Baltimore Clayworks is a community-centered ceramics institution in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Our organization was founded by nine artists in 1980 and in 1984 received its nonprofit 501(c)3 status. We are known for our attentiveness to our city, and possess a national and international reputation for artistic excellence, artists’ support, and community involvement.
Our Vision
Baltimore Clayworks’ vision is a welcoming and creative community where all people can access and experience joy through clay.
Our Mission
The mission of Baltimore Clayworks is to develop, sustain, and promote an artist-centered community that provides outstanding educational, artistic, and collaborative programs in the ceramic arts. Its core values are artist-centeredness, excellence, inclusivity, integrity, and joy.
Our Core Values
Baltimore Clayworks is Artist–Centered, committed to the principle that making and appreciating art are essential to the nourishment of the human spirit.
Baltimore Clayworks is Inclusive, bringing a lens of equity in race, disability, and gender to all decisions as we deliver programs to both new learners and professional artists, students, and collectors and artists and collectors from diverse economic, cultural, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds.
We strive for increasing levels of Excellence in our art and in our management. It supports growth and gives us credibility among experts and peers.
Baltimore Clayworks programs and management decisions are planned and executed with Integrity.
Joy is pervasive in the Clayworks workplace – classrooms, studios, community facilities, offices and even the Boardroom. This is expressed through the joy of accomplishment, of working in environments of trust and excellence, and of being inclusive and transparent.
What We Do
Provide affordable studio space, equipment, and professional opportunities that encourage participation by national and international ceramic artists who produce ceramic artworks of the highest quality.
Bring stellar emerging and established artists to Baltimore through our residency and exhibitions programs.
Offer hands-on studio and community classes in all aspects of pottery, clay sculpture, and ceramic processes for children and adults. Clayworks’ educational programs are led by artists who are both locally treasured and retain high national profiles in the field of ceramics.
Present on-site, off-site, and online exhibitions and sale of the work of local, national and international ceramic artists, in solo and group format, curated or juried by professional artists in the field. Our exhibitions showcase the best of international, national and local ceramic artists working in sculpture, pottery, installation and conceptual ceramics.
Develop sensitively conceived and collaboratively designed programs with artists and community organizations that bring art experiences of authenticity, excellence, and meaning into the lives of children and adults who do not usually have such access.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion (DEAI)
By employing an anti-racist/anti-ableist framework, Baltimore Clayworks (BCW) affirms the gifts of all artists to harness the power of clay. We acknowledge the systemic inequity that exists in the nonprofit arts world we inhabit. BCW opposes injustice that limits access of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) peoples, individuals with disabilities, and all creatives who are underrepresented and devalued in the world of art.
As a community arts hub, we believe that art and arts education are central to the healing process of our city. The multicultural and universal medium of clay is one of Baltimore Clayworks’ greatest attributes in connecting and celebrating all people.
As artists, our mistakes often become unexpected gateways to discovering our truth. Likewise, as an art community, BCW seeks to examine past wrongs and to redress inequities in order to more fully realize our core values. Together with our Board of Directors, staff, resident and teaching artists, students, and extended Baltimore family, we commit not only to forging clay artworks, but to taking action to create the best expression of the DEAI ideals of Baltimore Clayworks.
Accessibility
Contact Us
Our entire team is engaged in shifting the culture, practices and institution of Baltimore Clayworks to better meet our communities’ needs. If you have an accessibility need or concern, please email us at access@baltimoreclayworks.org. Someone will respond as soon as possible. If you need more immediate help, please call our front desk at 410.589.1919, or Voice/TTY 800.552.7724
Physical Access
Gallery, Shop and Admin Building/ To access the front desk, shop, lower gallery or bathroom, enter through the main door. There is a wheelchair accessible single stall bathroom. To access the upper gallery, there are three steps with a hand railing or there is a ramped entrance outside to the left of the main entrance. The admin offices are all on the second floor up 21 stairs with no elevator.
Studio Building
The studio building is accessible through it’s ramped entrance. All floors are accessible by elevator. There is an adaptive wheelchair accessible throwing wheel available for anyone to use. See the website here for more details about the wheel. There are wheelchair accessible gender segregated bathrooms. Clayworks supports people using the bathroom that they choose.
All doors at Clayworks are operated manually.
Seating
Our studios have a variety of chair types, metal stools at various heights, metal folding chairs and chairs with cushioning on the back and seat area. None of the chairs have armrests. There is seating in the Community Arts Gallery but not in the Upper Gallery or store.
Parking
The parking lot behind the studio building off of Greely Rd. has one free accessible parking space. There is paid street parking on both sides of Smith St. with one accessible space on the left at the end of Smith St. There is also a large parking lot on the NE side of the gallery building which has one accessible parking spot. Both zones are ¢50 an hour with a four hour maximum.
Public Transportation
Light RailLink – Mt. Washington Light Rail Station Clayworks is less than a one minute walk from the Light Rail.
MTA Bus lines-94 33 34
Service Animals
Service animals are welcome at Clayworks.
Sign Language Interpretation
Is available free of charge for events and lectures. Please provide at least 10 days notice so that we can hire an interpreter.
Lighting
Natural Lighting / The studio has many windows that allow natural light to illuminate the interior spaces, but there are no blinds for control.
Studio Lighting
In 2018, Clayworks replaced the existing fluorescent lighting with new energy-saving LED tube lighting. Tube specifications: TCP LED T8 Tubes, Generation 3, 12 Watt, Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) of 4100 Kelvin, Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 80. The magnetic ballasts were also replaced with new electronic ballasts, which is critical for minimizing light flicker. Ballast specification: Phillips Advance Optanium, Electronic Instant Start, Input Voltage 120-277, Input Frequency of 50/60 HZ.
Accommodations
Our three Studio classrooms offer a variety of day lighting, due to the varied amount of windows and orientations. Wiring also allows flexibility, allowing sections of a classroom to be turned off, while not adversely affecting adjacent ceramic artists needing more light.
Articles and Videos Resources
The National Council of Nonprofits: Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter for Nonprofits
VOCA Journal: In Issue 10 of VoCA Journal (Voices in Contemporary Art), voices from many corners of the art world come together to discuss access and the arts. https://journal.voca.network/
The Color Network: The Color Network’s mission is to aid in the advancement of people of color in the ceramic arts. We aim to assist artists develop, network, and create dialogue while maintaining a place for a database, resources, and mentorship. We hope to foster a community of artists of all professional and skill levels that help each other grow. https://www.thecolornetwork.org/
Debunking The Most Common Myths White People Tell About Race:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjHg65JORi8
How to Be an Antiracist. Ibram X. Kendi says:“Definitions anchor us in principles. This is not a light point: If we don’t do the basic work of defining the kind of people we want to be in language that is stable and consistent, we can’t work toward stable, consistent goals.”
https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/june/ibram-x-kendi-definition-of-antiracist.html.
The Racial Equity Framework from Artist Trust, Washington State:
https://artisttrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-RE-FRAMEWORK-DRAFT6.pdf
Racial Equity Tools: Offers tools, curricula, and information to help increase an understanding of racial justice at every level – in systems, organizations, communities and culture: https://www.racialequitytools.org/
“Seeing White” Podcast on Scene On Radio: All 14 episodes and their audio are available on this site. This podcast is also available on all podcast platforms. https://www.sceneonradio.org/seeing-white/
“Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh: https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf
Article- We saw important social activism last year. Here’s how to maintain it in 2021:
https://www.thelily.com/we-saw-important-social-activism-last-year-heres-how-we-can-all-maintain-it-in-2021/
Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism- Dr. Robin DiAngelo explains why white people implode when talking about race: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-its-so-hard-to-talk-to-white-people-about-racism_b_718371
Learning for Justice: https://www.learningforjustice.org/
Ella’s Song- Resistance Revival Chorus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYmaOzaGI-Q&ab_channel=ResistanceRevivalChorus
Ten Ways to Have a Better Conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1vskiVDwl4
We welcome dialogue, including your feedback and dreams. Please feel free to contact us via email at info@baltimoreclayworks.org and phone at (410) 578-1919.