Dear AAPA Members,

The signpost says, “Welcome to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan” and the American Art Pottery Association invites you to come to this beautiful Detroit suburb to enjoy history, architecture, art, and art pottery in abundance.

Yes, this is our first visit to the Detroit area and we have been busy, planning a conference that will amaze and delight. Tours, lectures, places of interest and for sure, lots of pottery.

Our hotel, The Kingsley Bloomfield Hills is perfect for our conference with exhibition space, lecture space and places to eat both within the hotel and nearby.

So please mark your calendar for May 1st to May 4th. Bloomfield Hills and Detroit welcome you as do your AAPA Board of Directors.

Riley Humler

President

American Art Pottery Association

AAPA Convention, Show and Sale. Tuesday, April 30 through Saturday, May 4, 2024. The Kingsley Hotel, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (gracious, near suburb of Detroit).

For the very first time, Michigan welcomes the American Art Pottery Association for its annual Convention. Situated on Woodward Avenue, the Midwest’s original motorway, the hospitable and elegant Kingsley stands ideal…an easy 30 minutes from downtown Detroit; 45 minutes from Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Steps from famous Cranbrook Educational Community and Museums, The Kingsley boasts two fine restaurants, and every convenience.

Michiganders are terrific chefs. Bloomfield Hills enjoys countless dining and shopping opportunities for every taste and budget. A straight path up Woodward Avenue encounters lively communities of Birmingham, Royal Oak, and Ferndale; each with restaurants and nightspots galore. The celebrated clubs and theaters of Detroit proper are innumerable. The more adventurous may even find themselves in Windsor, Canada, a stone’s throw from the Woodward terminus.

For registered members, this year’s event anticipates V.I.P. tours of world class Detroit Institute of Arts, Cranbrook’s magnificent collections & architectural treasures, and beloved Pewabic Pottery’s working studios & museum..

Seminars and presentations will feature guests of national stature on a wide variety of pottery topics. All culminates in a first class pottery Show & Sale at The Kingsley (members preview Friday evening, general admission on Saturday). Comprising some of the nation’s finest dealers, experts will be on hand to conduct a complimentary appraisal clinic. Who knows what wonders may come to light?

No stone will be left unturned for the enjoyment, education, and comfort of attendees. The Detroit area is home to dozens and hundreds of historical sites, authentic points of interest, and things of beauty. Lists are being compiled even now. Detroit and Michigan are delighted to welcome you as new friends. Please don’t hesitate to join us.

Speakers

David Rago

Changes in the Art Pottery Market

David Rago, partner of Rago-Wright-Toomey-LAMA, will discuss changes in the Art Pottery market he has witnessed over the last 35 years. His thoughts on why a brown Weller portrait of George Washington which sold for over $3,000 30 years ago might only bring $500 today and conversely, why a George Ohr vase which only brought $500 30 years ago will sell for well over $3,000 now.

David has been an auctioneer for decades, and an appraiser for Antiques Roadshow for 25 years.

Margaret Carney

Flint Faience Tiles A to Z: the history and artistry of Flint Tiles.

Margaret Carney, co-author of “Flint Faience Tiles A to Z” is a ceramic historian who holds a Ph.D. in Asian art history. She is founding director of The International Museum of Dinnerware Design, established in Ann Arbor in 2012. She is a fellow of the American Ceramic Society and an elected member of the International Academy of Ceramics in Switzerland. She has curated over 50 exhibitions, authored 80 books, catalogues, and journal articles, and lectured worldwide with an emphasis on ceramic art history

Marilee Meyer

Marblehead Pottery 1905-1936: Simplicity and Roots of a Distinctive Style.

Marilee Boyd Meyer is an independent consultant, researcher, author and appraiser recognized for
her over 40 years of work in the Arts and Crafts Movement at the turn of the early 20th Century. Graduating in Art History and American Studies from Skidmore College, NY, she worked at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) and was founding director of the Arts and Crafts Department at Skinner Inc. Auctioneers, Bolton and Boston, Ma. for ten years. She has served as a consultant to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Art Gallery and Los Angeles County Museum of Art among other institutions. Her research lead her to guest-curate the exhibition “Inspiring Reform: Boston’s Arts and Crafts Movement” at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College and later Renwick Gallery, Washington D.C. in 1997 for which she won the Frost Award for Outstanding Scholarship from the Smithsonian Institution.

Kevin Adkisson of Cranbrook

The pottery collections and ceramic educational history at the Cranbook Art Academy

Curator Kevin Adkisson assists in the preservation, interpretation, and programming across the many buildings and treasures of Cranbrook. A native of north Georgia, Kevin has his BA in Architecture from Yale, where he worked in the Yale University Art Gallery’s American Decorative Arts Furniture Study, and an MA from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, with a thesis examining the role of postmodernism in shopping mall architecture. Previously, Kevin worked for Robert A.M. Stern Architects in New York as a research and writing associate and at Kent Bloomer Studio in New Haven, where he designed and fabricated architectural ornament. Kevin served as the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research’s Collections Fellow from August 2016—June 2019 and Associate Curator from July 2019—August 2021.

Paul Katrich

Imagination, Chemistry, and Commerce: The Art of Being a Potter

A studio potter of almost 30 years, Paul J. Katrich is a modern traditionalist specializing in “lost” techniques and rare glaze processes. A sincere collector and degreed art historian, his work is informed by respect and fascination for his ceramic forebears. Held in numerous notable private and public collections, Paul’s unique luster pottery is eagerly sought by connoisseurs. He will share stories and secrets of the many joys, journeys, and challenges of establishing an artistic enterprise. Paul presently serves as AAPA Secretary, a post which he has been honored to hold for several years.