Northland College

Northland College
  • Academics
  • Campus Life
  • Admissions
  • Athletics
  • Centers
  • Sustainability
Search
  • Directory
  • Campus Map
  • Calendar
  • Alumni
  • Giving
  • News
  • COVID-19
More...
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate
    • Faculty
    • Resources
    • Opportunities
      • Internships
      • Undergraduate Research
      • Study Abroad
      • Off-campus Learning
      • Student Jobs
    • Graduate Success
    • Course Catalog
    • Transcript Request
    • Commencement
  • Campus Life
    • Dining
    • Housing
    • Outdoor Orientation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
      • Indigenous Cultures Center
        • Native Student Offerings
        • Powwow & Awareness
        • Community Outreach
        • Native American Museum
    • Get Involved
    • Bicycles & Gear Rental
    • Fitness Center
    • Services
      • Counseling Services
      • Accommodations
      • Health Services
      • Safety & Security
  • Admissions
    • Visit Campus
    • Tuition
    • Financial Aid
      • Scholarships
      • Grants
      • Loans
      • FAFSA
      • Veterans
    • Enroll
    • Meet Your Admissions Counselor
    • College Fairs
  • Athletics
    • Athletic Website
    • Athletic Facilities
    • Varsity Club Membership
    • Buy Team Gear
    • Hall of Fame
    • Annual Golf Classic
    • Camps, Leagues, Tournaments
      • 3on3 Basketball Tournament
      • Basketball Camps & Leagues
      • Youth Soccer Camp
      • Softball Camp
      • Volleyball Camps & Leagues
    • Give to Athletics
  • Centers
    • Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation
      • Our Work
      • Student Research Opportunities
      • Lab Services
      • Burke Center in the News
      • Water Summit
    • Center for Rural Communities
      • Rural Livelihood Initiatives
        • Quality of Life Database
        • Northwoods Community Survey
        • Opinion Polls
        • Local Food Systems
      • Human-Environment Connection
      • Publications
      • Data Visualizations
      • Student Opportunities
    • Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute
      • LoonWatch
        • About Loons
        • Protect Loons
        • Get Involved
        • Loon Appreciation Week and Poster
      • Timber Wolf Alliance
        • Wolf Awareness Week and Poster
        • Learn About Wolves
        • TWA Speakers Bureau
        • Wolf Status Reports
        • Vision for Wolves
        • Great Lakes Wolf Symposium
      • Youth Outreach Programs
      • SONWA Book Awards
        • SONWA Seals
      • Sigurd Olson Legacy
      • Apostle Islands Stewardship Symposium
      • Intangible Magazine
      • Forest Lodge Educational Campus
        • Rental Information
    • Hulings Rice Food Center
      • Compost Center
      • Larson Food Lab
      • Campus Gardens
      • Student Opportunities
  • Sustainability
  • Alumni
    • Alumni Board
      • Alumni Awards
    • Get Involved
      • Ask Our Alumni Panels
    • Pride Pack, Apparel, and Merchandise
    • Class Notes
    • Transcript Request
    • Update Your Information
    • Events
    • Give
    • Oral History Project
  • Giving
    • Christopher T. Morgan Scholarship
    • Meet Our Team
  • About Northland
    • President Chadwick L. Dayton
    • Northland College Magazine
    • Campus Sculpture Tour
    • Advocacy & Public Discourse
    • Consumer Information

The Start of Art at Northland

An American Crafts Movement

By David Saetre, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Religion
November 10, 2021

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Eckels ceramic bowlUseful knowledge while stimulating the mind is a deep legacy of ceramic arts at Northland College.

Northland’s ceramics legacy began in the red clay of the campus with the industry of students and faculty. In the throes of the Great Depression, Northland began the Craft Shop program to provide income for students struggling to pay their expenses.

The Craft Shop, built on craft movements in New England and Scandinavia, was designed to produce useful artistic products from native materials and market them throughout the region. The venture included a broom shop, copper shop, print shop and bindery, and a ceramics shop and studio. Founder and director Nathaniel Dexter experimented with red clay drawn from the campus ravine. Pottery from that period reveals the rustic beauty of the materials on campus.

In 1955, the College hired Robert Eckels to revitalize the ceramics and craft programs and to establish an art department. Eckels’ new department included the traditional disciplines of drawing and painting, and his work in the Craft Shop revived the Dexter model of ceramics.

The program was unique in higher education, combining academic studies with a production studio. Eckels would write, “people didn’t know what art pots were then. You couldn’t get a degree in ceramics anywhere in the United States.” Eckels shaped the new program around three central ideas: that crafts should include artistry, that art should have utility, and that artists should be able to make a living as artists.

While teaching at Northland, Eckels opened an independent pottery studio with his friend Glenn Nelson. The Pot Shop opened in 1960 on the Fish Creek isthmus west of Ashland. Eckels was at the leading edge of a national revival of craft arts and independent pottery studios.

Eckels recalled, “there were only two pottery shops in Wisconsin—Abe Cohen had one in Milwaukee, and there was ours.” Eckels continued summers at the Pot Shop where college students could apprentice with their professor, refine techniques, and perfect their craft. That program became an integral part of a ceramic arts legacy that laid the foundation for the region’s art scene.

Eckels also contributed to Ceramics: A Potter’s Handbook, the standard textbook for ceramics instruction. Apprentices came to the Chequamegon Bay from all over the United States and Europe to study with Bob.

Northland student hands creating a bowl in ceramics.Karlyn (Welton) Holman ’62 was the first of more than eighty interns to learn the art and business of professional, production ceramic arts. Studying art at Northland, Karlyn would eventually best be known as a watercolor artist, teacher, and owner of Karlyn’s Gallery in Washburn, Wisconsin. But her early work came from the potter’s wheel. Karlyn recalled with her characteristic laugh, “someone once told me I was too happy to become a painter, so I threw pots!” Learning the business and industry of the arts, as well as creative craft, laid the groundwork for Karlyn’s own gallery and apprentice program.

Holman succeeded Eckels as an art professor at Northland, expanding the influence of the College on the arts and crafts scene in northern Wisconsin. The artists and apprentices attracted to the College and the region included potters who would teach at Northland. Stan Samuels’ tenure at the College saw the introduction of raku firing. Next, Viken Peltekian’s emphasized creative, sculptural clay form, as well as functional craft pottery.

Ceramic arts and the potter’s wheel are now in the hands of Assistant Professor Lauren Duffy, who arrived in 2015.

“Before I came to Northland, I knew the name Bob Eckels from contemporary ceramics history. Coming to Northland and knowing that Bob started the ceramics program—it felt super cool to be connected to the legacy of people I had read about in books,” she said.

Duffy also sees new directions for ceramic arts in the region. “I’m trying to balance both new and old technology, and both functional and conceptual work,” Duffy notes. “I believe learning what functionality is and how to achieve a utilitarian object goes hand-in- and with developing conceptual work. I feel the work in this area is very place-based, and I think this will continue as this area seems to connect with people, so they want to take the inspiration with them.”

Northland ceramics continues a cultural legacy in clay and in the work of students who learned how to center clay on a wheel here. The utility of a well-formed bowl, the beauty of form and color in a glazed pot, and the stimulating artistry of clay sculpture are the products of clay arts. It’s a legacy as ancient and contemporary as the red clay soil of Northland College.

  • The northern lights over a frozen Chequamegon Bay

    Northland College to Help Finlandia University Students Continue Their Education with the Sisu Promise

    Northland College is launching the Sisu Promise to support Finlandia University students in response to the closure of Finlandia University at the end of the…

    Northland College to Help Finlandia University Students Continue Their Education with the Sisu Promise
  • Mary Van Evera Visual Arts Center

    Northland College Receives Grant to Build New Ceramics Kiln

    Northland College is building a new kiln thanks in part to a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board. The public is encouraged to learn more…

    Northland College Receives Grant to Build New Ceramics Kiln
  • Northland College student Michael Lant

    All You Have to Do Is Ask

    At a small school, connections are easily made, and countless doors can be opened by asking a few questions. For natural resources major Michael Lant…

    All You Have to Do Is Ask
  • Northland College graduate Karlyn Holman poses in front of Karlyn's Gallery.

    Karlyn’s Gallery Turns 50

    Karlyn Holman ‘62 opened Karlyn’s Gallery in 1968 in Washburn as a place for potters to hone their trade and sell their wares. In the…

    Karlyn’s Gallery Turns 50
  • Visit
  • Info
  • Apply

News

  • From the Archives: A Guide and Outfitter for the Northwoods

    In the entryway to the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute building on the…

  • One Text Changed My Life

    If you had asked me at any point before my senior year…

  • From the Archives: Giving a Voice to Intangibles

    The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute archives include a small, saddle-stitched pamphlet titled…

  • From the Archives: Forest Lodge on Lake Namekagon

    In the summer of 1994, a number of individuals with homes or…

  • From the Archives: The Chequamegon Bay Area Partnership

    Chequamegon Bay and the wetlands and waterways associated with it are one…

  • For the Love of Learning

    In the spring of 1965, I graduated from high school and looked…

  • From the Archives: The Sigurd Olson Legacy Project

    In the fall of 1937, Sigurd Olson converted a one-car garage located…

  • From the Archives: Promoting Nature-focused Literature for Children

    In a 2003 press release, the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute announced that…

  • From the Archives: Lake Superior Programs at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute

    It’s just a short walk from the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute through…

  • The Company You Keep

    We usually think of a highway as straight. But the reality is…

News Archive »

1411 Ellis Avenue
Ashland, WI 54806
(715) 682-1699 | Map
  • About Northland
  • Constitution Day at Northland
  • Consumer Information
  • Privacy Policy
  • Take a Class
  • Employment
  • Campus Store

my.northland.edu

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 Northland College. All rights reserved.

https://www.northland.edu/news/the-start-of-art-at-northland

Our website uses cookies for necessary functions and to enhance your browsing experience. Learn more in our Privacy Policy.

Accept & Continue