On Fire! Pottery Tour Pre-Visit Information

Transcription

1 On Fire! Pottery Tour Pre-Visit Information 111 Cedar Street, Corning, NY or visit

2 TOUR DESCRIPTION On Fire! features over 100 pieces of historic and contemporary Native southwestern pottery from the private collection of Nancy and Alan Cameros. Students will learn about the history, hand building, carving and firing processes used to create these vessels, as well as the significance of historic and contemporary design elements. The Cameros collection is one of the finest collections in the country, featuring historic works by the Martinez and Tafoya families, as well as works by some of the most talented Indian artists working today. These are vessels born of Native earth, crafted in fire, and displayed for both their historic importance as well as their artistic beauty.

3 MUSEUM MANNERS Please go over these basic rules with your students before their visit. Please do not touch the artwork. The oils and salts on skin can damage paintings and sculptures, and we must all work to ensure that these pieces of art are here for years to come, for all to enjoy. Do not lean on, or touch, walls or cases (vitrines). These cases contain artwork and must not be moved or shaken, and fingerprints on walls and glass also become an issue. Raise hands to speak. Listen carefully when others are speaking. Use quiet voices. Walk, do not run. Stay together with your class. Please leave gum at home. Ask about camera rules when you visit. Do not bring large bags, backpacks, drinks or food into the galleries. *PLEASE NOTE Teachers are responsible for maintaining discipline during your museum visit.

4 VOCABULARY 1. Ceremonial Objects associated with rituals and ceremonies, used for formal or special occasions 2. Functional Designed for every day, practical use 3. Culture - The beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society 4. Pueblo The multi-story homes of Native American villages of the southwestern US, consisting of apartment-like, flat-roofed, stone or adobe houses. This style of community dates back over 1000 years, and Acoma pueblo is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited place in the U.S. 5. Temper - To mix clay with sand or older pottery shards, in order to prevent pottery from cracking when it is fired 6. Yucca A tall perennial plant, native to southwestern North America and northern Mexico. The fibers of this plant are traditionally used by Native American potters to paint designs on their work. 8. Coil - A hand-built pottery style, common among American Indians, made by building up sides of pots with successive coils, or rolls of clay 9. Pit Firing Dating back almost 30,000 years, pit firing is the oldest known method of baking, or firing, clay pots. Pots are stacked in a hole in the ground, and covered with combustible material, which is burnt, while being carefully tended, until the pots reach very high temperatures (around 1500 degrees F). 10. Redware Pottery made using clay which contains iron oxide and when the pieces are fired, a smoky atmosphere is avoided in order to keep the clarity of the color (oxidation firing). 11. Blackware Pottery made using reduction firing, which smothers oxygen during the firing process by banking the flames with materials such as dung, grasses and other natural materials to create a smoky environment. 12. Greenware Unfired pottery, which is extremely fragile 13. Sgraffitto- (Italian for "to scratch") is a decorating technique for pottery, produced by applying layers of color (underglazes or colored slips) to pottery, and then scratching designs in the layers to reveal the clay color underneath. 14. Geometric Relating to art based on simple geometric shapes, such as straight lines, circles, or squares, and using patterns of repeating curved or linear designs and symbols

5 Pre-Visit Videos In preparation for your students visit to The Rockwell Museum, please click on the link below to share the suggested supplementary information about Southwestern American Indian Pottery and some of its most skilled and well-known artists, the Martinez and Tafoya families. Southwest Pueblo Pottery, 9:40 Maria Martinez: Indian Pottery of San Ildefonso, 27:00 We look forward to your visit. Thank you!