Five years now in the Chair and I never tire of the series of events we have put on and I am always thrilled to meet and see our visiting artists demonstrate or talk about their craft. I am sure that like me you have learned much and been inspired by our visitors.
Again our membership has grown in the past year and looking back at the records I see we have almost doubled the number of members in the last ten years. Attendance at events is up especially when we have renowned artists such as Lisa Hammond (honoured with an MBE after visiting us!) and Phil Rogers. And we have not neglected other more specialised interests such as studio visits and practical members’ days. These we will continue so that we can practice what others preach. There is wealth of skill in the CCGG and we hope we can pass this on from member to member. We will continue to attract leading artists and stage attractive craft based social events to meet you varied interests.
Your committee has worked tirelessly to maintain the standards breadth of interests at the CCGG fitting in with the full lives we all lead. There is great satisfaction to be gained from the increasing membership and the appreciative comments we hear after our events. Some committee members have served the CCGG for many years and will inevitably need to hand on to others before too long so I would ask and urge any members with and interest and some time to put themselves forward to take the CCGG into the future. The three members who joined last year, Sally, Fran and Paul have made an inviable contribution and I thank them.
It is not an onerous task being a committee member; committee meetings are held every two months at Ladock for about two hours and homemade cakes are served!
Arranging members’ events is the main responsibility of the committee and in doing so we are very aware that we have a membership with differing interests, commitments to craft and involvement with the CCGG so I would once again like to re-iterate the simple aims of our constitution.
- To raise the profile of ceramics and glass in Cornwall through events and activities.
- To promote high standards in ceramics and glass.
- To create educational and social opportunities for members.
I think we have, to date, managed to find a good balance of events that involve international artist, social practical days and access to artists’ studios but we welcome suggestions and ideas from members so we can meet your needs. Equally if we are not meeting your needs please let us know. You have an energetic and responsive committee and they will be more than eager to rope you in to help or modify their efforts. Talk to us or email us at ccggwebmail@googlemail.com
Last year’s revival of a Members’ Exhibition at Bodmin, though not a great commercial success, proved to be an excellent opportunity to see other members’ work. This year we are repeating the experiment but in the western part of the county, at Porthleven. If this proves successful we would hope to repeat the event in 2017. For the Porthleven exhibition we have 18 members exhibiting so I hope you will tell all your friends and bring them to Porthleven during the week of the exhibition.
In the coming year there will again be a full calendar of events where I hope as many members can meet and share their ideas, experience and love of ceramics and glass. Something for everyone I hope.
So we look forward to another successful year when, with your support, we hope to provide entertainment, inspiration and enjoyment with ceramics and glass.
Barry Marshall-Johnson --- CCGG Chair 2016
