figure with two eyes. As many as 200 figures could be made by each person in a day. Gormley describes the process, Each one of these works comes from a lived moment. It is a materialisation of a moment of lived time, in the same way that my other work is a materialisation of a lived moment in time, and they have a very particular presence, each of them.” Source

Unlike Gormley’s installation where 100 volunteers created 40,000 figures, our project will be made from many hands and each figure will be unique. The clay will be a red brick color, a nod to Kingston’s history as a brick-making center.