Making Connections: A Southern Ceramics Forum

March 14-15, 2025 Winston-Salem, NC

Making Connections:

A Southern Ceramics Forum

 

 

March 14-15, 2025

Please save the date for our upcoming Ceramics Forum, hosted jointly with Colonial Williamsburg! 

Join us in Winston-Salem for a Southern Ceramics Forum hosted jointly with Colonial Williamsburg. This two-day event will feature an afternoon of pre-conference, hands-on workshops with opportunities to mold clay and closely examine Moravian bottles and Georgia stoneware.

Afterwards, we’ll hear some of the latest research in Southern ceramics. Featured speakers include Ruthie Dibble, Curator of American Decorative Art at the Peabody Essex Museum; Rob Hunter, Former Editor of Ceramics in America; Luke Pecoraro, Director of Archaeology at Drayton Hall; and Senora Lynch, Ceramicist. 

In partnership with: 

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REGISTRATION: Now Open! 

Please register using the links below or call 336-721-7328 to register over the phone. 

Conference Registration	$325.00 | $315.00 Society Level Members*
Registration includes a pastry breakfast, coffee break, lunch, keynote reception, closing reception and time-limited access to the lecture recordings.
Moravian Earthenware Baking Dishes Workshop Add On	$75.00
Moravian Bottle Workshop Add On  Sold Out! Contact [email protected] to join the waitlist.	$75.00
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Georgia Stoneware Workshop Add On	$75.00
Museum Professional Discounted Ticket	$240: contact [email protected] to register or call 336-721-7328

Discount valid only for current museum professionals/employees. Limit to two employees per institution. Registration includes a pastry breakfast, coffee break, lunch, keynote reception, closing reception and time-limited access to the lecture recordings.

Virtual Ticket	$50

Registration includes access to a live zoom link the days of the conference and limited time access to the lectures for two months.

*This program is anticipated to sell out.  Please note that members of the Frank L. Horton, Frederic William Marshall, and Flora Ann Bynum Societies receive priority registration privileges, as well as a discount on their tickets. To receive your society level discount, please be sure you register and/or sign in with your Old Salem Museums & Gardens username and password.  If you would like to join the Frank L. Horton, Frederic William Marshall, or Flora Ann Bynum Societies, or if you would like to learn more, please click here.

 

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Add-ons and Workshops: Friday, March 14, 2025

 

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Pictured: Tart Dish Mold, shop of Rudolph Christ or John Holland, Salem, NC, 1810-1830. Wachovia Historical Society Collection.	Get your hands on one of Old Salem’s staples in baking and cooking: Earthenware pottery! Learn about the press-mold pottery techniques that put the Salem potters on the map and see the bakeware in action. Participants will not only get their hands on the clay, but also sample traditionally made baked goods cooked in earthenware dishes, and receive a finished earthenware tart dish (food safe and handwash safe) to take home.
Pictured: Turtle Bottle, shop of Rudolph Christ, Salem, NC, ca. 1800.  Anne and Thomas A. Gray Moravian Decorative Arts Purchase Fund.	Sold out! Contact [email protected] to join the waitlist. Join us at MESDA for a hands-on workshop with Johanna Brown, Chief Curator of Old Salem and MESDA. She will share original press-molded figural bottles made by the Moravian potters in Salem between 1800 and 1850 as well as the molds the potters used to create the bottles and other press molded objects.
Pictured: Jug, attributed to Jesse Bradford Long, Crawford County, GA, ca. 1860. The William C. And Susan S. Mariner Collection.	Join us for a hands-on, small group workshop focused on Georgia stoneware with Brandon Pratt of Cagle Auctions and Robert Willingham. Bringing some of their personal collection, Brandon and Robert will discuss the migration of the form from Edgefield, South Carolina to Jug Tavern (Jackson County, now present day Barrow County).

 

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PROGRAM:

Lecturers include:

Ruthie Dibble, The Robert N. Shapiro Curator of American Decorative Art at the Peabody Essex Museum 

Johanna Brown, Chief Curator at Old Salem Museums & Gardens/MESDA

Kim Ellington, Ceramicist and Independent Scholar 

Jeffrey S. Evans, Ceramics historian and auctioneer, Jeffrey S. Evans and Associates  

Geoff Hughes, Project Archaeologist, Lot 38 in Old Salem 

Rob Hunter, Former editor of Ceramics in America and guest curator of the Mariner Southern Ceramics Gallery 

Angelika Kuettner, Curator of Ceramics at Colonial Williamsburg 

Senora Richardson Lynch, Ceramic artist 

Luke Pecoraro, Director of Archaeology at Drayton Hall 

Brandt Zipp, Ceramic historian and auctioneer, Crocker Farms 

 

 

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SCHEDULE:

Friday, March 14

2:00-3:00 pm	Turtles and Chickens and Fish! Oh My! Moravian Bottles Workshop at MESDA
2:00-3:00 pm	Georgia Stoneware Workshop at MESDA
2:30-4:00 pm	Moravian Earthenware Baking Dishes Workshop at the Single Brother’s Workshop
5:30 pm	Opening Reception Sponsored by Crocker Farm
6:30 pm	Keynote: Ruthie Dibble, “Extreamly white, tenacious, and glittering with mica:” Cherokee Unega Across Six Centuries of Ceramics Sponsored by Ceramics in America

Saturday, March 15

8:30 am	Breakfast
9:15 am	Johanna Brown, Welcome & New to the Collection
9:30 am	Kim Ellington, French Connections to Catawba Valley Stoneware
10:20 am	Luke Pecoraro, New Ceramic Discoveries at Drayton Hall
10:50 am	Break
11:20 am	Brandt Zipp, At the Sign of the Big Jug: Faith, Freedom and Face Jug Making, Just North of the Mason-Dixon Line
11:50 am	Rob Hunter, Do You Believe in Magic? The Southern Stoneware Ring Bottle of Dr. Peter Davis Sponsored by Ceramics in America
12:20 pm	Lunch Sponsored by Cagle Auction Company
1:20 pm	Jeff Evans, The Pottery of “Zigler & Coffman, Thompsonville” Virginia
1:50 pm	Break
2:15 pm	Angelika Kuettner, Celestial Stoneware: The Story of an American Font
2:45 pm	Geoff Hughes, Looking for Salem’s Experimental Pottery Kiln
3:10 pm	Johanna Brown, Shaffner Site Stoneware Jar Sponsored by Leland Little Auctions
3:30 pm	Break
4:00 pm	Senora Richardson Lynch, The Clay Speaks
5:00 pm	Closing Reception Sponsored by Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates

 

NOTE: This program and schedule is subject to amendment. 

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GENEROUS SUPPORT PROVIDED BY:

 

 

 

 

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SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES:

To learn about available sponsorship opportunities, please contact Melissa Bertram ([email protected]).

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TRAVEL DETAILS:

The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts is one of the museums at Old Salem Museums & Gardens.  MESDA is located in the Frank L. Horton Museum Center at 924 S. Main Street, Winston-Salem, NC  27101.  Seminar lectures will take place in the James A. Gray Auditorium at the Old Salem Visitor Center at 900 Old Salem Road, Winston-Salem, NC  27101. 

Seminar Hotels: 

Fairfield Inn & Suites Winston-Salem Downtown	The Historic Brookstown Inn
125 S Main St, Winston-Salem, NC 27101 336-714-2800 3/14-3/16 are available to book under this block at $124/night.	200 Brookstown Ave, Winston-Salem, NC 27101 336-701-3904 3/13-3/16 are available to book under this block.
Please call and mention the MESDA Ceramics Forum Block or use this link to book!	Please call and mention MESDA Ceramics Forum block or use this link.

*Please note, to ensure a room at the discounted price, reservations must be made by February 13th at 5 pm . 

 

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