Marblehead artist Kirsten Bassion has spent two decades building a creative home for ceramics students on the North Shore — The Clay School, now the largest ceramics studio north of Boston.
Bassion studied studio art at Skidmore College and earned a master of fine arts in ceramics from the School for American Crafts at the Rochester Institute of Technology. After graduate school, she returned to Marblehead to work in local ceramics studios and worked at Abbot Public Library.
When starting The Clay School, “I kept thinking, ‘I can do this better than the other studios,’” Bassion said. “As an artist coming out of two art programs, I asked myself, ‘What would I want a ceramics studio to be like?’”
She found her answer in 2005 in Lynn’s historic Lydia Pinkham building — named for one of Massachusetts’ first female entrepreneurs and an early abolitionist. The building had the character and space needed for her vision of a ceramics school and open studio. Today, The Clay School offers 11 weekly classes, serves more than 285 students a week and employs six instructors.She is proud to provide the community with college-level instruction in the ceramic arts.
“We’ve had thousands of people come through our studio,” Bassion said. “I love when someone says, ‘This is my happy place. This is where I feel welcome and comfortable, and I’m doing something cool with my hands.’ A lot of people who feel lonely in the community or are just looking for connection and to get creative find us — and find friends.”
Each Clay School anniversary is marked with a community art project: a tile wall for the 10th, a hallway of ceramic animal coat hooks for the 15th and now a 20th-anniversary tiled bathroom installation created from handmade subway tiles crafted by students. The tiles range from humorous riffs on bathroom graffiti to jokes to intricate artistic designs celebrating the 20th anniversary.
Bassion launched The Lydia Pinkham Open Studios alongside The Clay School starting in 2006 and it has grown from a crowd of 300 visitors in one studio to a five-floor, building-wide celebration held the weekend before Thanksgiving with 1500-1800 annual visitors and around 50 artists showing and selling their work. This year’s event, Nov. 22–23, will feature painters, photographers, filmmakers, woodworkers, musicians, ceramic artists and even a new bakery. A trolley will run Saturday between the building and the Lynn Museum for anyone wanting to make a whole day of visiting local artists.
The Open Studios weekend includes artist meet-and-greets, demonstrations, food and music. Hours are Saturday, Nov. 22, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 23, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
More information about the event is available at lydiapinkhamopenstudios.com or on Instagram at @lp.openstudios and more information about The Clay School is available at theclayschool.com.
