Founders Exhibition at Baltimore Clayworks

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 10, 2026, 4:00 – 6:00 pm

Baltimore Clayworks presents In the Beginning…, a special exhibition honoring the visionary artists who laid the foundation for our organization nearly half a century ago. This intimate and historically rich showcase brings together significant works by the founders of Baltimore Clayworks, celebrating the creativity, collaboration, and community spirit that sparked a legacy still thriving today.

Founder’s Statement

Baltimore Clayworks did not begin with a building. It began with hunger—hunger for clay, for community, for a place where ideas could be fired into form. Planning started quietly in 1978, when interested ceramic graduates and recent graduates of Towson University began to imagine something more durable than individual studio practices. They wanted a shared center, rooted in Baltimore, where clay could anchor learning, making, and exchange. By 1980, that imagining became official: Baltimore Clayworks was chartered, its name catching the promise of work done by hand and held in common.

In those early years, the founders bonded not in boardrooms, but around tables. Friday night soup and bread gatherings became ritual—warm bowls, torn loaves, and long conversations that stretched late. These evenings fed more than bodies. They became an information-sharing and decision-making forum, where ideas were tested, disagreements softened, and trust was built. Mid-week, the conversations continued at The Pizza Palace in Towson, MD, where slices and laughter sustained momentum between firings and forms.

From this circle, Lormina (Nina) Salter emerged as a leader. Nina was a brilliant ceramic sculptor, a graduate of The Art Institute of New York, and a person whose life was interwoven with the arts. She had numerous friends in creative fields and knew many individuals in the public sector. Just as importantly, she understood how to bring people together. Nina was able to engage her networks to assist the emerging art center, Baltimore Clayworks, translating vision into access, and enthusiasm into action.

Nina and Deborah Bedwell turned their attention to shaping artistic and educational programs, imagining what Clayworks might offer the city and its people. At the same time, seven of the other artists took on the urgent search for a building, knowing that a true home had become essential. The space would need to support gas-fired kilns and bring multiple functions under one roof: classrooms, artists’ studios, exhibition and shop areas, firing facilities, and room for Community Arts staff, whose programs would continue to operate throughout the city. As plans grew more concrete, so did the artists’ commitment. Each contributed $2,000 to create a shared working capital fund—an act of collective faith, deliberately pooled and purpose-driven.

The search was exhaustive and often discouraging. Then, through an acquaintance of Nina’s who was a city employee, the group was directed toward the former Mt. Washington Library. The building was promising, but the path was not simple. Community approval was required to determine the “best use” of the facility. A steering committee from the Mt. Washington community—Ellen Nutter, Ray Little, and Mark Shapiro—was tasked with making the decision after holding public interviews.

There were twenty-one proposals. Attorneys, architects, beauty salons, and real estate companies all had plans for the building. When the day came, all nine of the Baltimore Clayworks artists were present. They spoke of clay and fire, of classes for children and adults, of exhibitions that would honor the material, and of access for people throughout Baltimore. They spoke with the same passion that drove their work in clay

After several days of deliberation, the steering committee awarded the former Mt. Washington Library to Baltimore Clayworks. It was June of 1980. What had begun with soup and bread, with shared risk and shared vision, now had walls—and within them, a future ready for firing.

~ Deborah Bedwell, founding executive director (retired)

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Also on Exhibition

Teapots XI

Baltimore Clayworks proudly presents our 11th biannual juried exhibition, Teapots XI. The juror, Pete Pinnell, selected the functional and sculptural teapots created by emerging and established artists.

Community Arts Winter Showcase

A vibrant exhibition highlighting the talent, curiosity, and creativity of our students, teaching artists, and community partners.