Despite Namer’s contribution to Canadian ceramics culture, she is largely absent from national craft history. She appears in Gail Crawford’s 2005 book, Studio Ceramics in Canada, and in Serge Fisette’s 1974 Potiers Québécois (Les Arts du Québec). But otherwise, she has almost no presence in publications or on the Internet.
Musée Rosalie Namer seeks to remedy Namer’s invisibility in the public record through a programme of activity in which artistic practice and art historiography intertwine, unfolding through three overlapping streams of activity: (1) the creation of a series of still life compositions involving food, flowers, and Namer’s pottery from public and private collections; (2) the creation of participatory actions that activate Namer’s pottery; and (3) the creation of an expansive web platform that at once narrates Namer’s life, oeuvre, and contribution to Canadian ceramics culture while documenting our artistic actions with her pottery.
This project is generously funded through a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.