History
The American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) was founded in Pomona, California in 2003 by David Armstrong, a Pomona businessman and ceramic artist. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The museum was first located in a Pomona storefront. In 2010, Armstrong purchased a two-story building, the former headquarters of Pomona First Federal Savings and Loan, which was designed by Benjamin Hall Anderson in 1956. The Anderson building houses a legacy mural in the interior by the Southern California artist Millard Sheets. The museum was relocated into the larger building in 2011. In 2014, AMOCA hired Beth Ann Gerstein to serve as the executive director. Gerstein joined AMOCA after a twenty-year tenure at The Society of Arts and Crafts of Boston.Early formation
The museum's founder, David Armstrong, moved to Pomona, California with his family in 1944. His father, David S. Armstrong, opened a furniture and appliance business at 150 East Third Street. Armstrong earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College in 1962 and while earning his degree, he also studied with ceramic artist Paul Soldner at nearbyCollections
AMOCA's permanent collection consists of more than 10,000 pieces and includes California pottery, Southern California ceramics and dinnerware, Mettlach ceramics, industrial ceramics, factory made ceramics, ancient vessels from the Americas, fine porcelains of Asia and Europe, and functional and sculptural contemporary ceramics.Mettlach collection
AMOCA's Mettlach collection was donated by Robert D. and Colette D. Wilson, collectors of Mettlach pieces who grew their holdings over a 30-year period. AMOCA contains a 3,000+ piece Mettlach Collection, one of the largest collections of Mettlach wares (dating from c. 1840–1915) in the world. The museum regularly displays several hundred pieces from the permanent collection in the building's lower level. Robert Wilson, born in Southern California, started collecting at the age of thirteen from antique shops on Sepulveda Blvd in Los Angeles. At the beginning of WWII Robert Wilson started a Mettlach stein collection. Colette Wilson, raised in Southern California, was instrumental in starting the Royal Worcester collection of ceramics that the pair also donated to AMOCA. The Wilson collection was first exhibited at AMOCA in October 2012. At the opening reception Isabella von Boch, from the family that now manages the Villeroy & Boch, Mettlach Factory, declared that "this was the largest and most comprehensive collection in the world."''Panorama of the Pomona Valley'' mural
The building was previously the site of a former bank, Pomona First Federal, that commissioned Millard Sheets along with his frequent collaborator Susan Lautmann Hertel to create a 78-foot mural for the interior. Titled ''Panorama of the Pomona Valley'', the mural (1956, paint on canvas) is part of AMOCA's permanent collection. Sheets and Hertel depicted the history of the valley from the time of Native American inhabitants to the arrival of the railroad and the incorporation of Pomona in 1888. Sheets, an art professor and prolific public muralist, created works for commercial and governmental buildings many in Los Angeles County. Susan Lautmann Hertel, a painter and designer, worked with Sheets at the design firm Millard Sheets Designs, Inc., which she took over following his retirement in the 1970s.Exhibitions
*''Inferno: The Ceramic Art of Paul Soldner.'' (2004) *''Robert Sperry, Bright Abyss'', a retrospective including 90 works of ceramist Robert Sperry. (2008) *Harrison McIntosh: A Timeless Legacy, a retrospective ofOther features
Ceramics studio
AMOCA's 12,000 square foot ceramics studio hosts workshops, lectures, and educational programs for artists in residence, studio artists, students, members of AMOCA and the general public. The ceramic studio has offered classes to the public since 2011. The 12,000 sq. foot studio currently offers semi-private and private studio rentals for artists with ceramic experience, artists in residence opportunities, and classes and workshops for all levels of experience.Resource library
AMOCA received a donation of 3,000 books from Helen and Roger Porter in 2010. The collection focuses on ceramics, including technical handbooks, books on the history of ceramic art, and exhibitions catalogs from international and national exhibitions. The library also includes approximately 4,000 monographs and 2,000 periodicals spanning from 1883 to the present.References
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