Avant-garde clay and ceramics pieces have long since found their home at the Scripps College Ceramics Annual Exhibit. It has become famous as the longest-running continuous ceramics exhibit in the US, ever since the show’s early days in 1945, during World War II. The show runs annually, from Jan. 25 to April 6 at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery. With live music and refreshments to accompany the browsing of the ceramics pieces, the events are all free and open to the public.

The exhibit usually has a certain theme to tie in all of the pieces that it displays. However, for this year’s 70th anniversary, Scripps is breaking that tradition and instead featuring works of art from its previous curators and pieces from individual donors that have contributed to the show in the past.

“The pieces being displayed range from traditional vessels to more avant-garde, sculptural pieces. They are all excellent examples for young artists,” director of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery Mary MacNaughton said.

There are two different types of curators: the Scripps Professors of Ceramics who are involved with the show, and the artists that were presented as guest curators. The ceramics professors chosen to be a part of the Annual’s 70th anniversary are William Manker, Richard Petterson, Paul Soldner, and Nobuho Nagasawa. Their own artwork will be displayed for the show in recognition of their contribution to past shows and exhibits. Peter Held, a guest and ceramics curator for the Ceramics Research Center in Arizona, will be giving a lecture on the history of the Ceramics Annual before the show begins. Held’s lecture at the Gallery will be the beginning of the official opening reception of the show. As for the artists outside Scripps, the lineup is rather impressive. Ever since 1996, selections for guest curators have spread nationwide, including guests from New York, Colorado and Texas. Since then, many have become educators by creating or leading major ceramics programs at different colleges, and they, along with the pieces that will be displayed at the show, are very well known throughout the art world.

“The Ceramics Annual is unique, as it is the longest-running show in the United States, but the vessels displayed also always gives pictures of what is currently going on in the artistic field,” MacNaughton said.

The Scripps Ceramics Annual has showcased work from renowned artists for the past seventy years, and this year’s show will continue the legacy.