Clay Leonard back on campus as Alumni Professor for a Day posted 9/24/09
Part of AC’s Homecoming festivities on Friday, Sept. 25

ADRIAN, Mich. - Adrian College's Art and Design Department welcomes Clay Leonard back as Alumni Professor for a Day on Friday, September 25, as part of the College's Homecoming activities. Leonard, a specialist in ceramics, will speak about his work from noon to 1:00 p.m. in Mahan Center for the Arts and Interior Design, room 12 B, and offer a workshop from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in room 202 of the same building.

His exhibition Return to the Table will be on view in Shipman Library's Heritage Room through October 14. The library's hours are Monday through Thursday 8 a.m. - 11 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and Sunday noon - 11 p.m.

Leonard graduated from AC with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in April 2006. He was employed as a teaching assistant in the Art and Design Department for the 2006-07 school year, after which he began his Master of Fine Arts program in ceramics at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), where he was awarded graduate assistantships. He completed this degree last May.

Leonard's work has been exhibitied in Chicago, Flagstaff, Philadelphia, Madison, Houston, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Colorado, California, and more. His works have been published in a new release of “Ceramics Today” and in national magazines “Ceramics Monthly, Clay Times, and the NCECA Journal” (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts). He is teaching part-time at BGSU and Owen Community College (Toledo).

According to Leonard, his work consists of "utilitarian vessel forms composed of multiple compartments . . . intended for use in a domestic setting, and to enrich the interaction amongst individuals and between the individual and the food being displayed." The importance of gathering together to perform the ritual of a family or communal meal is at the heart of it.