Program Description
Event Details
Maryland ceramic artist Natalia Kormeluk discusses her artistic journey and her experience living history at the National Museum of Ukrainian Pottery in Opishne, Ukraine.
How do people live and create art when nightly sirens wake residents in both cities and the countryside, forcing them to take shelter from flying drones, bombs, and missiles?
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the National Museum of Ukrainian Pottery closed temporarily. Through determination and grit, the museum, located in Ukraine's Poltava Oblast, reopened its doors to the public in 2023 and renewed its ceramics programs in a "business as usual" approach.
In the summer of 2024, at the museum's invitation, Natalia traveled to Opishne to teach pottery to a select group of participants at the Museum's Summer Academy Pottery Workshop for enthusiastic and charismatic artists. Natalia will share her experiences at the museum under wartime conditions, highlighting its commitment to continue and expand the cultural tradition of Ukrainian pottery. The museum grounds are home to the world's largest Open Air Modern Clay Sculpture collection.
There will be time for a Q&A at throughout and at the end of the presentation.
About Natalia Kormeluck
Natalia Kormeluk is an experienced potter and art teacher. She is currently an instructor for the Graduate Ceramics program at Hood College and is on the faculty of the Columbia Art Center. Natalia has exhibited nationally and internationally in solo shows and group juried exhibits. Her work is in private collections, at the University of Pittsburgh, the Heritage Center at Manor College in Pennsylvania, and the National Museum of Ukrainian Pottery in Opishne, Ukraine.
She has completed three pottery residencies at the museum, instructed an international group of potters, and served as a juror for the 2018 and 2019 International Clay Sculpture Symposiums. Natalia returned to the museum in June 2024 as an instructor for a summer ceramics academy, where she worked hand-in-hand with other potters to continue creating art under the dire conditions of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1982 from Antioch University in Columbia Maryland.
In May 2025, some of Natalia Kormeluk's work will be on display in the Miller Branch lobby of the Howard County Library System (HCLS).
In partnership with the Baltimore-Odesa Sister City Committee.
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