Clay Museum is a two-year programme with funding from Arts Council England. It is a collaboration between The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery and the British Ceramics Biennial (BCB). We engage secondary school students with the museum and its collections through a series of hands-on clay workshops. The workshops then link the curriculum to objects in the museum. We then explore these through practical activities with clay.
Who can take part?
Secondary schools across the region can engage with the Museum and its collections through a range of free ceramics workshops. Clay Museum is open to all secondary schools in the Stoke-on-Trent area and North Staffs with workshops running each term. For more information on how to get your school involved and upcoming workshops please contact museumeducation@stoke.gov.uk.
What happens in the workshops?
Through our Growing Cultures project, we built bacteria cells and looked at the history of ceramics in relation to health and hygiene. Our Cast of Thousands project was a character-building and storytelling project looking at the history of figurative ceramics. We also learned about some of The Potteries’ famous women from ceramics and politics in our Women in Stoke-on-Trent series. These workshops explore links between objects in the Museum’s collections and the curriculum. This brings ideas to life in exciting ways through the use of clay.
Clay Museum has support from Potclays Ltd, a leading, award-winning provider of ceramic supplies and training to the studio ceramics and paint-your-own pottery markets.