The next installment of the Arkansas Folklife Web Series is set for 1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30. Guest Stephen Driver will discuss Arkansas pottery traditions. This event is free and open to the public, and registration is required.
Driver is a potter and back-to-the-lander who has lived in Oark for over 40 years. He and his wife, fiber artist Louise Halsey, own and operate the Little Mulberry Gallery, named after the creek near their property. Driver is the recipient of the 2024 Arkansas Governor’s Arts Awards, Individual Artist Award. He spent 20 years teaching pottery at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock.
He has an M.F.A. from the University of Georgia and has written articles for Pottery Making Illustrated, The Log Book Wood Fire Journal, Ceramics Monthly and Studio Potter. Driver operates a large kiln on his property that he fires twice a year, filling it with his work and the work of other local potters who help keep the wood-fired kiln going long enough to complete a minimum of 1,000 pieces each firing.
Series host Lauren Willette and Driver will discuss his personal history as a potter, how he fires his pottery, his work in Asia and his pottery community.
Questions about the 2024 Arkansas Folklife Web Series may be directed to Willette at willette@uark.edu. Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts is a statewide program of the University of Arkansas Libraries dedicated to building cross-cultural understanding by documenting, presenting and sustaining Arkansas’ living traditional arts and cultural heritage.