FiredUp4 celebrates the work of the UK’s leading ceramic and visual artists in an innovative fundraising campaign to provide pottery studios to the youth charity OnSide Youth Zones. Instigated and led by leading ceramicist and OnSide Ceramic Ambassador, Kate Malone MBE, this exhibition and auction brings together 33 uniquely crafted pieces. The campaign launches October 1st during London Craft Week and culminates with an online auction hosted by Maak.
Kate Malone MBE encouraged participants to use three kilos of clay and invited the following leading artists to participate: Alison Britton, Akiko Hirai, Andrew Wicks, Anna Silverton, Anna Barlow, Annie Turner, Barnaby Barford, Bouke de Vries, Kate Malone, Carol Mcnicoll, Chris Keenan, Clive Bowen, Dylan Bowen, Enrique Perezalba Red, Edmund De Waal, Felicity Aylieff, Fernando Casasempere, Hitomi Hosono, John Maltby, Roger Law, Jennifer Lee, Julian Stair, Kate Daudy, Lisa Hammond, Magdalene Odundo, Malene Hartmann Rasmussen, Natasha Daintry, Nicola Hicks, Sara Flynn, Tommaso Corvi-Mora, Walter Keeler.
In total, 33 pieces are available to view and bid from October 1st. Online auction closes November 19, 2020.
Akiko Hirai 
Alison Britton 
Edmund de Waal 
Jenifer Lee 
John Ward 
Julian Stair 
Kate Malone 
Lisa Hammond 
Sara Flynn
FiredUp4 has been born out of a passionate belief in the transformative power of creativity and in particular the process of making with your hands – clay work provides invaluable therapeutic benefits to children. The charity OnSide has established a growing network of Youth Zones – supportive places that give over 50,000 young members somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to in their communities every day of the week. Initially all proceeds of FiredUp4 will go towards equipping pottery studios and the training and supplying of staff for one year, in two Youth Zones in the North West. The ultimate ambition of this project is to provide access to high-quality applied arts facilities through the installation of fully equipped pottery studios in Youth Zones across the country.
The studio potters and ceramic artists have creatively interpreted the brief to produce a dynamic and comprehensive selection of contemporary ceramics. Edmund de Waal has donated a contemporary vessel form in front of a gilded plate, while Barnaby Barford contributes a series of miniature buildings from his series of work The Tower of Babel, displayed at the V&A in 2015. Felicity Aylieff’s unique ceramic piece is one of her renowned early works and, leading the project, Kate Malone’s first ever porcelain pineapple piece symbolises friendship, hospitality and warmth.
As a teenager I attended a huge progressive comprehensive school in Bristol, the school had a brilliant art department – with a pottery studio and an enigmatic pottery teacher. That was the start of my career, the falling in love with clay. The mission of ‘Fired Up 4’ is to provide that opportunity to the young Onside members, many of whom are vulnerable and marginalised and would not otherwise have this opportunity.
Materials, tools, potters wheels and kilns will be installed. Expert staff training and back up will be provided by the community ceramic centre Make North. Young people visiting the Youth Zone Centres will be given the choice to work with clay. The objective is that some will be ‘Fired Up 4’ the joys of making with clay. Pleasure and excitement and wonder are included in this experience where hands, mind, earth, air, fire, water combine to convert clay to ceramic.
Kate Malone, MBE
Clay is such a wonderful material which promotes the handler (of any age or experience-level) to engage intuition, multiple senses and to kick into problem-solving it a really positive way.
To offer the opportunity to young people to engage with the material and be encouraged to ‘play’ cannot (in my opinion) fail to have a positive impact, regardless of whether it is an area they wish to pursue as a career. It is more holistic than that; it opens the brain to other approaches and can offer an enormous sense of achievement and satisfaction. All of these feelings build confidence and self-belief.
Sara Fylnn, ceramic artist
Together with Neale Graham and Keith Seeley, the FiredUp4 project has been spearheaded by Kate Malone to add to OnSide Youth Zones’ provision of state of art facilities for young people from disadvantaged communities.
FiredUp4 has been established by The WOOM Foundation in partnership with Kate Malone, Make North & Inspire Youth Zone.
