On August 29, 2020 (1pm), join the Craft in America Center for a talk by art historian Chiaki Ajioka on Bernard Leach’s global perspective on pottery and the international transmission of Mingei. Bernard Leach espoused an aesthetic in the beauty of humble objects that has inspired so many people over the last one hundred years.

Ajioka’s research has indicated that Leach acquired his fundamental ideas at the very beginning of his career in 1912 in Japan. In this talk, she will discuss how these ideas were shared and developed among a group of like-minded individuals in the US, Britain and Japan – the ‘Mingei network’ – over the following three decades. These are the core messages that Leach wanted to communicate in his first trip to the US in 1950, and his return trip with Hamada Shōji and Yanagi Sōetsu in 1952/53.

The talk will be streamed live via Zoom and Facebook on August 29, 2020, at 1:00pm. Check the website for info about the Zoom event. For additional info email rsvp@craftinamerica.org; https://www.craftinamerica.org/