Aberystwyth University Ceramics Collection

The Aberystwyth University Ceramics Collection & Archive stands in Aberystwyth, Wales. It holds one of Britain’s major collections of studio ceramics, with a strong focus on pieces made between 1920 and 1940. The collection includes fine nineteenth-century slipware and examples from many periods, such as Welsh porcelain from Nantgarw and Swansea. A purpose-built gallery on the ground floor of Aberystwyth Arts Centre displays the principal parts of the collection permanently. The front gallery hosts changing exhibitions drawn from the permanent collection and touring shows. The university also produces the Ceramic Bulletin every two years, covering exhibitions, new acquisitions, research, awards and grants. The collection began forming between 1920 and 1936 and saw renewed activity from 1974 onwards. It has grown to include a major body of contemporary ceramics alongside archaeological specimens. Support has come from bodies like Arts Council of Wales, the Council of Museums in Wales, and loans from the Crafts Council. A regular schools and family learning programme runs in partnership with Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Funding from the Victoria and Albert Purchase Grant Fund and the Art Fund has also helped expand the holdings. The Ceramic Archive, developed in the late 1980s, houses the Craft Potters Association archive initiated in the early 1970s by Robert Fournier. It preserves documents on the origins, organisation and development of the Craft Potters Association, founded in 1958. Main paper documents were moved to the National Library of Wales in 1997, but maker-related information remains in Aberystwyth. The archive includes back catalogues, auction catalogues, reference books, journals, exhibition catalogues and audio-visual material. It also holds commissioned articles, festival records and educational documents.