> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Reference:: https://www.theclaystudio.org/exhibitions/clay-as-care > Date:: 2025 > Tags:: #warp #ceramics > WeftLinks:: [[Psychological value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Objects made by hand have great meaning and value]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Clay Studio exhibition of ceramic artists reflecting care in their work. ### Highlights THE CLAY STUDIO EXPLORES THE INTERSECTION OF CERAMIC ART, WELLNESS, AND SELF-CARE IN A  GROUNDBREAKING NEW MULTI-FACETED PROJECT, CLAY AS CARE  Clay as Care features an immersive exhibition of contemporary artwork by leading artists, free  interactive programming, and scientific research exploring the relationship between ceramic art and  wellness  Philadelphia, PA | August 13, 2025 – From October 9 to December 31, The Clay Studio Center for  Innovation in Ceramic Art (The Clay Studio) (1425 N. American Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122), debuts a  groundbreaking interdisciplinary project, Clay as Care, which illustrates the ways art and ceramics  promote self-care, healing, rest, and wellness. Co-curated by The Clay Studio’s Director of Artistic  Programming, Jennifer Zwilling, and curator, artist, and designer Nicole Pollard, the project invites the  public to explore the relationship between ceramic art and wellness through an immersive exhibition, a  symposium, a publication, and free, interactive public programs. Clay as Care also pushes beyond  traditional methods of displaying art through an immersive area within the exhibition designed by  Pollard, where visitors can experience how rest and creative making can support wellbeing.  The core of Clay as Care is an exhibition of landmark contemporary artworks by four highly respected  artists who each address healing, rest, and resilience in their work. Displayed in The Clay Studio’s Jill  Bonovitz Gallery, Clay as Care features stunning works by New Jersey-based visual artist Adebunmi  Gbadebo, Arizona-based multimedia artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk, California-based Marine Corps  Veteran and ceramic artist Ehren Tool, and Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist Maia Chao. The  exhibition considers the ways that care manifests in ceramic art as well as how viewing art and working  with clay can promote both individual and communal well-being.   “We’re excited to be designing an experience that integrates care into every aspect of the exhibition,”  said Zwilling. “We honor the ideas of care present in the chosen artworks as well as how visitors can feel  cared for in the space as a viewer. Our goal is to facilitate a meaningful and new kind of experience with  art in a gallery setting. One way The Clay Studio will accomplish this is through our conversations with  our Exhibition Council, which is made up of local community members who provide input on how to  make the space welcoming and relevant.”  Clay as Care: An Immersive Exhibition  The featured Clay as Care artists each present works exploring how shaping clay can embody and  communicate experiences of healing, identity, history, and transformation. The exhibition offers visitors  a space to reflect on personal and collective forms of care through immersive film, sculpture, and  engaging installations. As a video and film artist, Maia Chao’s work focuses on the healthcare system, often by exploring the  feelings evoked by the physical environments, such as those in doctors’ office waiting rooms. Her  contribution to Clay as Care is a film centering on the more positive and meditative feelings evoked by  the various physical actions used when working with clay, including throwing on a pottery wheel, and  manipulating through hand-building techniques. Her film explores the materiality and gestures of clay making that evoke a meditative state in the maker to transfer that same calming sensibility to the  viewer in the gallery. Chao filmed artists at work in The Clay Studio to highlight the different physical  and emotional ways the act of shaping clay reflects care, transformation, and wellness. Located near the  visitor rest area, her film invites people to relax and watch the calming movements of clay being shaped.  The gentle actions of pressing and molding the clay create a peaceful auditory and sensory experience,  encouraging rest, healing, and reflection.   Trained in ceramics, Jennifer Ling Datchuk works with porcelain and other materials often associated  with traditional women’s work, such as textiles and hair, to discuss fragility, beauty, femininity,  intersectionality, identity, and personal history. In Clay as Care, Datchuk developed pieces inspired by  her experience with in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments through an evocative and immersive display.  Guests will first see two crib mattresses enclosed within a curtain of synthetic hair, alluding to the  curtain doctors draw around patients in hospital beds. Visitors are invited to sit on one mattress to rest  while they view a sculpture composed of sharp re-fired blue and white porcelain shards she collected  from a ceramics center in Jingdezhen, China. Datchuck repurposed the shards from broken or discarded  pieces, representing many things, including her bi-cultural Chinese and American heritage, her feelings  as she underwent successful IVF treatments, and her thoughts about systems of health and care in the  United States.  Visual artist Adebunmi Gbadebo’s Clay as Care contributions showcase her deep ancestral connection  with the land of True Blue Plantation in Fort Motte, South Carolina. Using unearthed soil from True Blue  Cemetery, the burial ground of her enslaved ancestors, Gbadebo made clay that she then used to create  ceramic sculptures displayed alongside mixed-media paper works. Her artistic process and journey are  detailed in a featured documentary displayed alongside her artwork, which allows the viewer to engage  with Gbadebo’s art-making process at each step and understand the depth with which she handles the  material, physically and emotionally. The film follows Gbadebo during a visit with her family members to  the plantation’s cemetery, where she uses local cotton, plant material, water, and clay soil to create a  large-scale paper sculpture like the one on view in Clay as Care. Her artistic practice encompasses  sculptures, paintings, prints, and paper using human hair sourced from people of the African diaspora.  Rejecting traditional art materials, Gbadebo views hair as a means to weave her people and their  histories into her work.  A Marine Corps veteran of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, ceramic artist Ehren Tool has made and given  away more than 26,000 ceramic cups since 2001. He has hosted cup-throwing workshops with other  veterans, which serve as a therapeutic and creative outlet, giving them time and space to discuss their  military experiences. Tool has found that engaging in wheel throwing while talking to other veterans  allows them to more easily start a dialogue about the negative and traumatizing experiences from their  military service. For Clay as Care, Tool will create a bunker made of clay in The Clay Studio’s maker  spaces, where the public can watch Tool and other veterans slowly deconstruct the bunker over the  course of the project, using the clay to create his signature cups on the pottery wheel. Tool uses molds  of military medals, decals of politically charged cartoons, and other thematic imagery to infuse each cup  with anti-war messages. The cups thrown and decorated by Tool and veterans will be installed in the Jill  Bonovitz Gallery to create a new bunker fortified with these cups. Visitors can enter the bunker and  contemplate the cups and their messages adorning their surfaces.   As they explore the featured work, viewers are invited to experience how rest and making can enhance  well-being through dedicated spaces in the gallery. Co-curator Nicole Pollard designed a special piece of  furniture for the rest area using varying seating heights and cushioning, with rearrangeable pillows for  individualized comfort. The Clay Studio also provides a free, hands-on art-making activity where visitors  are invited to create a vision of care for themselves and add their piece to shelves designed specifically  to display works made by the public. The goal is to pay homage to the care people derive and give to  others, acting as a visual connection between each individual who passes through the exhibition.  Pollard shared how Clay as Care offers The Clay Studio’s audiences a new experience: “With this  exhibition, I hope that we can begin to evolve how the Clay Studio gallery space is typically used — for  both regular and new visitors alike — by incorporating opportunities to of course view art, and also to  engage in their own art making, rest, spend time, and connect with others.”   As part of Clay as Care, The Clay Studio will research how visitors respond to the art and the space,  particularly Pollard's immersive rest area. The Clay Studio staff will develop a visitor survey to gather  data about the effectiveness of the exhibition design in imparting a sense of care and wellness to the  visitor in collaboration with partners at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Neuroaesthetics,  Thomas Jefferson University Art Therapy Department, and the Drexel University Art Psychotherapy  team. The methodologies and results of this work are presented through a publication, the Clay as Care Symposium, and Care Fest, a free event with activities and clay projects.  Clay as Care Programming & Events  The Clay Studio invites the public to attend the Clay as Care Symposium & Reception, where key figures  and project partners present their findings on the healing nature of art and ceramics. The free event  features internationally acclaimed American poet and founder of Nap Ministry Tricia Hersey as the  keynote speaker, as well as presentations from co-curators with the four exhibiting artists. Additionally,  attendees can join a panel discussion with experts from the scientific sector moderated by WHYY reporter Maiken Scott, creator of the nationally syndicated podcast about health, science, and  innovation, The Pulse. Scott’s panel includes Professor Anjan Chatterjee, founder and director of the  University of Pennsylvania Neuroaesthetics Lab, Professor Rachel Brandoff from the Jefferson University  Art Therapy Department, and local community members of The Clay Studio’s Exhibition Council. The  Clay as Care Symposium is hosted at The Clay Studio on Saturday, October 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.,  followed by a public reception. Registration to attend is free and available online.   On Saturday, November 15, The Clay Studio presents its first-ever Care Fest, a free event highlighting  how the public can exercise self-care using clay-based activities. From noon to 4 p.m., attendees can  participate in yoga and meditative stretching, sound baths using clay bowls and gongs, guided wheel   throwing, hand building with clay, chair massages, and more. The concept for Care Fest emerged from a  discussion with Ehren Tool and Jennifer Ling Datchuk about how they utilize community engagement in  their artistic practices, and feedback from The Clay Studio’s Exhibitions Council about meaningful ways  to engage wellness practices in the organization’s programming.  Clay as Care is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.  ### About The Clay Studio Center for Innovation in Ceramic Art   The Clay Studio Center for Innovation in Ceramic Art is a nonprofit arts organization with internationally renowned artist  residency programs, classes and events, exhibitions, community engagement programs, a shop, and more. They serve as a  place where established and emerging artists come to shape their careers, a vital resource for arts education at local schools  and community organizations, and a destination where people from every neighborhood in Philadelphia and all over the world  can explore the vast world of clay. Visit theclaystudio.org for more information.