19th Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National
www.strictlyfunctionalpottery.net
Presented by the Market House Craft Center
Affiliated with the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen
P.O. Box 204, East Petersburg, PA 17520
717-560-8816

Editors: For immediate release

National Ceramic Exhibit in Lancaster, PA, September 24 - November 6, 2011

The 19th Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National, a juried exhibit of some of the finest examples of current functional pottery in the country, will open Friday, September 23, with an opening reception at Kevin Lehman's Pottery, 560 S. Prince St., Lancaster, from 6 to 9 p.m.

The opening reception provides the public with its first chance to view the show and enjoy music, gourmet food and a gallery talk by the exhibit juror, Mary Barringer. Admission to the opening is $15. The exhibit will be free to the public Saturday, September 24, through Sunday, November 6. Exhibit hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.

Each year entries are received from prominent and established potters as well as from emerging artists. This year's juror is studio artist and editor Mary Barringer, who selected 110 works from the 1,000 submitted for the exhibit. Barringer has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, and has taught at numerous art centers and universities.  In addition to her studio work she has written and lectured on ceramic history, and in 2003 she was named editor of Studio Potter.Magazine. She lives in Shelburne Falls, MA.

"I have been a studio artist for more than thirty years, making both sculpture and functional pottery. In recent years I have concentrated on pots, making them slowly and building up the surface with multiple layers of slips and glazes," Barringer writes in describing her work. "Making pots enables me to participate in an ancient human conversation through the work of my hands. My forms come out of my own ideas about food, history, and the body, but it gratifies me that they go on to lead lives of their own: to inhabit other spaces, fit other hands, and fulfill other ideas of the useful and the beautiful."

Barringer also will present a one-day demonstration workshop Saturday, September 24, at 10 a.m. in the same location as the exhibit. The cost of the demonstration workshop is $55, which includes admission to the gala opening the evening before. A place in her workshop may be reserved by contacting Kevin Lehman at Kevin@klpottery.com or 717 509-7547.

The Strictly Functional Pottery National is chaired by Kevin Lehman and Jean Lehman, well known Lancaster potters who are not related. "Functional pottery was always overlooked in national ceramic exhibitions," says Ms. Lehman. "The SFPN has filled a need in providing a venue for functional work. Different clays, methods of making the work, types of glazes, and firing techniques are represented in the SFPN. This exhibit shows the enormous imagination that is possible in creating functional pottery."

The SFPN is supported by numerous ceramics related companies, including AMACO - American Art Clay Co., Bailey Pottery Equipment Corp., Ceramics Monthly Magazine, Clay Times Magazine, HACC Ceramics Club, Kevin Lehman's Pottery, L&L Kiln Mfg. Inc., Laguna Clay Co., Skutt Ceramic Products and Standard Ceramic Supply Co. It is also supported by Lancaster Designer Craftsmen, Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, the Pocono Chapter of the PA Guild of Craftsmen, and the Central PA Potter's Group.

The Market House Craft Center, creator and presenter of the exhibit, is affiliated with the PA Guild of Craftsmen. It is a nonprofit, educational, all-volunteer organization dedicated to quality crafts and craftsmanship.

For more details about the exhibit and directions to Kevin Lehman's pottery, go to www.strictlyfunctionalpotterynational.net on the Internet. Further information about the exhibit is available on the web site at www.strictlyfunctionalpotterynational.net. The entire exhibit will appear on that site after September 23, along with the past six year's exhibitions.

Please direct inquiries about the Strictly Funcational Pottery National to Kevin Lehman at Kevin@klpottery.com or 717 509-7547, or Jean Lehman at strictlyfunctionalpottery@gmail.com or 717 291-2154.