USC Lancaster Hosts Catawba Pottery Show and Sale August 27th

USC Lancaster Hosts Catawba Pottery Show and Sale August 27th

Visitors will have the opportunity Saturday August 27th to view and purchase examples of one of South Carolina’s oldest art forms as potters from the Catawba Indian Nation show and sell their creations on the USC Lancaster campus. Hosted by the USCL Native American Studies Program, this event will fature works by established and emerging potters from the Catawba Nation in Rock Hill, SC. Pieces ranging from small, inexpensive collectibles to large ceramic vessels and effigies, all handmade by Catawba artists, will be available for purchase. Arts and crafts by Native American artists from other South Carolina tribal groups will also be available.

Catawba Indian pottery, while less familiar than its Southwestern counterparts and many other traditional American Indian art forms, is recognized by scholars as, possibly, the oldest continuous ceramics tradition east of the Mississippi. Early European explorers in the Carolinas encountered Native Catawba, or Iswa, making pottery from clay gathered from the river which today bears their people’s name, as their ancestors had done for generations, and as their descendents continue to do today. Collectors recognize this pottery as a unique and significant art form that balances tradition and artistic innovation.

This artistry will be on display at the USC Lancaster event, which starts at 10:00 am and runs until 3:00 pm in the Carole Ray Dowling Center on the USCL campus. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Brittany Taylor, Curator of Collections, at 803-313-7036 or by email at taylorbd@mailbox.sc.edu,; or Stephen Criswell, Director of Native American Studies, at 803-313-7108.