Renowned Curator to Discuss Ceramic Artist Katherine Choy’s Legacy in conjunction with Historical Society Exhibition
Choy’s reputation for radical ceramic art forms led to national prominence and the founding of Port Chester’s Clay Art Center
Mel Buchanan: RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, New Orleans Museum of Art, provided with permission, courtesy of Greenwich Historical Society
Mel Buchanan, RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), will present an illustrated lecture on January 18th from 6 – 7:30 pm at Greenwich Historical Society detailing ceramic artist Katherine Choy’s remarkable career as one of the first ceramicists to bridge Asian traditions into Modern abstract art. A member of the artistic vanguard and an educator, Choy spent several years in New Orleans as head of ceramics at Newcomb College in the 1950s and would go on to co-found Clay Art Center in Port Chester, New York in 1957. Her life and the legacy are the topic of the exhibition Radical Pots & Cooperative Hands: Katherine Choy and Clay Art Center, on view at the Greenwich Historical Society through February 4.
“We are privileged to welcome Mel Buchanan for this lecture exploring Katherine Choy’s legacy as an artist celebrated by the American craft world, whose artistic and teaching career in New Orleans was an important precursor to her establishment of Clay Art Center in our community,” says Historical Society Curator of Exhibitions and Collections Maggie Dimock. “Buchanan is one of the leading experts on Choy’s life and career, and an invaluable resource in developing the Historical Society’s current exhibition on Choy and Clay Art Center. Her exhibition catalog: Katherine Choy: Radical Potter in 1950s New Orleans (2022) is a definitive work on Choy’s life.”
Katherine Choy exhibition floor: by Asher Almonacy, with permission, courtesy of Greenwich Historical Society
Katherine Choy exhibition floor (2): by Paul Mutino, with permission, courtesy of Greenwich Historical Society
Buchanan’s curatorial excellence is recognized nationally. She serves on the board of The Decorative Arts Trust and of the American Ceramic Circle. In 2023 she was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, an advisory committee charged with guiding the museum function of the official presidential residence and its state rooms. Buchanan previously held roles at the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island and the Milwaukee Art Museum. She holds a BA from Yale University and an MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture.
For more information and to register: Katherine Choy Radical Potter in 19502 New Orleans
Historical Society exhibition showcases Choy’s regional ties and pioneering works
Following Choy’s years in New Orleans, she established close ties to Greenwich. Her colleague Henry Okamoto lived in Cos Cob, and together they founded Port Chester, New York’s Clay Art Center in 1957, which remains a thriving center for ceramic artists today.
On view through February 4, the Historical Society’s exhibition Radical Pots & Cooperative Hands: Katherine Choy and Clay Art Center offers a stunning collection of Choy’s works, alongside never-before-seen photographs, letters, and other archival material, that charts Choy’s rapid rise to prominence and influence in American studio ceramics in the mid-1950s.
Her ceramic vessels are renowned nationally, and have a presence in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Newark Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Radical Pots & Cooperative Hands: Katherine Choy and Clay Art Center, is organized by the Greenwich Historical Society with artwork loans and research support provided by Clay Art Center. The exhibition is generously supported by Josie Merck.
Visitors to the Historical Society’s Cos Cob campus may also view a special companion installation of ceramic works by artist Leon Gambetta Volkmar (1879-1959) drawn from the Historical Society Museum Collection. The Permanent Collections Gallery also showcases works from members of the Cos Cob Art Colony, Connecticut’s first Impressionist art colony at the turn of the 20th century, with whom Volkmar was socially connected. Conclude with a stop in the Artists’ Café where complimentary coffee and tea are offered.
Greenwich Historical Society Museum Galleries are open Wednesday through Sunday from 12:00 – 4:00pm.
About Mel Buchanan
As the RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), Mel Buchanan leads exhibitions, interpretation, and collection growth for the museum’s wide-ranging decorative art and design collection. She is the curator of the 2022-23 exhibition Katherine Choy: Radical Potter in 1950s New Orleans and author of its accompanying catalogue.
In 2018, she completed a reinstallation of the department’s galleries, including the launch of a series of commissioned artworks where contemporary designers—including Joyce Lin and Roberto Lugo—respond to the museum’s traditional collection. Other recent exhibitions include Atomic Number 13: Aluminum in 20th-Century Design, Bror Anders Wikstrom: Bringing Fantasy to Carnival, and Personalities in Clay: American Studio Ceramics from the E. John Bullard Collection. Buchanan is currently working on a major 2024 exhibition and catalogue drawing from the NOMA’s renowned collection of historic glass through themes including craft, exchange, technology, and foodways.
Buchanan serves on the board of The Decorative Arts Trust and of the American Ceramic Circle. In 2023 she was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, an advisory committee charged with guiding the museum function of the official presidential residence and its state rooms.
Buchanan previously held roles at the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island and the Milwaukee Art Museum. She holds a BA from Yale University and an MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture.