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CONNECTING THE WORLD THROUGH CLAY

Learn how you can support The Bray, an international creative center solely dedicated to the ceramic arts. Your donation supports emerging artists and residents, educators, students, education assistants, and youth while connecting the world through clay.

SUPPORT
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residency program

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Browse Classes

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join our team

Sue Tirrell

SHOP THE SALES GALLERY

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Learn about residencies

Upcoming Events

View the events calendar.

Afro Mingei

Afro Mingei Exhibition

December 15, 2022 - May 14, 2023
Archie Bray Foundation
Learn More
open studio days

April Open Studio Days

April 7 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
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open studio days

April Open Studio Days

April 8 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
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Artist Amplified; Shea Burke

April 13 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Frances Senska Center for Education and Engagement
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Announcements

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    OPEN CALL FOR BOARD OF DIRECTORS NOMINATIONS

    The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts (The Bray) seeks individuals for consideration to serve on the Board of Directors.

    Please view our Open Call Nominations document for more information about The Bray’s Board member qualifications, responsibilities, financial stewardship and contributions as well as the Nominations form.

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    THE BRAY ANNOUNCES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

    We’re thrilled to announce Rebecca Harvey as the new executive director of The Bray! 

    Download the press release to learn more.

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    employment opportunities

    Please visit our employment opportunities page to view our open positions.

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    PODCASTS

    Join us to listen and learn from our groundbreaking clay podcasts on The Bray's own Brickyard Network. Our podcasts can be found on your favorite podcast apps. 

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    DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

    Read our diversity, equity and inclusion statement.

    Learn More
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Diversity and Inclusion at The Bray

The Bray exists to promote excellence and enhance commitment and investment in the ceramic arts while actively working towards increased inclusion, representation, belonging and equity in the ceramics community. See our Strategic Plan to learn more.

The Bray respectfully acknowledges all Indigenous communities — past, present, future — whose land we reside on in what is now known as Helena, Montana, including the Salish, Crow, Bannock, and Blackfeet tribes. See our Native Lands Acknowledgement to learn more.

Get to Know Us

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The Bray exists to promote excellence and enhance commitment and investment in the ceramic arts.

Archie Bray Foundation
Reserve your seat today! It’s official; we're Reserve your seat today!
 
It’s official; we're a little over one week away from the start of our spring session of Continuing Education classes at The Bray - Don't miss out on these awesome offerings, register today to join in on the fun!  Discover new perspectives, understandings, and a renewed appreciation for the ceramic arts while studying under our current and former Residents. 

· Explore the art of storytelling with Kristy Moreno @kristy.moreno as she shows you how to translate your ideas from paper to clay in the beginning level class Narratively Speaking on Monday evenings from 6-9pm (April 3rd – May 22nd)
· Dive deep into an investigation of surface treatment and decorative potential with George McCauley @ghoc1 in Investigating Surface meeting Tuesday mornings from 9am-Noon (April 4th – May 23rd)
· Join Austin Riddle @austinriddlepottery as he guides you through designing tableware and sculptures with the use of paper templates and clay slabs in From Flat To Fab; Take Two held Tuesday evenings from 6-9pm (April 4th – May 23rd)
· Uncover your creative side and express your inner personality with Janina Myronova @janinamyronova as she shares the nuts and bolts of figurative sculpting in Playful Characters meeting Friday evenings from 6-9pm (April 7th – May 26th)
 
Whether you’re a total beginner or looking to inspire your existing studio practice – The Bray’s Continuing Education classes are the ticket to motivate your creativity and expand your horizons.  Registration Fees include: 24 hours instructional time from leading ceramic artists in the field, 25 pounds of clay, all class firings, personal shelf and locker space, and open studio access 7 days a week from 8am-10pm to practice what you’re learning!
 
Link in bio. 
#thebray #archiebrayeducation
In the summer of 2022, The Bray, in collaboration In the summer of 2022, The Bray, in collaboration with artist Theaster Gates, developed a program to re-imagine educational models and investigate long-standing racial and socioeconomic inequality in craft. In conjunction with Gates, a Studio Intensive was designed at The Bray to bring ceramic artists of color together to create work in a safe environment and share ideas and conversation. By bringing dynamic artists together with various life experiences, the vision was to organically create continued opportunities of professional makers of color to work in ceramics.

The conclusion of the Afro Mingei Institute studio intensive included a public exhibition of work installed at The Bray.

The exhibition is on view in the Pottery Admin Gallery and is open to the public during Sales Gallery hours, Tuesday-Friday, 11 am–5 pm.

Generous project support provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Quinn Delaney and Wayne Jordan, the Reinhardt H. and Shirley R. Jahn Foundation Trust, and donors to our 2022 Benefit Auction.

Read more about this collaboration and view the exhibition online in the exhibition catalog at the link in our bio. 
@theastergates @soojinchoiii @phoebethegorgon @syddd.viciouss @stevenylee @kristy.moreno @kambuiolujimi #sajdahnasir
Thank you to all who signed up for our hat raffle! Thank you to all who signed up for our hat raffle! We'll email our winner 🏆 #47
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It's been great getting to talk to everyone about our Residency, the Brickyard Network and our Educational Assistantship Program. 
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model: long-term resident @sheaburke_
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#nceca2023 #thebray #archiebray
Be sure to swing by Queen City Clay to see all of Be sure to swing by Queen City Clay to see all of the fabulous exhibitions today, open until 8 pm! Thank you for hosting us @queencityclay and thanks to everyone who came out to the reception last night! #nceca2023 @nceca
Tonight! Plan a stop at Queen City Clay to see The Tonight! Plan a stop at Queen City Clay to see The Bray Resident Artists Exhibition and a handful of other great exhibitions as well! @queencityclay @archie_bray
Swing by The Bray’s resource table 54 to snag a Swing by The Bray’s resource table 54 to snag a poster and chat with resident artists and check out Bray Patch and Bray Poxy at the Bray Clay Business booth 121! #archiebray #nceca2023 #nceca
Hey NCECA attendees! Here’s where to find The Br Hey NCECA attendees! Here’s where to find The Bray at the conference! #archiebray #nceca2023 #ncecacurrent @queencityclay @brickyardnetwork @archie_bray
The staff does a wide variety of work around The B The staff does a wide variety of work around The Bray—including snow removal!!! Swipe to see a few pics of the surprise snow we received through the night.>>> 

#thebray #helenamontana #archiebrayfoundation
All set up! The Bray Resident Artists @queencitycl All set up!
The Bray Resident Artists
@queencityclay 
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@r.harveythisisatest
@colbycharpentier 
@syddd.viciouss
@sheaburke_ 
@janinamyronova 
@chickensarecuter 
@soojinchoiii 
@maura_wright 
@kristy.moreno 
@austinriddlepottery 
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#nceca2023 #thebray
Getting it juuuuuust riiiiiggghht... - Bray long-t Getting it juuuuuust riiiiiggghht...
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Bray long-term resident artist Austin Riddle (@austinriddlepottery) helping with the mounting of our Bray resident show. Thank you Queen City Clay (@queencityclay) for ALL the amazing prep work and extra set of hands.
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See you all Thursday night for the reception! 
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#thebray #nceca2023
Set-up and ready for the NCECA conference here in Set-up and ready for the NCECA conference here in Cincinnati! We have our resident work up at Queen City Clay (@queencityclay).
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Pictured is current long-term resident Artist Shea Burke (@sheaburke_). Reception this Thursday night along with many other fantastic shows!
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#nceca2022 #thebray
International Women's Day is a global day celebrat International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. Join us for Artist Amplified tomorrow, Thursday, March 9, at 6:30 to honor the life and legacy of Frances Senska through a special presentation and panel discussion featuring Shelburn Murray, Josh DeWeese, Lisa Simon, and Michele Corriel.

In-person or streaming! Visit link in bio for the streaming link and to register for the in-person event. 

Location: Frances Senska Center for Education and Engagement at The Bray
Psst! NCECA-Going Former Bray Residents and Visiti Psst! NCECA-Going Former Bray Residents and Visiting Artists!
There will be a reunion for current and past residents and visiting artists during the NCECA conference, please check your email and spam folders for more info and to RSVP as space is limited! If you didn't get an email, please email Jason Burnett, The Bray's Auctions and Events Manager, at jasonburnett@archiebray.org to get the details. See you there! #nceca2023 #archiebrayresidents @archie_bray
Thanks to the generosity of Sue Tirrell and the ou Thanks to the generosity of Sue Tirrell and the outpouring of support from all of the bidders, nearly $8,000 was raised to benefit the residency program through the debut of our Brick by Brick Mini Auction.

"I’m so grateful to everyone for participating and bidding!  It felt like a real community effort!" 💗 -Sue Tirrell

Thank you for your continued support! 
@archie_bray @suetirrell
The Bray is excited to announce a collaboration wi The Bray is excited to announce a collaboration with Indigenous artists Raven Halfmoon and Cannupa Hanska Luger supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Halfmoon and Luger will lead a studio intensive this summer with other invited artists, focused on Native American ceramics and examining educational models for greater collaboration with Native communities in Montana and beyond. The Bray will also continue work with the Halfmoon and Luger to develop "First Fire Site", a permanent on-site Indigenous-centered space dedicated to Indigenous pit firing and clay practices.

We are honored to be working with these talented artists to create equitable opportunities in ceramics at The Bray.

Raven Halfmoon (Caddo Nation) is from Norman, Oklahoma. She was a long-term resident artist at The Bray from 2019-2021, and an Invited Visiting Artist in 2021 and 2022. Halfmoon focuses on producing a body of work that is reflective of how she feels both as a woman and as a Native American living in the 21st Century. Her work has been featured in multiple exhibitions throughout the U.S. as well as internationally.

Cannupa Hanska Luger was an Invited Visiting Artist at The Bray in 2021 and 2022. Luger is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold (Mandan/ Hidatsa/ Arikara/ Lakota). Luger creates monumental installations, sculpture and performance to communicate urgent stories about 21st Century Indigeneity. Incorporating ceramics, steel, fiber, video and repurposed materials, Luger activates speculative fiction, engages in land-based actions of repair and practices empathetic response through social collaboration.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects in communities nationwide,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, Ph.D. “Projects such as this one the Archie Bray Foundation strengthen arts and cultural ecosystems, provide equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, and contribute to the health of our communities and our economy.”

First photo from land dedication ceremony at The Bray, July 2022. 

#ravenhalfmoon #cannupahanskaluger #NEA #archiebray #firstfiresite
The Bray is honored to have Sarah Jaeger working i The Bray is honored to have Sarah Jaeger working in the Invited Visiting Artist Studio for a few weeks. 

"I took a roundabout path to clay, via an undergraduate degree in English literature, and attended Kansas City Art Institute when I was in my thirties. I came to the Bray as a resident in 1985, planning to spend a year there, and figure out where to set up a studio. I spent two years at the Bray, settled in Helena, and have been making pots here ever since.  I was on the Bray board from 1992-2003. I may be the only former resident who has subsequently enrolled in community classes. I taught them in the 1980s, and have been taking them since 2018, full circle! Which is to say that my long, deep and varied relationship with the Bray has been central to my life as a potter.

I have always made functional pots, for a number of reasons: we experience them by touch, as well as by sight; we share our intimate domestic spaces with them; they can bring the experience of beauty or unexpected pleasure to our everyday lives; and there is always an implied conversation between the maker and the user, bringing them into a kind of community.

After a neurological disease made it impossible for me to throw pots on the wheel, and with encouragement and tutorials from friends, I began to hand build, mostly plates. So that I would not be tempted to try to mimic what I had done before, I chose to use red earthenware, with maiolica, and to focus more on the painting. It’s a very simple technique, requiring minimal equipment and few tools, which feels in keeping with my physical limitations. This has allowed me, late in my career, to be a beginner all over again.

My concerns haven’t changed much, however, in that I want my pots to express their potential to be useful and generous, to have a fluid quality, now achieved in the painting, rather than in the effects of the kiln. I want them to attract the hand as well as the eye, to be both beautiful and friendly, and to suggest that they can provide abundant nourishment to our daily lives." —Sarah Jaeger 

Thanks for spending your time and expertise with us Sarah!
Hoot! The Bray Brick by Brick Mini Auction featuri Hoot! The Bray Brick by Brick Mini Auction featuring Sue Tirrell is OPEN! Check out the incredible mugs available at the link in our bio. Auction closes Saturday, Feb 25, 7pm MST/9pm EST. Happy bidding, and good luck! #archiebray #suetirrell @suetirrell
Tomorrow is the day! The first of our Brick by Bri Tomorrow is the day! The first of our Brick by Brick Bray Mini Auction Series goes live featuring our current Board Chair, previous resident artist, past instructor and well loved potter Sue Tirrell. Sue has generously donated these series of mugs to benefit our Residency Program. Online auction goes live 10am MST / 12pm EST February 21st. Auction closes February 25th, 7pm MST / 9pm EST. Link in Bio!
@suetirrell
TONIGHT! Our 2023 Artist Amplified lecture and dem TONIGHT! Our 2023 Artist Amplified lecture and demonstration series kicks off with former resident artists Giselle Hicks @gisellehicks and Sunshine Cobb @shinygbird from 6:30-8pm MST

Join us in person or online as former residents and Helena area artists Giselle Hicks and Sunshine Cobb engage in a night of conversation and casual demonstration. Expect a medley of topics ranging for their varied experiences as successful business owners, taking risks in their studios, and the importance of self-care. 

IN-PERSON at the Frances Senska Center for Education and Engagement.  Advanced Registration helps us prepare, but more importantly, helps up secure funding that makes this series possible.

LIVE STREAM VIRTUALLY!  Link in bio (zoom link goes live at time of event – no pre-registration needed) 

Our Artist Amplified lecture and demonstration series allows artists and art enthusiasts to share their history, process, and conceptual motivations with the public through various presentation formats. Check out our 2023 line up on our website and save the date for some exciting and new perspectives!

Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email our Development Director at alison@archiebray.org
Repost from @simphiwe_mbunyuza_sculptor • Beauti Repost from @simphiwe_mbunyuza_sculptor
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Beautiful piece by @janinamyronova fresh from the kiln. @archie_bray

🕯❤️🇺🇸
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The Bray is a 501(c)(3) exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Code and all contributions to the Bray are deductible to the full extent allowed by law. For more information contact the Bray Development Office.