Blog

Karen Karnes (1925-2016), a ceramist famous for both her functional and sculptural pottery, was born in New York City to immigrant parents. She graduated from the prestigious High School of Music and Art in Manhattan and studied at Brooklyn College with Serge Chermayeff (1900-1996), a Chechen architect who had fled Europe during World War II. While at Brooklyn College, Karnes met and married David Weinrib (1924-2016), a ceramist who introduced her to clay. In 1949, the couple moved to a small town in Italy, where Karnes set up a home studio. Read More

While Roswell Stone Hill (1861-1907) was born in Kansas, he considered the Northeast his home. When he was six years old Hill moved with his family to Bridgeport, Connecticut, a city the artist would return to at multiple times in his life. Bridgeport was a small town that Hill watched change into a major commercial center as rapid industrialization took place in the years following the Civil War. Read More

Founded in 1932, the Everson’s Ceramic National exhibitions ultimately sparked a major national interest in ceramic art and paved the way for museums around the country to collect and exhibit functional pottery and ceramic sculpture. Beginning with the Third Ceramic National in 1934, each exhibition toured nationally, and sometimes internationally, to as many as a dozen other museums and galleries. The Ceramic Nationals continued annually until 1952 (with a short break due to World War II), at which time they became biennials due to the number of participating artists and their expense. Read More

On December 4, 1985, the Festival of Trees debuted at the Everson. Organized by the Everson Members’ Council, a dedicated group of museum volunteers, the Festival featured forty-seven decorated trees donated by area businesses, organizations, and individuals. The seven-day festival included holiday themed performances and craft demonstrations, and the trees were available for visitors to purchase. Ultimately, over 8,000 people attended the Festival, which raised $27,000, making it the Museum’s largest fundraiser of the year. Read More

Dee Shapiro (b. 1936) creates paintings, prints, and mixed media works that explore the intersections of pattern, geometry, nature, and craft. Learning to knit at the age of four instilled in her an early interest in how patterns develop from small individual components into larger compositions. Read More