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Our Mission
We are a group of independent potters living in and around the Madison, Wisconsin area, who co-operatively own
and maintain a studio for the glazing and firing of stoneware and porcelain. We represent a wide variety of perspectives and
approaches, including those whose ware is primarily functional and those whose forms are purely sculptural. Our studio also
serves as a center for sharing information. Each year the Potter's Guild participates co-operatively in a limited number of
fairs and shows.
Our History
The Madison Potters Guild was formed in the mid 1960s by a group of pottery students at Madison
Area Technical College (MATC) who felt a need for their own facility and who wanted to have a gas fired kiln. The original
8 members each put up $150 to provide some working capital. With the advice and kiln design of Tom Malone, who was a teacher
at MATC, and space rented from the Madison Art Center (in the old Lincoln School on Gorham St.), a kiln was built and the
members began learning to fire it. A dues and firing fee schedule was set up based on costs incurred.
In the Art Center
the members had space for their own wheels as well as glazes. When the Management decided that they really couldn't have people
going in and out of the building at odd hours (the middle of the night during firing) for security reasons, they asked the
Guild to find other quarters. In the early 1970s the Potters Guild moved to its present site in Middleton. The guild had grown
to about 25 members with 2 gas kilns firing alternately. In the beginning there was adequate room for a workspace for several
members, although the facility was primarily a glazing and firing site.
Currently the Madison Potters Guild has 6
active members and the facility is only large enough for glazing and firing, with 2 fairly good sized gas reduction kilns.
The Guild participates in 2 joint shows a year at the Hilldale Shopping Mall, and has a group space at the Madison Art Fair
on the Square. Individual members display and sell at Art Fairs throughout the country.
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