Closing Chapter: Unearthed' Exhibition Comes to a Close With Guest Lecture, Book Launch

After almost two years, the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art will close its groundbreaking ceramics exhibition Unearthed: The NEHMA Ceramics Collection and the Woman Behind It.

To commemorate this exhibition, NEHMA will host a closing receptionthat includes a guest lecture with renowned ceramics art historian Jenni Sorkin and thelaunch of the Unearthed publication on April 22. The lecture will be from 11:30 a.m. to12:15 p.m. in the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall and the reception will be directly after from12:30-1:30 p.m. at NEHMA.

Admission is free, and refreshments will be served.

Unearthed highlights both well-known and under-recognized artists, as well as influential female ceramics educators and Indigenous American potters, providing a revised historiography of ceramics in the Western United States. The exhibition also highlights Nora Eccles Harrison’s role in ceramics history. Books will be available for sale with special pricing at the closing reception.

In conjunction with the book's release and the exhibition's closing, Jenni Sorkin will give a lecture titled “Doing Inclusive and Revisionist U.S. Ceramics History.” This lecture will offer new ways to rethink ceramicists’ interventions in American art history.

Jenni Sorkin is a professor of the history of art & architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She writes on the intersections of gender, material culture and contemporary art, working primarily on women artists and underrepresented media, especially ceramics. She is a Journal of Modern Craft Editorial Board member and serves on the University of California Press Editorial Board. She is co-executive editor of Panorama: The Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art. Currently, she is currently in residence as a senior fellow of American Craft at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.

“Unearthed: The NEHMA Ceramics Collection and the Woman Behind It” shifts the narrative of ceramics by intentionally highlighting artists who deserve more recognition and have yet to be contextualized within broader ceramics history.

About Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art: The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University fosters engagement with modern and contemporary art to facilitate learning and promote dialogue about ideas important to the people of Utah and the mission of Utah State University. Admission is free and open to all. Parking is available in the free museum parking stalls and at the Gateway Terrace.

For more information, go to NEHMA’s website at artmuseum.usu.edu or contact Shaylee Briones.

shaylee.briones@usu.edu, 435-797-0227.