Museum Rules of Behavior and Etiquette The purpose of these rules is to ensure that all students, visitors, teachers, and patrons of the American Museum of Ceramic Art facilities have access to and use of the museum facility in an orderly, peaceful, safe, and educational atmosphere. A student/visitor engaged in the following behaviors will be asked to stop the behavior and may be reprimanded by museum staff or be asked to leave the museum. The museum asks all teachers or group leaders to go over the following rules and etiquette procedures with their students, staff, and chaperones before their scheduled visit to the museum. We request a two‐week advance notice on all tours. We suggest having one adult chaperone for every 10 students. Having name tags for each member of your group helps us get to know you. Regardless of the number of adults, we expect all classes to be orderly and well‐behaved. Students and visitors should not engage in disorderly conduct, harassing, or annoying behavior. Please keep your hands and feet to yourself at all times especially within the gallery area of the museum. Touching or handling any art piece or artifact without permission or assistance from the museum staff or authorized volunteer is strictly prohibited. Making noises such as talking loudly to others or in monologues, shouting, singing, or engaging in boisterous behavior during tours is not allowed. Students and visitors should be encouraged to listen and follow the directions of museum staff and volunteers during their visit to the museum. Misuse of the museum’s furniture or equipment is strictly prohibited in all areas. Teachers, students, and chaperones are not to remove, relocate, or reposition museum equipment or facilities such as tables, bookshelves, benches or other permanently placed equipment without permission of museum staff and volunteers. The use of audible equipment, such as radios, portable gaming devices, i‐pods, portable televisions or similar sound‐producing devices is strictly prohibited in gallery areas during any tour. Cellular telephone users are asked to be considerate of others and to confine their calls to the museum entry area, no text messaging is allowed during a docent led tour. Bringing food or beverages into the museum unless authorized and scheduled with museum staff as part of your museum visit is strictly prohibited. Absolutely no food beverages, candy or gum is allowed in gallery areas during museum visits. Making use of the restrooms for any purpose for which they were not intended is strictly prohibited. Students should be chaperoned in restroom areas and under the supervision of teachers and chaperones at all times during their visit to the museum. Photography is allowed during your visit! Note to Teachers: The American Museum of Ceramic Art is honored to present Honoring the Past, Embracing the Future: AMOCA’s 10th Anniversary. The masterworks present the high points in the history of ceramics, with a focus on the nineteenth century to the present. This showcase includes the big, bold, and daring conjoined with the intimate, refined, and pristine; the handcrafted opposed with the industrial; the abstract counterpoised with the figurative; and the vessel juxtaposed with the sculptural. The exhibition will give a view to the aesthetic horizon of the ceramics landscape, revealing the achievements of the past and positing possibilities for the future. Visitors will experience the fascinating story of three centuries of ceramic production, narrated through exemplar objects that connect the traditional with the contemporary, transverse borders and civilizations, embrace experimentation, and intersect, reflect, and interpret diverse cultures. This visual feast will be told in thematic groupings that include monumental figures, over‐the‐top baroque vessels, a parade of cups and teapots, and a circus of animalia sculptures, among other delights. This packet includes: The Language of the Ceramic Arts Elements of Art Learning to Look at Art Viewing Art Work – General principals Visual Elements within the art piece & Composition of the art piece Art Literature Resources Gallery Activities (Museum will provide enough for your class during your tour) Back in the Classroom Art Lessons Ceramic Vocabulary These are some general key terms to know when discussing Ceramic Art. Air pockets: Enclosed air spaces within clay that must be removed for they may cause ceramic work to explode or crack. Bisque ware: Clay that has been fired once, at a low temperature. Clay is hard but porous and absorbent. Bone dry: No visible moisture and no dampness to the touch. Clay is ready to be fired. Ceramics: Objects made of clay fired to a high temperature, over 1550 degrees F. Clay: Fine grained earth materials formed by the decomposition of igneous rocks; plastic when wet; strong when dry; and rock hard when exposed to red heat (fired). Coils: Rolled, snake-like ropes of clay, joined together to build pots. Embossment: Raised surface design on a clay piece. Firing: To heat in a kiln (brick oven). Firing is a term used for “cooking” the clay. Form: Three-dimensional shape and structure of an object. Glaze: A combination of miniscule clay and glass particles mixed with water; applied to bisque ware before firing. During the firing process this applied mixture adheres to the form, giving it a hard, durable surface. Glazes can be colored, opaque, clear, translucent, or matte. Greenware: Unfired clay ready or nearly ready for firing. Hand-building: Construction processes that include pinching, coiling or building with slabs. Incising: Surface decoration made by scratching, cutting, or carving lines into clay at various depths. Inlay: Surface decoration created by filling an impression in a clay surface with another clay or slip. Kiln: A furnace or oven built of heat-resistant materials for firing pottery. Heat is produced by electricity, propane, natural gas or wood. Pre-Field Trip Produced by AMOCA, Education Department Page 1 Leather Hard: Clay is too firm to bend yet soft enough to carve. It is the consistency of cheddar cheese. Pinch Pots: Starting with a ball of clay, the potter opens a hole with his thumb. Pinching the clay between his thumb on the inside and fingers on the outside, a bowl shape is formed. Plastic stage: Moist and elastic to the touch; clay that is easily manipulated. Porcelain: A translucent, nonabsorbent body fired at high temperature. White and hard, it was first developed in China during the 8th century. Pottery: Pottery is one of the oldest art forms explored by mankind. There are many now-extinct cultures throughout the world that did not use written language. For some of these civilizations the only evidence of their daily lives comes in the form of pottery, which when left behind provides important archeological records. Scoring: Scratching or roughing-up the clay surface; used in combination with brushed-on slip, scoring is a preparation step for joining two or more separate clay pieces together. Seam: The crack formed where two pieces of clay are joined. Slabs: Rolled flat sections of clay. Wet slabs can be draped over or into forms or rolled around cylindrical or square forms. Slabs may be cut into shapes and joined together using the score and slip method. This is most successful when slabs are dried to the leather-hard state. Slip: Finely ground clay particles mixed with water. 1) Used for joining two pieces of clay; 2) Brushed on (also called underglaze) for decorating purposes (3) May be squeezed or extruded onto the surface for a raised effect. Slip may be colored. Texture: The quality of a surface. Three-dimensional: when all three dimensions (length, height, and width) can be touched and felt. Underglazes: Colored slip or liquid stain applied to leather hard clay or bisque ware, then coated with a clear glaze. Ware: Pottery pieces in the raw, bisque, or glazed state. Wedging: A kneading process, manipulating the clay to remove air bubbles, lumps, and excess water. Pre-Field Trip Produced by AMOCA, Education Department Page 2 The Language of Ceramic Art What are pottery and ceramics? Is there a difference? Is everything that is made out of clay pottery? Are all ceramics made out of clay? Pottery and ceramics have been an important part of human culture for thousands of years. From prehistoric storage jars to tiles on the space shuttles, pottery and ceramics have played a key role in innumerable human endeavors. But how do we define them? What Are Ceramics? Technically, ceramics are some of the things made from materials which are permanently changed when heated. For example, clay has chemically-bonded water in it which will cause it to disintegrate when a dried clay object is put in water. Once fired (heated) to between 660⁰ and 1470⁰F (350⁰ and 800⁰C), the clay is converted to ceramic and will never dissolve again. All clay is a ceramic material, but there are other ceramic materials, as well. Glazes are also ceramic materials, because they permanently change during firing. Industrial ceramics include a range of materials such as silica carbide and zirconium oxide. What Is Pottery? Pottery is generally considered to be containers made from clay. "Pot" is a term used for any number of container forms. Both words derive from the Old English potian, "to push". When we consider how the potter pushes as they throw the clay on the wheel, it is easy to see how the process got its name. The term "pottery" may also be used as an adjective with some objects, such as small figurines. In industrialized countries, modern pottery can be classified two ways. There is commercial pottery or ceramics which are produced in factories, and there is studio pottery which is produced by individual craftsmen.