Summary
This program aims to conserve a treasured cultural tradition, Nixi Black Pottery, while providing significant tangible opportunities to develop new markets and appreciation of this 1200-year-old tradition to a more sophisticated audience beyond the Nixi Village in China.
With assistance from Kathy Erteman, Ceramic Designer and Potter, the artisans are improving designs, techniques, and broadening their use of artistic motifs, adding skills for packaging and marketing their wares. Increasing sales opportunities to expand markets for high quality product of Nixi Pottery internationally is the focus of this project.
Accomplishments as of August 2014
- Established partnership with a Training Institute whose mission is to provide people in the local regions of focus with the skills and resources needed to access new economic and social opportunities.
- Established connection with the Yunnan Mountain Handicraft Center in Shangri-la town that aims to provide linkages to Chinese and tourism markets
- Established connection with the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, which is an international center for ceramics.
- A brand new eco-effective kiln was built in the Tandui Village near Shangri-la, which enables the potters to fire a larger number of pots.
- 40 Nixi potters participated in a capacity building and design workshop in Jingdezhen where they learned how use porcelain inlays on the Nixi pots.
- More than 30 new product designs were developed through this workshop.
- 40 Traditional Design Handbooks were produced including 30 pages of design motifs from the encyclopedic book by Robert Beers.
- 3 Packing and Shipping Workshops were organized with the Nixi potters in the Tandui Village for developing secure ways to avoid breakage while transported to the United States.
- 5 Nixi Potters participated in a 3 week cultural exchange program in the US visiting 5 cities to learn US pottery techniques , demonstrate their techniques and sell their pots to American and Native American potters.
- Over 200 US potters attended their demonstrations across the US.
- Over 150 pots were sold during the 3 weeks exchange program.
Project Lead in the US
Maud Mabika
Senior Manager – ATA Programs
maudm@creativelearning.org
Lead Consultant
Kathy Erteman
kerteman@gmail.com
Partners & Collaborators
ATA wishes to recognize the Pottery Workshop , the Training Institute, and the Yunnan Mountain Handcraft Center for their efforts in working with low income individuals to increase their income and improve their livelihoods.
ATA wishes to recognize the following organizations and individuals for their efforts in supporting the 2014 US Cultural Exchange Tour that took place from June 24 to July 19, 2014 with 5 Nixi Potters:
The Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts
Creative Associates International
Rona Elliott
Garth Clarke
Katie Klett
John Ferlazzo
