This is an edited transcript of opening remarks given by Christopher Sanders at the launch of Pan Gallery in the relocated Northcote Pottery, May 30 2008. Christopher is Coordinator of Ceramics at RMIT University, Melbourne. He is also a ceramic artist.

“Thanks – to Paul, Ray, and Gallery Manager Sophie Milne.

It is very nice to see the survival of the Northcote Pottery name here in Weston Street Brunswick East. I recall the Northcote Pottery of old – I loved the yard of flower pots, the buildings framed by chimneys, the clank and hum of machinery, and even the smell of kero on the moulds in the factory.

These make us think of all the traditions associated with ceramics.  And talking about the past brings me to the topic of change.

Sometimes change is exciting, sometimes less so. Truth is - it’s a bus ride that can’t really be stepped off. We all have to deal with it at one or another level and sleepy times won’t be returning soon.  As part of learning to live with this, I think that the key thing is to consider what takes the place of the original. 

As you will have gathered from my introduction, I’m an educator in ceramics, which means that I am seeing a lot of change in the art school where I work. So in this role, I find that some questions persist, particularly in regard to ceramics:  What are we? Where are we going? How do we survive?

Let me try to answer these from my perspective.

What do I think we are?

We are makers, creators and we work in an amazingly durable and flexible material. It’s called clay and glaze, and sometimes we use other colourants and tools to mark the surfaces of whatever it is that we make.

Where do I think that we are we going?

 Education is changing, and it is the bedrock and the wellspring of professional and semi-professional activities and all the other things that spring from this:  shops, galleries, tours, short courses, publications and so on.

Education is rapidly changing because generous and non-questioning funding is a thing of the past. Education at tertiary level is also a business. And today there are minimum acceptable levels of business to both the University administration and the Governments which supply the balance of the cash and set the frameworks in which programs can take place. Therefore it’s inevitable that the RMIT School of Art and the Ceramics department will morph in order to survive, but I am optimistic that we will keep our core values.

To this end there are trends that I am seeing within the body of my students, and remember this includes undergraduate, post-graduate and offshore where we teach in Hong Kong.

To start, there is an interest in the merging of media – with clay still playing a central but not necessarily dominant role. Cross-collaboration with other creative areas such as design, gold and silver smithing, sculpture and others have been part of our training for some time, through our elective system. This is reaching a point where collaborative activity outside of subject areas is starting to take on a life of its own.

Strangely, and against hearsay, I am also seeing an ongoing interest in making traditional orientalising pots, using the wheel and with reduced thick feldspathic classic type glazes.

I have a sense of being close to bedrock with the waning of interest in 3D. From time to time we enrol what I now call 2D digital refugees coming through our doors. There will always be those who find huge satisfaction in touching what they are making and realising it in 3D.

Finally, there is slowly emerging a sense of pride that ceramic artists cut it with the rest but there lingers some trepidation on just how to compete with the best of them.

Over the past five years ceramics has punched above its weight in the highly competitive School of Art Siemens Award with regular representations and winners.

How do I think we can survive?

We need to stick to the things we are good at – our knowledge of materials and processes and our multi-skilled capacity to make a whole range of items across a range of genres.

We must avoid dumbing down at the leading levels of practise. Hobbyism is really important, but it must be preceded by best practise.

Let us embrace new technologies and genres without fear. We can use and reject these as we wish, just as others in other disciplines are doing as hard and fast as they can. Let us use them as best we can for our own purposes.

We must also go laterally where opportunities are presented – be commercial when it suits and be able to move back to fine art practice as required or find a comfortable combination.  And why not? Ceramics artists need to make money like anybody else so that we can run well equipped clever studios and practices, just as do successful painters or photographers or sculptors.

We must stay smart with our networks and communications. Ceramics has a good network already, but complacency will let it fail.

Let us look to support creativity and exploration at all times, as well as production and commerce.

Regardless of what we are making, let us strive to put the highest quality ceramics in front of the public at all times

To this end - It is wonderful to see Paul, Ray and Sophie injecting new life into the Northcote Pottery of old, and to see that they are providing service and opportunities not only to ceramists, but now also collectors in this part of the world.

They are doing just as I am describing - dealing with change – constructively.

So let me now wish the gallery and the enterprise of Northcote Pottery every future success and declare Pan Gallery open. “