Students Over a Century
Exhibition: 20 July 2024 - 20 July 2025*

Please note, this exhibition will be closed 2 - 31 January 2025, whilst we carry out collections work in this space.

For over a century, the Leach Pottery has been a site of training and learning – weaving people, pots, ideas and cultures together. Its early spirit was experimental: a small studio exploring clay, firings and forms. Over the decades, the Pottery’s wares and focus shifted, evolving into a communal studio of craftspeople.

This exhibition tells the story of a small number of the Leach Pottery’s students; from 1923 when they began to arrive, to key points such as 1938 with the start of the Leach Apprentices, and their more formal training, that was reinvigorated in 2014. The Leach has also trained countless Student-Apprentices, and delivers workshops supporting our many community learners.

This intriguing collection of pots from the Leach Studio and individual potters – some made at the Leach Pottery, some in the potter’s own studios – gives a sense of how potters respond to their time here; some adopting, developing or even rejecting the aesthetics and ideas.

Location: Cube Gallery, Museum admission required

Featured Potters:
Richard Batterham • John Bedding • Muriel Bell • Ian Box • Norah Braden • Alan Brough • Michael Cardew • Harry Davis • May Davis • Derek Emms • Charlotte Epton • Mary Gibson-Horrocks • Arthur Griffiths • Atsyua Hamada • Shoji Hamada • Sylvia Hardaker • Shigeyoshi Ichino • Jeff Larkin • Bernard Leach • David Leach • Janet Leach • Glenn Lewis • Scott Marshall • William Marshall • Tsuronosuke Matsubyashi • Warren McKenzie • Jeff Oestreich • Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie • Kenneth Quick • John Reeve • Ian Steele • Jason Wason • Geoff Whiting • Amy Wilson • Ellie Woods

With thanks to Learning & Participation Adult Programme participants Marie Blue, Sophie Blue, Thom Taylor and Christian Smith; for contributing their practice pieces as handling objects to illustrate ‘Today’s Learners’.

*please note, the Leach Pottery is undergoing exciting site developments as part of our capital project, and there is a possibility that the exhibition could close intermittently: please check details before you travel. This exhibition will be closed 2 - 31 January 2025, whilst we carry out collections work in this space.