Pottery festival hits Townsend center

By Iva Butler
of The Daily Times Staff

What is thought to be the first Pottery Festival in Tennessee is planned this summer at Townsend Visitors Center.

The Smoky Mountain Pottery Festival, a juried show, will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 7, on the grounds of Townsend Visitors Center, 7906 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway in Townsend.

Hugh Bailey, who has been a potter for 50 years, will be the featured potter at the festival. The Knoxville resident makes unique animals and fanciful creatures that usually sell out quickly.

Born in 1934 in Bristol, Va., Bailey obtained a B.A. from Berea College in Art and a Master's of Fine Art from Indiana University.

He is a member of the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild, the Foothills Craft Build and the Knoxville Watercolor Society.

Bailey has worked for 41 years as a graphic designer for the University of Tennessee publications department.

Potters that expect to be part of the festival and do demonstrations know of no other pottery festival in Tennessee, said Jeanie Hilten, special events coordinator for Smoky Mountain Convention and Visitors Bureau (SMCVB). Such events have been held in Western North Carolina and other states in the Southeast.

"This is a mecca for this type of pottery. We want to feature potters from the Smoky Mountain region," she said.

"This event fits right in with our mission to feature fine crafts and art from the Smokies and traditions from the past. We will be looking at the past but focused on the future. This should get young people interested in becoming potters," Hilten said.

There will be demonstrations of wheel-throwing, hand-building and other pottery techniques.

Joe Frank McKee of Dillsboro, N.C., who has been involved in the Dillsboro Pottery Festival, will be demonstrating the raku method of firing pots.

Typically, pieces removed from a hot kiln are placed in masses of combustible material, such as straw, sawdust or newspapers, to provide a reducing atmosphere for the blaze and to stain the exposed body surface with carbon.

Hilten said there will be a children's tent in front of the visitors center, where children or adults can get hands-on training with clay.

Other local artists will include Marge Murphy of Stringtown Pottery in Townsend, retired Maryville High School art teacher Carol Ware and Marion Schlauch, a member of both the Southern Highlands Handicraft Craft Guild and Foothills Craft Guild.

There are expected to be 25 tents where potters can sell their products, many of which will feature different styles of pottery making, Hilten said.

Admission to the event will be free, and there will be food concession booths on the property.

Hopes are that the festival will become an annual event.

"This would give us a festival for each season," Hilten said.

The Townsend in the Smokies Spring Festival and Old Timers Day will be held April 25 through May 3, the new Smoky Mountain Pottery Festival will be June 7, the Townsend Fall Heritage Festival and Old Timers Day will be Sept. 26-27 and the Winter Heritage Festival will be Feb. 5-8, 2009.

A $1,000 grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission's "Arts Build Communities" program is helping finance the pottery festival. The project is being funded under an agreement with the State of Tennessee, the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional contributors include Dancing Bear Lodge, Richmont Inn, Highwater Clays, Blount County Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Vulcan Materials, Hickory Construction, Harper Acura, The Daily Times, Highland Manor Motel, Headrick's River Breeze and Main Stay Suites.