The art of teamwork

It"s “platter production day” at the Woldenberg Art Center on the Tulane University uptown campus, and that brings a group of faculty members and students together with a single purpose in mind — to start producing porcelain platters for the annual Newcomb Art Department holiday sale.

Ceramics professor Jeremy Jernegan, professor of practice William DePauw and a group of students prepared platters for firing in the kiln, their hands and aprons streaked with white clay.

Their work will be available at the sale on Friday (Dec. 5) from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and on Sunday (Dec. 7) from noon until 5 p.m. There will be no sale on Saturday (Dec. 6) because of the Tulane football game at Yulman Stadium.

Usually held in the Woldenberg Art Center"s Carroll Gallery, the event is being billed as a “studio sale” this year because it will take place in the painting studio (Room 214) and conference room (Room 204). A Prospect 3+ exhibit is taking up the gallery space until Jan. 25, 2015.

Preparations for the sale have been under way for weeks by students, faculty and alumni artists producing works in glass, ceramics, printmaking, fiber, jewelry, painting, photography and more. Proceeds will send students to conferences and help buy needed studio supplies and equipment.

The ceramics team is making the platters in white porcelain clay, with impressed and relief decorations drawn from wallpaper designs by William Morris, leader of the arts and crafts movement.

Faculty and students working together on the project shows their “shared commitment to support the studio,” Jernegan said.

Some ceramics students worked with porcelain for the first time, said DePauw, learning “a broad range of ceramic hand- and mold-forming techniques not introduced in their classes. They also get a look at a production scenario not unlike what was utilized for the original Newcomb Pottery enterprise.”

A preview sale for Newcomb Art Gallery members is planned on Thursday (Dec. 4) from 6 until 8 p.m.