VISUAL ART & MUSEUMS

It’s been two years now since Danielle McDaniel~The Clay Lady saw the vision of a place to serve the artistic educational needs of the community as well as a place to bridge the gap between artists who were less than “professional”, but more than “students”. Today, The Clay Lady’s Studio, Artist Co-Op & Galleries is Nashville’s premier pottery and ceramics compound. Boasting over 25,000 square feet of supplies, educational facilities, artist co-op studios and galleries, this artistic Mecca draws visitors from around the country for classes, materials, seminars and retail shopping. In honor of this vision come to life, we are celebrating with this FREE event that features something for everyone!

Attendees will delight in our beach side celebration as we transform our event room into a lush sandy beach gallery where our artist of the month, Josh Houben will host a solo exhibition of his most recent seaside themed work. Josh’s elegant designs and simple muted glazes lend themselves to be touched and handled. Josh himself believes that his work “is meant to be touched, handled, shared, and function in the tasks and routine beauty that life is made of. As such my work may be broken or shattered in life's little accidents, but this is the risk of ceramics being off the gallery shelf and in the hands of real people.” His inspiration is drawn from “the possibility of bringing something beautiful into someone's everyday life. It is a great joy to see my work banqueting household tables and in kitchen cabinets. This flows from my belief that this is where art belongs: in the hands of friends and family, and participating in the dust of our daily rituals.” You too will have the opportunity to touch hold and even take home one of Josh’s one-of-a-kind creations.

This beach themed birthday bash will have a full day of exciting events. Kicking things off at 11:00am is Josh’s Gallery show followed by cupcakes and singing happy birthday at 12:00pm. The excitement hits fever pitch at 1:00pm as Co-op members and alumni of the studio participate in the Annual “Throwing of the Pots”. Artists collect their ugliest pots from the past year and throw them against the building. The new graffiti mural adoring the outside of The Clay Lady’s Studio, Artist Co-Op &Galleries will be completed and Jack “the graffiti artist” will be on hand to sign his art. From 3:00pm to 4:00pm, you will be able to meet the individual co-op artists in their studio spaces as they work on hand-building, throwing on the potters wheel, engage in decorative design work and even doing some glazing. Throughout the day, you’ll find plenty to eat and drink, lot of great music, and of course find tons of art! So come early and stay for the whole day!