Lowell National Historical Park News Release
Release date: Immediate
Contact(s): Phil Lupsiewicz
Phone number: 978-275-1705
Date: September 22, 2016
Release code: 16-37
Make, Glaze, Fire! : Traditional Ceramicist Yary Livan
Offers Free Community Workshop at Lowell National Historical Park
LOWELL, MA – On October 8 and 15, Lowell artist Yary Livan will offer a special free community workshop at Lowell National Historical Park open to adults. This is a rare chance to work with and learn from Livan, a master ceramicist in a field where it is hard to find master artists.
In this free community workshop, participants will work directly with Livan to make their own creative masterpieces in clay. The pieces will be fired in a community wood-burning kiln that is hosted by Middlesex Community College at Lowell National Historical Park. According to Livan, the wood-burning kiln is a distinctive element of Cambodian ceramics, as it produces different coloring effects than a gas-burning kiln which is more common in ceramic arts today.
Livan came to Lowell from Cambodia, and is one of perhaps only three master ceramic artists to survive the Khmer Rouge genocide. When arriving in the United States in 2001, Livan completed his formal study at Harvard, and was most recently honored as a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2015.
The workshop will meet in two sequential sessions, Saturdays October 8 and 15, from 3-5 PM. Participants must be able to commit to both sessions. The first session on October 8 will involve sculpting material into forms of pottery, and on October 15, participants will glaze their pieces with color. Both sessions will meet at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum, located at 115 John Street, Lowell, MA 01852. Participants may park in the free Visitor Center parking lot (located at 304 Dutton Street), and walk over to the Boott. A closer parking option to the Boott is the John Street parking garage, which is a city parking garage that charges a fee.
The pieces will then be fired on October 22 at the Park’s community Cambodian wood-burning kiln, from 1 AM – 3 PM. It is not required that participants attend the firing, but they are more than welcome to stop by the kiln and see their pieces being fired. The kiln is located adjacent to Lowell National Historical Park’s maintenance center at 220 Aiken Street.
The community workshop is free, however space is limited. Registration is required. Please contact Lowell National Historical Park at 978-970-5000 to sign up.
For more information on Yary Livan, you can read an interview with him from the National Endowment for the Arts at https://www.arts.gov/NEARTS/2016v1-telling-all-our-stories-arts-and-diversity/yary-livan . If you have questions about the Make, Glaze, Fire! workshop series, please contact Bridget Peregrino (bridget_peregrino@nps.gov) at 978-970-5031, or Resi Polixa (resi_polixa@nps.gov) at 978-275-1784.
To learn more about this and other park offerings during this centennial year of the National Park Service, including the Junior Ranger program, Boott Cotton Mills Museum, Mill Girls and Immigrants Exhibit, ranger-led tours, and upcoming special events stop by the Visitor Center at 246 Market Street, or contact Lowell National Historical Park at (978) 970-5000, or visit www.nps.gov/lowe .
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