(Fee Halsted)
Fee Halsted, the founder of Ardmore Ceramic Art in Caversham
in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, will be giving a talk to the Midlands Forum at
the Howick High School hall on Tuesday, May 3.
The arts collective was founded by Halsted in 1985 on the
farm ‘Ardmore’ in the Drakensberg where she began mentoring her housekeeper’s
daughter, Bonnie Ntshalintshali, whose polio meant that she was unable to work
on the nearby farms.
In 1990, Halsted and Ntshalintshali won the Standard Bank Young
Artists Award. With this success came the demands of creating ceramics for
their exhibition, so Halsted offered other local women the opportunity to train
at Ardmore, producing pieces to generate income for the fledgling studio.
In 1996, Halsted and her family moved to Springvale Farm in
Rosetta, allowing the artists at the Berg studio in the Champagne Valley to
explore their independence.
At Springvale she established a smaller studio and gallery,
and in 2003, the Bonnie Ntshalintshali Museum to honour her co-artist and
friend after her tragic death from HIV/Aids in 1999.
A few years later, Halsted and her family moved to the
Caversham Valley, relocating the studio and museum and building a spacious
gallery and offices. This created a unique home for Ardmore and in 2009 she
amalgamated the Berg and Rosetta studios there.
Ardmore Ceramic Art employs over 70 artists, who have little
formal training but are given the opportunity to grow their natural talent.
Some of these artists sculpt pieces and then painters embellish the ceramic
form. They are supported by a skilled marketing and administrative team, many
of whom have grown with the business.
Over the years, Ardmore's artists have won numerous awards
and exhibited widely in South Africa and around the world. Ardmore artworks
feature in leading galleries and collections, including the Museum of Art &
Design in New York, the Museum of Cultures in Basel, Switzerland, and the
Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Since 2010 Ardmore's distinctive imagery and styling has
been turned into functional, superb quality ceramic and non-ceramic products
including dinnerware, tapestries, furniture, fabrics for soft furnishings, and
scarves thanks to a recent collaboration with French fashion design house,
Hermès.
Fee Halsted’s talk will take place at the Howick High School
hall at 09h30 for 10h00 on May 3. Tickets can be bought at the door. Safe
parking is available.
For more information on Ardmore Ceramics visit www.ardmoreceramics.co.za
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