No, not that kind of pot. POW! or Pots On Wheels is bringing handmade pottery to the wider American audience through workshops and a mobile gallery housed within a step van. But not just any van: a van with a huge pot on top to show the town they mean business.
POW! Is the brainchild of five potters trapped in a minivan for 23 hours while driving to the Utilitarian Clay Symposium. The gathering of pottery fanatics happens every 4 years and people come from all over to attend. In this special case, the potters came from the New England area and road tripped to the Symposium. On the way they realized that pottery didn’t have to happen in their basements and a intermittent Symposium. It could happen whenever, wherever. They were going to take pottery mobile and teach the craft and happiness of pottery to the general public.
With over 100 artists, POW! Is not your grandma’s pottery. Well, not exclusively. They believe that anyone can be a potter and every design will be as unique as the person behind it. Pledge prizes include Japanese cartoon-ish characters, gorgeously painted faux-wood designs, multicolored cups, thin-lined sketches and more.
The first testament to the ‘You Can Do It’ attitude is a project that emphasizes the beauty in all pots. The first project of POW! Is the Cup Exchange, where participants will make one cup and exchange it for one made by a previous collaborator. Participants don’t seem to have a choice in what they receive and so must realize that all gifts and all pots are beautiful.
Before you start thinking these a bunch of ‘dirty hippies’ looking for a free van, know that The Society of Arts and Crafts, a renowned pillar of the craft community has already begun fiscally sponsoring them. With the help of the SAC, POW! Hopes that in the future they’ll be be working with schools to teach the craft to children, working with museums on fresh exhibits and other community-oriented activities.
Art has always been an overlooked but invaluable part of schools. If POW! Can help even one student find their love for pottery. Well, that’s definitely worth a few dollars.
