The AIA Tucson Local Society was the first recipient of the Archaeological Institute of America’s Local Society Incentive Grant in 2004. The Society is housed in the Department of History at the University of Arizona, with many of its members and officers working or studying on campus. Funds were put towards the construction of a Greek kiln to educate and involve AIA members, local schools, and local artists in the techniques, making, and firing of Greek style pottery. Funding also supported a first firing. Studio and vocational artists were encouraged to participate and to share their expertise. The kiln has since been used as a fundraiser for subsequent firings. K-12 schools have the facility made available to them so that students can see and learn firsthand about this aspect of ancient cultures. The kiln has now been featured in a number of issues of the AIA Newsletter: read snippets from the Spring 2004, Spring 2005 and Spring 2006 Newsletters.
The following institutions have helped greatly with this project. Hellenic Cultural Foundation, Tucson, Arizona St Augustine High School. The following companies have been instrumental to this project and we warmly thank them:
Cimarron Circle Construction Company
Marjon Ceramics
Phoenix Brick Yard
Email Eleni Hasaki for more information
Past Events
Kiln Firings April 16th, 2007
Kiln Firings May 19th, 2006
Kiln Firings December 12th, 2005
Kiln Firings March 5th, 2005
Lecture and Workshop by Guest Potter Toby Schreiber
Toby Schreiber visited Tucson for the third year in a row, from April 4-6, 2004. On April 6th, 2004 Toby Schreiber visited the UA campus for her third annual visit (since 2002), and delivered an illustrated lecture on the production and flaws of the ancient Greek vases. The lecture was open to the public. Representatives from the School of Art (Aurore Chabot), from the Material Sciences Engineering (Prof. Pamela Vandiver), from the Arizona State Museum, and a large number of UA students and PIMA community college attended the lecture and the workshop that followed.
A team from the Arizona State Museum (including Mike Jacobs, Teresa Serrano, and Julie Unruh) transported and exhibited in the auditorium the finest holdings of Greek pottery in the Arizona State Museum (including skyphoi, lekythoi, and lamps). The audience was indeed intrigued by their direct contact with ancient ceramic vessels. The lecture was videotaped and will be used in the future for educational purposes.
The workshop stations organized by Toby Schreiber included the following themes:
- Crushing raw Greek clay-filled soil from Kalogreza, with a hammer.
- Plasticity comparison: River bed clay, commercial, Greek clay, porcelain.
- Toughness comparison: same clays as above, only dry clay.
- Joining two sections with slip (maybe also with gloss). Examples: knob to lid, foot to body. Students make examples.
- Making and decorate a curved surface: using Greek gloss.
- Mold-made: press clay into two halves of mold (Roman head), press together, remove head.
- Making a fine horsehair brush: following Piccolpasso’s directions.
- Decorating a clay tile (clay EM 343) from designs from extant Greek vases.
Email Eleni Hasaki (hasakie@email.arizona.edu) for more information
Scientific Tests on Building Materials
Kiln Outreach at St. Gregory’s High School
On March 17th 2004, members of the AIA’s Tucson Society and graduate students of the Classics Department visited St. Gregory’s High School to promote appreciation of ancient Greek ceramics and specifically discuss the involvement of high school students in the AIA-sponsored kiln project. The students from the Classics Seminar CLAS 596A prepared a presentation on the Greek Kiln Project and on ancient Greek ceramics, their iconography and technique, which was delivered by Jared Benton, Tucson’s Society’s Treasurer and a graduate student in Classics.
St Gregory’s students, to our pleasant surprise, had recently created a mosaic depicting two Greek heroes from the Trojan War, Ajax and Achilles playing dice, a favorite theme of ancient Greek vase-painters! The faculty and students welcomed us warmly; the volunteering of some students to participate in the project reassured us that we laid the seeds for close collaboration among the AIA Tucson Society, the Classics Department at the University of Arizona, and the local high school community.
As part of the community outreach portion of the University of Arizona Kiln Project, the expertise of professional potter and scholar Toby Schreiber was enlisted for an educational visit to Tucson’s St Augustine Catholic High School on April 7, 2004. The faculty of the school, led by art teacher Jo Valandry graciously hosted a lecture and pottery workshop given by Ms. Schreiber, kiln project director Dr. Eleni Hasaki, and University of Arizona graduate students Kate Alexander, Joshua Mix and Matt Nerdin.
About sixty students of the school’s inaugural class attended an informative presentation dealing with the production of Athenian vases followed by various artistic activities in imitation of ancient Greek potters. Some of the workshop stations included the painting of small clay plaques in the Athenian red and black-figure techniques, creating ceramic figures from molds, and making a painter’s brush from horse hair.
The overwhelming success of the outing was apparent through the enthusiastic response of the students, who were afforded this rare educational opportunity and allowed to keep the works of art that they produced, after they were fired by Prof. A. Chabot at the Ceramics Program at the UA whom we generously thank.
Email Eleni Hasaki (hasakie@email.arizona.edu) for more information.
