Collecting With A Passion (July 3 – August 21, 2021)

Love for North Carolina pottery is infectious, but in a good way. It often starts with the purchase of just a single piece. But like that popular brand of potato chips, it’s hard to stop with just one. There is just something special about North Carolina pottery and the stories behind the people that make it. For some of us, collecting NC pottery (whether it be old or new) and learning those stories becomes a bit of an obsession – a passion, even.

Collecting With A Passion features seven wonderful pieces from the collection of the late Edna “Bunny” Andrews Schroeer that are now part of the center’s permanent collection, forty-six great pieces on loan from the estate of the late Earl Paul Senger, and one special piece from the collection of an anonymous collector.

Bunny and Earl were both thoroughly passionate about collecting NC pottery, especially older 20th-century art pottery, but some more contemporary pieces as well, and their passion is evident in their collections. In Collecting With A Passion there are pieces by Jugtown Pottery (Charlie Teague, Ben Owen I, Julianna Busbee, Vernon Owens, Pam Owens, Charles Moore), J.B. Cole Pottery (Waymon Cole, Jason Cole, Wrenn Cole), Jonah Owens, J.H. Owens, Royal Crown Pottery, C.R. Auman Pottery (Floyd Hilton, Charles Masten, Wrenn Cole), F&W Hilton (Floyd Hilton), C.C. Cole Pottery, Joe Owen, Billy Ray Hussey, and Alex Matisse.

Be forewarned, if you are not already a collector, this exhibit just might make you want to start collecting too…