The New England Teapot Show is making its long-awaited return to the Glen Innes Art Gallery this year, with the opening gala set for this Saturday, 4 July.
It will be the first Teapot Show held since COVID forced the popular exhibition off the calendar, and organisers are expecting close to 100 entries from across the region.
The show was founded in 2010 by ceramic artist Anita Stewart, who approached the Glen Innes Art Gallery with the idea after exhibiting at a similar event in Sydney.
“I approached the Glen Innes Art Gallery to run the New England Teapot Show,” Ms Stewart said.
“We thought it would be a great thing for the region to have a lovely teapot show.”
The exhibition is run in partnership with the Glen Innes Pottery Club, which has about 35 members and is based just one building away from the gallery.
“It’s a really good collaboration because a lot of people who are involved in the gallery are actually also pottery club members,” Ms Stewart said.
In the lead-up to this year’s show, the Pottery Club ran teapot workshops covering both wheel-throwing and hand-building techniques.
Entries are divided into 2D, 3D and a “cosy corner” category, where exhibitors create inventive tea cosies. Competition sections include an open sculptural category, a functional pouring teapot category, and a beginners’ section.
“It’s all up to the imagination really,” Ms Stewart said. “And we’ve got some very imaginative teapots.”
Entrants have come from Glen Innes, Armidale, Inverell and Tenterfield.
“No two teapot shows have ever been similar,” she said. “You never know what’s coming in.”
While Ms Stewart has entered several pieces of her own, she will not be judging this year, leaving the honour this year to Navina Honey, owner of Desert Moon Creative Art Space and Cafe.
The Glen Innes Pottery Club is based in the old TAFE ceramic workshop, which is fitted out with multiple pottery wheels, slab rollers and three kilns. Classes are run throughout the year by Ms Stewart and fellow potter Gavin Nash, covering both wheel-throwing and hand-building.
Beyond the Teapot Show, the club has been busy with community projects, including a mural on Meade Street and an upcoming tile project with seniors, youth and young children for display in Glen Innes’s new nature play park.
The club is also offering free creative workshops for young people aged 12 to 24 these school holidays, as part of the Winter Mud Larks program. Fully funded by the NSW Government, the sessions cover weaving combined with ceramics on 10 July, painting on clay on 13 July, ceramic sculpting on 15 July, and pottery making in the Jomon style on 17 July.
More information on the Winter Mud Larks workshops is available through Max Powell on 0401 603 322.
“It’s quite a buzzing club,” Ms Stewart said.
The New England Teapot Show opens at the Glen Innes Art Gallery from 3 pm on Saturday, 4 July, with wine and refreshments served on the night. The exhibition will be open Monday – Saturday until 31 July.
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