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Glenn Schwaiger and Tina Smiley will show slides and describe their experiences meeting Chinese people and being invited into homes and schools. Smiley will bring her ceramic teapot collection and Schwaiger will touch on porcelain production in Jingdezhen. Roadrunner Room, Branigan Library 200 E Picacho, Las Cruces NM, Saturday, August 3rd from 1 p.m.- 2:30 p.m. Free to the public. For more information contact Susan (575) 649-8786 or ansara at me dot com
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My students Karl Heist, Martha Roditti, Mary Lou LaCasse and I will speak about the class that went to China last year and retraced the ancient porcelain Trail. The presentation is in Las Cruces NM and details are below.
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Our group from Dona Ana Community College arrived in Hong Kong on May 31 after a 19 hour non-stop flight from Dallas, Texas. We were all relieved for the opportunity to move about without the confines of an airplane seat. Our Chinese guide, Maggie, met us at the airport and helped with the ground transportation to dinner and lodging.
Hong Kong and Guangzhou are very modern cities with many new skyscrapers. This one is one of the tallest in the world, Canton Tower.
In Guangzhou we visited the Oriental Museum and viewed ceramics and porcelain representing thousands of years of Chinese history. Our travels are coordinated to follow the porcelain manufacturing and trade route from the trade port of Canton (Guangzhou), to the porcelain production center of Jingdezhen. We viewed examples of porcelains from Tang, Han, Song, Yuan, Qing, and Ming dynasties. Also represented in the collection were ink paintings, clocks, opium pipes, calligraphy, and contemporary art.
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There are 10 excited students signed up for Chinese Pottery in Jingdezhen, so the trip is a “go”.
We will be buying airline tickets soon and this is the last call for the two remaining seats.
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The deadline for my trip to China has been extended until February 21st AND $500 scholarships are available thanks to the Doña Ana Community College Student Government sponsorship.
ART 294 – Pottery in China is designed to introduce students to the history and culture of China with an emphasis on porcelain trade and manufacturing. Students will travel the ancient porcelain trade route from Guangzhou to Jingdezhen to Shanghai. In Jingdezhen, students will learn about the materials and techniques unique to porcelain production from local master craftspeople. They will apply what is learned by creating their own porcelain artworks. Visits to historic sites such as Guangzhou, Meiling Pass, Ancient Kiln Museum (Jingdezhen), Yaoli and Gaoling villages (Jiangxi Province), and Shanghai will introduce students to the origins of porcelain production and its influence as a world commodity.
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I’d like to personally invite you to join my class and travel to China. Study abroad and trace the history of porcelain along the Imperial Way. Deadline has been extended. You must place a deposit by February 21st to secure your spot.
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Dona Ana Community College (DACC) will hold an open house to showcase a new ceramics studio. The Open House will be held from 3:30-5:30 on Friday, December 2 at the Workforce Center at 2345 East Nevada Street, Las Cruces, NM.
“The new laboratory provides the equipment necessary to complete all phases of ceramic production from preparing clay, forming and decorating ceramic wares and glaze firing finished art works,” said Art Professor Glenn Schwaiger. “Previously we were teaching classes at the Las Cruces Museum of Art. We appreciate the museum letting us work there but classes were limited by space and growth potential, so to have this new lab will help our students immensely.”
The lab features three electric kilns, a raku kiln, and a natural-gas shuttle kiln. The three different types of kilns enable students to explore firing techniques and atmospheres. The studio also has nine electric and two electric/kick potters wheels which are used to form clay into symmetrical shapes such as cups, bowls and vases.
The studio features a slab roller, clay extruder, student storage and new work tables. A well-equipped glaze room for formulating and preparing ceramic slips and glazes helps students finish their work. Rounding out the lab equipment are a clay mixer and pug mill.
DACC ceramics classes include ART 275 and ART 276, complimentary courses that introduce the techniques of hand-building, wheel throwing and glazing. High-fire and low-fire clays are used. The classes will be offered days, evenings and on Saturday during the spring 2017 semester.
Schwaiger, recently returned from Jingdezhen, China where he observed and was inspired by artists whose lineage in porcelain production dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1269). Schwaiger believes that his three-month study of Chinese art history, culture, and ceramics will enhance his ability to teach students about ceramic arts.
“We invite the community to come and see our new studio,” Schwaiger said.
Contact: Glenn Schwaiger (575) 527-7752
Photo by LeeAnn Meadows
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Handcrafted Porcelain in China: Collaborative Processes and Methods this Thursday, June 23rd, at 6 p.m. at the Shannon Room at Branigan Cultural Center, 501 North Main Street, Las Cruces, NM
Glenn Schwaiger, artist and Full Professor at NMSU/DACC, recently completed a three-month study of Chinese art history, culture, and ceramics in Jingdezhen, China. He will present photographic highlights of his travel in China and discusses the unique collaborative working methods of porcelain production in Jingdezhen.
Jingdezhen has been a major center for Imperial, domestic, and export porcelain for more than 1000 years. Ceramic artists in Jingdezhen perfected the materials and processes required to produce porcelain during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Today, skilled craftspeople work in concert to produce a broad range of porcelain objects from simple production wares to large-scale sculptures.
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Please join me to celebrate art at Doña Ana Community College this Thursday, April 28th from 4:30-6:00 p.m.
The artwork of Míhaíl Chemíakin, a Russian artist currently exiled in France, is on display in the Main Building Mezzanine at the DACC East Mesa Campus. Chemíakin’s unique colorful and playful prints are reminiscent of Cubist and Surrealist styles. In the Mezzanine, I have a display case highlighting traditional ceramics from China and several of the works I made during my sabbatical in Jingdezhen. The printmaking students of Ouida Touchon have a lovely display case also.
Save the DATE I will be speaking in Las Cruces about:
Handcrafted Porcelain in China: Collaborative Processes and Methods
Lecture, Thursday, June 23rd 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Branigan Cultural Center, 500 N. Water Street
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Doña Ana Community College is investing in a brand-new, fully equipped Ceramics Lab at the Workforce Center, 2345 E. Nevada St. Las Cruces, NM. I have worked with the architects and DACC/NMSU Facilities to design a first class lab, which will be operational for Fall Semester 2016. Best of all, DACC will expand the course offerings. I’ll be teaching daytime, evening and weekend ceramics classes.
Learn how to:
Register now- classes begin August 17th
The following classes are open to everyone and there are no prerequisites:
Art 275 T/Th 12:30-3:00 p.m.
Art 276 T/Th 5:30-8:00 p.m.
Art 275 Saturday 12:00-5:00 p.m.
For more info contact: Glenn Schwaiger [email protected] or 575-525-1625
If you are over 65 and a NM resident,
you pay $5 per credit hour (additional
fees may apply). Here is the link for tuition information: Reduced Tuition for Senior Citizens
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For those of you in Las Cruces, I wanted to remind you that my lecture is tonight at 6 p.m. Parking is free after 4:30 p.m. on Campus.
Here is a Google map link and the press release:
Handcrafted Chinese porcelain topic of NMSU Confucius Institute presentation
DATE: 02/05/2016
WRITER: Adriana M. Chavez, 575-646-1957, [email protected]
CONTACT: Elvira Hammond, 575-646-2377, [email protected]
CONTACT: Glenn Schwaiger, 575-527-7610, [email protected]
Glenn Schwaiger, an artist and associate professor at New Mexico State University and Dona Ana Community College, will present highlights of his latest trip to Jingdezhen, China, during a presentation later this month.
Schwaiger’s presentation, “Handcrafted Porcelain in China: Collaborative Processes and Methods,” will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 in the NMSU Health and Social Services Building Auditorium, Room 101. The presentation is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the NMSU Confucius Institute and the NMSU Department of Art.
Schwaiger recently completed a three-month study of Chinese art history, culture, and ceramics in Jingdezhen, China.
“In every nook and cranny of Jingdezhen, there’s someone working with porcelain,” Schwaiger said about what he observed during his trip. “Craftspeople specialize in more than 70 different skills, such as making clay, pottery, molds, brushes and decorating.”
Schwaiger also said the collaborative spirit is “alive today in the porcelain capital of the world.”
Jingdezhen has been a major center for Imperial, domestic, and export porcelain for more than 1,000 years. Ceramic artists in Jingdezhen perfected the materials and processes required to produce porcelain during the Song Dynasty from 960 to 1279. Today, skilled craftspeople work in together to produce a broad range of porcelain objects from simple production wares to large-scale sculptures.
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Saturday, September 5, 2015
I am taking sabbatical from teaching at Dona Ana Community College in the coming year to study porcelain production in Jingdezhen, China. I will be traveling and studying with a small group of students and ceramics professor Shoji Satake from West Virginia University from September 10-December 14, 2015. WVU coordinates a Ceramics in China study abroad program in partnership with the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen. Upon my return to New Mexico in late December, 2015 I will turn my attention to creative work in the studio inspired by the experience of living and working in China.
The last couple weeks have been busy with the myriad of preparations, from medical records, travel paperwork, internet VPN access, and new electronic gadgets to become familiar with. My wife, Lee Ann’s help has been indispensable in organizing all of the resources that I need for travel. We have observed that it is not such a simple task to ‘go to China’.
Today, I am already feeling a little homesick for the familiar environment of Las Cruces, New Mexico. A couple photographs are included in this post to help remind me of the landscape and motor court apartments that have represented a sense of ‘home’ for the past twenty-plus years.
