MSV to Host Pottery Show & Sale on June 8 & 9

The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV) and the Shenandoah Potters Guild are teaming up to host a pottery show and sale at the MSV from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, June 8 and 9. Admission to the event is free.

According to Shenandoah Potters Guild member Heather Scott, twelve potters are scheduled to participate in the eighth annual Pottery Show & Sale at the Museum. Scott notes that along with featuring displays of handbuilt and wheel-thrown pottery available for purchase, the event offers visitors the opportunity to meet expert potters and see a wide range of pottery styles. Works available for purchase include functional and decorative pieces, such as bowls, mugs, baking dishes, planters, plates, and more.

Event attendees will have the opportunity to converse with a variety of guild members, including several who have decades of experience creating pottery. Participating Shenandoah Potters Guild members include: Alice Boysen, Alisa Gladstone,  Arline Link, Aurelie Schmid, Heather Scott, Barb Adams, Barbara McCulla, Jennifer Kendrick, Julie Cook, Rita Hester, Dayle Cooley, and Virginia Zuniga.

With more than 40 members and roots dating to the late 1980s, the Shenandoah Potters Guild was established to promote pottery as an art form and to raise awareness of the Shenandoah Valley’s pottery heritage.

Along with displays of contemporary pottery, the MSV event will include free demonstrations by guild members at 1 and 2 p.m. on Saturday. Heather Scott will demonstrate how to throw clay on a pottery wheel at 1 p.m. and Rita Hester will demonstrate the art of hand building pottery at 2 p.m. The demonstrations are free and will take place in the MSV Makerspace Studio. On Sunday, show attendees are encouraged to drop in the MSV Makerspace Studio—which will be open from noon until 6 p.m.—to see the space and learn about pottery opportunities offered in the Makerspace, including pottery wheels, clay kits, and classes.

The show and sale will take place in the first floor of the MSV galleries building. Those interested in complementing their visit to the weekend event may also wish to consider visiting the Shenandoah Valley Gallery, where the Museum’s impressive collection of regional pottery is on view. Including more than 40 objects, the display details the Valley’s centuries-old pottery tradition and includes many rare pieces made by several of the region’s most prominent early potters.

There is no fee to visit the pottery show and sale and enjoy the demonstrations. Regular admission rates apply to visit the MSV exhibitions, galleries, gardens, and special outdoor exhibition opening on June 8, Gardens of Glass: The Art of Craig Mitchell Smith.

A regional cultural center, the MSV is located at 901 Amherst Street in Winchester, Virginia. The MSV includes a galleries building with permanent and rotating exhibitions, the Glen Burnie House, seven acres of formal gardens, and The Trails at the MSV—a free-admission art park open daily from 7 a.m. to dusk. Additional details are available at www.theMSV.org or by calling 540-662-1473, ext. 235.