Revolutionary Teapots: Ceramic Artists Reimagine 1776 at Chesterwood

Now Through September 27 | Stockbridge, MA

The Berkshire Potters Collective and Chesterwood present "Revolutionary Teapots" in the Woodshed Gallery, a juried exhibition honoring both the Boston Tea Party and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence through the familiar, loaded form of the teapot.

Regional ceramic artists were invited to interpret the theme two ways: a "Revolutionary" teapot carrying the forms, colors, or symbols of 1776 and early American history, or a lowercase "revolutionary" teapot that defies convention and stretches the boundaries of the form itself. Leslie Ferrin, a leading gallerist and specialist in contemporary ceramic art, juried the show and selected award winners, with prizes sponsored by Harney & Sons Fine Teas.

Chesterwood, the former summer home, studio, and gardens of sculptor Daniel Chester French—best known for sculpting the Lincoln Memorial and the Minute Man statue in Concord—gives the show a contextually powerful setting, given how much of French's own work grappled with monuments to American liberty and sacrifice. The teapot, historically bound up with the very tax protests the Revolution grew out of, turns out to be a sharper vehicle for this kind of commentary than it first appears.

Chesterwood, 4 Williamsville Rd., Stockbridge, MA. Included with admission at chesterwood.org.