Curating a show

We were asked to curate a show at the Burlington Arts Center. The BAC is a very important gallery whose mandate is to showcase ceramic art. The artists were asked to reference a piece in the permanent collection. We thought we'd be walking into a room full of clay. In fact to our surprise and later delight we had 87 pieces from almost every studio practice including jewellery, wood, glass, painting, textiles, metal, stone etc, etc. We had to look at the piece, read the artist's statement of each person to see what they were responding to. In some cases it was literal and in many cases it was a real stretch of the imagination. The quality of the show was amazing and it will be on display at the BAC starting July 18Th and is entitled Fire, Earth and Imagination. The work will be displayed along with the pieces from the collection. If you can go visit the show and the BAC. It is a wonderful place for those of us that love clay.
We narrowed the 87 pieces submitted down to 48. It is a difficult job and some people get hurt feelings. All I can say is we did our level best!
We were also pleased and surprised to be asked to have a show there in 2012. Sheila said " Will we be alive then?" and Jonathon Smith replied "It's only 16 months a way!!!"
Pressure makes diamonds! We are we always under pressure?