2020 International Prize Jurors

We are delighted to have some of the worlds’ most renowned and celebrated ceramicists judging this years’ prize entries.

Caroline Cheng – International Ceramic Artist and Director of the Pottery Workshop

Caroline Cheng is an artist and curator, and the director of the Pottery Workshop. She has exhibited her works all over the world and has pieces in the collections of the British Museum, London, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco and Museum of Fine Art, Boston. Cheng has held solo exhibitions in Sotheby’s Hong Kong (2013) and New York (2015) and has received prizes from the Keramik Museum in Westerwald, Germany (2010) and the Clay and Glass Film Festival in Montpellier, France (2010). In 2014 Cheng received the “Outstanding Achievement Award” from the America National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). Cheng has devoted her life to helping young aspiring craft artists in China setting up a platform for them to work and sell their work, and also is a major promoter of ceramics in China and overseas.

Céline Holman – Curator, Eden Project Ltd

Celine Holman has worked as part of the Eden Project’s interpretation team for over ten years, working on the curation and commissioning of artists and exhibitions as well as permanent and temporary exhibits. In 2017/18, Céline led the artistic direction of Invisible Worlds, a major capital redevelopment project which included the commissioning of a large scale sculpture by Studio Swine, interactive exhibits, play areas and a new gallery space.

Céline is particularly interested in interdisciplinary and socially engaged work.

Ashley Shopland – General Manager Imerys UK, St Austell, Cornwall

Ashley is the Cornish born and bred General Manager of Imerys’ local china clay business, based in St Austell.  The origins of china clay in Cornwall date back almost 275 years to its discovery on Tregonning Hill near Helston.  That search was stimulated by the use of china clay in Ceramic products, something that continues strongly to the modern day.  Imerys supplies over 350,000t per year of Cornish china clay into the global Ceramic market, for sanitaryware, tableware and tiles in the main. Ashley’s keen interest arises from this and how artists can further interpret the world of Ceramics for this prize.

Neil Brownsword – International Ceramic Artist Educator. Winner of the Whitegold Quartz Award, 2019

Neil Brownsword is an artist, researcher and educator who holds Professorial positions in ceramics at Staffordshire University and University of Bergen. Brownsword’s artistic research examines the manufacturing histories of North Staffordshire’s ceramic industry, and the effects globalisation has had upon people, place and traditional skills in recent decades. His reactivation of associated post-industrial spaces and endangered industrial crafts has achieved impact internationally via cross-cultural exchange, and curated trans-disciplinary collaborative projects.

Katie Bunnell – Co-Curator Whitegold Project

Designer, maker and researcher, Katie is a creative practitioner who combines digital and physical processes in the production of ceramic art and design. Katie completed an MA in Ceramics & Glass at the Royal College of Art, London in 1993, where she was a Darwin Scholar, and she was awarded a doctorate in 1998 for her practice based research thesis, The Integration of New Technologies in to Ceramic Designer-Maker Practice. Until 2015 she was Associate Professor of Design at Falmouth University where she created Autonomatic, an award winning design research collective exploring the relationships between craft making and digital technologies. Katie now works from her own studio at Grays Wharf in Penryn, Cornwall. katiebunnell.co.uk

Ben Quinn – Canteen Cornwall

Ben Quinn, founder of Canteen Cornwall and Woodfired Canteen, has joined our wonderful team of jurors for the 2020 International Prize.

Canteen Cornwall and Woodfired Canteen are purpose led hospitality businesses that travel the world laying long tables in amazing locations where they are needed not just wanted. Their home in St Agnes Cornwall, offers good value food made with good values, year round. It is the home to group of like minded individuals that use their businesses to do more than just make money. Ben and his team cook on fire and produce food from maternal influences around the mediterranean and closer to home.

canteencornwall.com

Jurors will be invited to attend the Whitegold 2020 Festival and experience the projects in action in order to make the final decision about prize winners.