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Today, pricing art. For me, this is one of the hardest parts of getting art out into the world, probably cuz I’m still new at it. I don’t know what this painting is worth, and anyway who would be crazy enough to buy it at any price? (I know. Get help, Maria.) But the pricing thing is an issue not just for me but for other artists I know.

One recent guest on this radio show says she pretty much prices paintings by the square inch  – except in cases where the small ones seem worth more or the large ones not so much. So then we’re back where we started, feeling our way in a fog, trying to guess what the market will bear.

Then it occurred to me that I happen to know an expert on this subject, someone who prices art for her gallery. Barbara Nair is the artistic and executive director of the nonprofit Spectrum Gallery in Centberbrook, CT. She occasionally shows my work in her gallery and I also take part in her her twice yearly outdoor art fairs. One is coming up, by the way, on Oct. 7 and 8, in Madison.

Barbara recently sat down with me in her small office to share the secrets of pricing art. Bottom line: its complicated.

Works discussed in the episode — The whale wall hangings are by Old Lyme artist Andrew Teran. The rest are by me.

Spectrum Gallery in Centerbrook, CT has been in business 11 years. It started in a smaller space in Killingly and will expand next year into an annex that will allow space for more programming.

spectrumartgallery.org

spectrumanytime.com

@spectrumartgallery

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Interviewed in the episode: longtime Pottery people Gary O’Neil (shown here with his daughter Kyle) and Melissa Schilke

Potters at their wheels in the 1970s. The instructor is master potter Adele Firshein. Photo courtesy of Russell Library’s Middletown collection.

Today, clay. Seventy-five years ago, a small but mighty group of Wesleyan faculty wives thought they’d like to unearth the mysteries of ceramics. Thus was born what would later become Wesleyan Potters, a world-renowned craft school – a hive of not just ceramic activity but of jewelry making and weaving — in Middletown, Connecticut. If you’ve been to the pottery’s popular holiday show and sale, among other events, you know what a wide array of beautiful handicrafts is produced. If, like me, you’ve taken classes at the pottery, then you have firsthand knowledge of how friendly and helpful the teachers and students are. I feel so lucky that this treasure is right here in my town, but if it wasn’t, I would drive a long way to get there. It’s become my spiritual home.

This episode is a celebration of the pottery’s 75^th birthday, and so it feels only right to name those listed in a history of the organization – Helene Spurrier, Ruth Peoples, Emily Pendletown, and Dagmar Mathews. In 1947, they took a course in pottery taught by Sybil Gavin at Vinal Tech Regional High School. With support from Wesleyan, membership quickly swelled to 18, and the group named a treasurer whose report would occasionally read, charmingly, “nine dollars – or so.”

Over the years, the pottery has had different homes: at Wesleyan University; on Knowles avenue; and Pease Avenue; before finally landing on South Main Street. This interview, with two of those who’ve been involved the longest, Gary O’Neil and Melissa Schilke, was conducted in the pottery’s gallery shop, which will host an exhibition, “Wesleyan Potters Celebrating 75 Years of Craft,” featuring all the pottery’s members, teachers, and staff. The theme of the show is new work that breaks the boundaries of their usual method, style, color, shape, function, or size. The show will run from Sept 20^th to Oct. 21^st, with an opening – always a good time – on Sept 22 from 4 to 7 pm. See you there?

Meanwhile, enjoy these reminiscences by longtime pottery people Melissa Schilke and Gary O’Neil!

Teacher Mary Risley arrived in 1954. The first townspeople joined in 1955.