08/26/2025
Two ceramic artists will open the 2025-26 exhibition year at SUNY Cortland’s Dowd Fine Arts Gallery, encouraging viewers to see their artworks produced in fired clay less as still objects and more as expressions of the motion etched into their creation, finished surface and ultimate use.
“Creating Movement and Flow: A Conversation of Form and Utility” is highlighted by a workshop series focusing on the process and experience of artists Errol Willett and Edward Feldman ’95.
Willett is a ceramicist, collector and associate professor at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. Feldman is a Cortland regional working artist who earned a bachelor’s degree in SUNY Cortland’s Art and Art History Department and a master’s degree from Syracuse University.
The exhibition opens on Monday, Sept. 1, at the gallery, located in the Dowd Fine Arts Center on the corner of Prospect Terrace and Graham Avenue in Cortland. It will remain on view through Friday, Nov. 14.
An opening reception for “Creating Movement and Flow,” attended by the artists, will be held in the gallery at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 3. Refreshments will be served.
The exhibition is free and open to the public, as are the opening reception and all exhibition-related events.
“Creating Movement and Flow” events center around each artist’s pair of workshops. They will include:
- A two-part workshop series titled “Parts is Parts, the Wheel Is Just the Beginning” starts at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11, in the Dowd Gallery, East Gallery Makerspace. Workshop participants are invited to converse with Feldman and join a hands-on experience..
- Feldman will present Part II of his series at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18.
- In October, participants can dive into the intricate simplicities of hand-building with clay from inspiration to execution with Willett at times and dates and locations to be announced for his two-part series, “Creating Motion and Flow.”
Willett, a 2002 recipient of the Meredith Award for excellence in teaching at Syracuse University, received his M.F.A. from Pennsylvania State University and his B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He chaired Syracuse University’s Art Department from 2009 to 2012 and coordinated its Ceramics Program from 2006 to 2009.
Willett’s pieces have been exhibited at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse; the Chicago Cultural Center; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Clay Studio in Philadelphia; the Baltimore Clayworks Gallery; the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada; and the Incheon World Ceramic Center in Korea.
His artist residencies include the Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado; Watershed Center in Maine; Peters Valley Craft Center, Layton, New Jersey; Banff Center for the Arts, British Columbia, Canada, and the Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, Montana.
While developing his portfolio for graduate school, Feldman was one of four one-year artist-in-residence interns at the prestigious Cub Creek Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Appomattox, Virginia.
Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday with hours extended on Thursday until 7 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome.
Visit the Dowd Gallery website or follow @dowdgallery on Instagram for detailed information about yet-to-be-scheduled artists, speakers and events.
For more information or to schedule a visit, contact Scott Oldfield ’06 at 607-753-4216.
“Creating Movement and Flow” is supported by the Art and Art History Department.