Bascom Clay Symposium

As a child, Andréa Keys Connell played with the porcelain figurines in her mother’s china cabinet. “It never lasted long,” she writes in her artist’s statement. “When my mother found me, I was always admonished with a familiar refrain. She would tell me the figurines were not for play: they were breakable, they were precious, they were valuable.” It was only when she grew older that Connell realized the figurines were from Hungary — the country her grandmother fled after being interned at Auschwitz during World War II. This experience taught her the significance of objects — how they often carry “complex narratives that lay dormant, forgotten, and suppressed.” Now a ceramicist and associate professor at Appalachian State University in Boone, Connell creates work heavy with meaning and metaphor. She will talk more about this, as well as the hollow building technique she uses, during the Bascom Clay Symposium. Formerly the Three Potters Symposium, the two-day event celebrates the medium of clay with free demonstrations and programming. This year’s conference will focus on animal and figurative ceramic sculpture, with demonstrations by Connell and ceramicists Christine Kosiba and Taylor Robenalt. The symposium will also include a free keynote address by Stephanie Moore, executive director of Center for Craft in Asheville, on Friday, Sept. 27, 4-6pm.