On Friday night, July 15, during the Silver City Clay Festival, Aldea Gallery will have an opening event celebrating the work and career of well-known Grant County ceramicist, Kate Brown, whose work has been shown at Aldea since the downtown gallery opened in early 2020.
Kate moved in a bus with her young family, which included her two-year-old daughter Ursa, to the communally-owned Mimbres Hot Springs Ranch in late 1980. The family joined communal life at the Ranch, which had been founded by six potters. Kate’s daughter Rosaruby was born not much later. Kate had been making pottery since she was nineteen, and while she had also been a firefighter, cocktail waitress and an artists’ model, after her move to New Mexico, she was determined to support herself as a “rural potter.” She wanted people to enjoy her pottery not only because it was beautiful but also functional, and she wanted them use her pieces on an everyday basis.
It was not until the late 80s that Silver City began to develop into an artistic destination, and not until 1997 that Kate stopped traveling to show and sell her work.
She started making multiple copies of her very creative designs, and to rely on sales to people who came to her studio, or to galleries showing her work. Many people in the area have large sets of Kate’s pottery that include bowls, platters, casserole dishes, pie pans, even pitchers and vases.
In 2000, Kate discovered a very different form of art she loves just as much as ceramics when she shifted her creative vision to animation. After a course at Washington’s Evergreen College called “Making Time,” she fell in love with creating movement. Kate’s most recent animated project, completed in 2021, is titled “Santa Rita House.” The short film is about the small mining town of Santa Rita in the Grant County Mining District that no longer exists.
The opening focusing on Kate’s work on Friday night will be from 5 to 7 p.m. at Aldea Gallery at 217 N. Bullard. Fine and folk art, ceramics, furniture and jewelry by gallery owners Brent and Donna Flenniken, and work by M. Fred Barraza, Susan Porter, James Stuart Kane, Cynthia Carlson, Nan Chalat-Noaker, Christine Baker, and Roy Butler will also be displayed. As a very special treat, “Santa Rita House” will be shown at 5:15 p.m., 5:45 p.m., and 6:15 p.m.
Light refreshments will be served.