"Guest Convenor" for: Sustainability Context & the Leach Pottery’s Journey and Ideologies & Frameworks symposiums

Abstract

• A single conference delivered online in two parts, on the 22 and 29 January 2024, from 7.00 - 9.00pm, exploring the meaning of sustainability in the context of ceramic practice in 2024. Recognising that ‘sustainability’ occupies multiple definitions, narratives, and actions in the ceramic community, this conference is a timely marker for the Leach Pottery as it embarks on a significant capital development project, reflecting on its responsibilities and the sustainability challenges it faces. Sustainability and ceramic practice is an area of increasing focus: but what does this mean? In 2021, the Leach Pottery’s online symposium ‘Sustaining the Studio - Sustaining the Self’ investigated self-sustaining studio practice and sustaining self through engagement – a snapshot of practice and wellbeing. This conference focusses on some of the conversations around environmental sustainability. Taking a discursive approach, this conference aims to understand some of the definitions, frameworks, issues and actions around sustainability. It will consider how the Leach Pottery is engaging with them from philosophical and practical perspectives. The purpose of the conference is to stimulate mediated conversations between different perspectives and approaches to a topic that could potentially become a siloed debate. It is unlikely to provide simple ‘answers’ but will stimulate thought and provide a starting point for further debate.