As part of a two-day festive commemoration of the East Hawaii Cultural Center’s 50th anniversary, the public is invited to the inaugural Big Island Clay Exhibit opening at 5 p.m. Friday in the center’s gallery.
The exhibit brings together the community’s makers and users of pottery “to remind us of our primordial connection with clay, a medium which has distinctly characterized civilizations since prehistory,” said exhibit founder Stephen Freedman. “An English soup bowl or teacup is different from a Japanese soup bowl or teacup because our cultures developed in response to different environments and cuisines.”
Dozens of techniques, styles and approaches will be featured in the exhibition.
“Our melting pot of cultures has given rise to diverse approaches to ceramics — from artists such as Clayton Amemiya whose roots are in traditional Japanese anagama pottery using a wood-fired tunnel kiln, to contemporary figurative sculptor Amber Aguirre, to Volcano-inspired functional potter Emily Herb,” Freedman said.
“Arts and crafts generated within our community are made to suit our taste and usage, and reflect our uniqueness. More importantly, we lose touch with the joy of making things, and with those special relationships that home-grown enterprise can build.”
A pottery market of affordable, exclusive, functional and locally made pottery will open upstairs at 5:30 p.m. and extend to Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Potters will be give away gift certificates from Miyo’s Restaurant for select purchases.
Friday evening guests will be treated to the Orchid Isle Orchestra and ambrosia from downtown Hilo’s Aloha Mondays and Cafe Pesto.
Saturday’s family festival is a fundraising event for EHCC to host and support local art, cultural crafts and businesses. Festivities will include free entertainment by a grassroots children’s chorus led by musician and teacher Sarah Bethany, Malamalama Waldorf School, Center Stage, Destination Hilo and the Performing Arts Center Drama Club. There also will be food trucks, traditional Hawaiian craft-making, local art, print-your-own-shirt booth with Piko Press and Hilo UrbFarm’s herbs and baked goods.
For more details, visit www.ehcc.org.