Leach Pottery: First Students
Exhibition: 6 May 2023 - June 2024*

The Leach Pottery began its story in 1920 as an emergent creative entity, transforming over the years into the internationally-renowned institution of today. This exhibition explores our early story of creativity with a focus on some of our first students.

The 1920s was a time of energetic exploration of different pottery traditions, including stoneware, raku and earthenware – a type of pottery more traditional to the United Kingdom and, being lower fired, is softer than stoneware. The early years were much about exploring these mediums which had different appeals to the potters who worked with them.

This exhibition shows early works from the Leach Pottery alongside pots by Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada and Tsurunosuke Matsubayashi. There is a focus on Michael Cardew, our first student, who went on to have a lifelong engagement with earthenware pottery. There are pots by Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie and Norah Braden – also early students of the Leach Pottery, with Katharine going on to make notable contributions to the exploration of ash glazes over her career.

There are also insights of how contemporary potters continue to work in the mediums of slipware and wood ash, and the opportunity to handle a selection of pots.

Location: Cube Gallery, Museum admission required

*please note, the Leach Pottery is anticipating undergoing exciting site developments as part of a forthcoming capital project. As the plans emerge over 2023, there is a possibility that the exhibition could close intermittently or early: please check details before you travel.