Nov 15, 2014 — Jan 4, 2015
A native of Florence, South Carolina, artist Alice Ballard (born 1945) received her master's degree in painting from the University of Michigan in 1969. She then moved to Charleston, where she served as the first curator of education at the Gibbes Art Gallery. It was while she was in Charleston that she discovered her passion for working in clay.
Ballard received a Fulbright Grant to study in India, and she was one of eight ceramic artists invited to the International Ceramic Colony in Resen, Macedonia. The artist regularly teaches workshops at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and at the Arrowmont School of Crafts in Tennessee.
Presently an art teacher at Christ Church Episcopal School, Ballard is recognized throughout the region for her hand-built work inspired by such found natural objects as seed pods, petals, leaves, and bulbs. Her work is included in the collections of the Renwick Gallery, the home of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's craft and decorative art program, and the Greenville County Museum of Art, among others.
The artist will present a gallery talk in her exhibition on Sunday, November 16. As part of the GCMA's Sundays at 2 program, this event is free and is sponsored by Duke Energy.