Susan Peterson
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Susan Harnly Peterson (July 21, 1925,
McPherson, Kansas McPherson () is a city in and the county seat of McPherson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 14,082. The city is named after Union General James Birdseye McPherson, a Civil War general. It i ...
– March 26, 2009, Scottsdale, Arizona)''Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014''. Social Security Administration. was an American artist, ceramics teacher, author and professor.


Biography

Susan Annette Harnly was born in McPherson, Kansas on July 21, 1925. In 1946 she earned her bachelor's degree at Mills College in Oakland, California. In 1950 she earned a master of fine arts in ceramics at the New York State College of Ceramics at
Alfred University Alfred University is a private university in Alfred (village), New York, Alfred, New York. It has a total undergraduate population of approximately 1,600 students. The university hosts the New York State College of Ceramics, which includes The ...
. Peterson established ceramic programs the Wichita Art Association, the Chouinard Art Institute, the University of Southern California, the Idyllwild School of Music and Arts, and
Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
. Throughout her career, Peterson traveled across America to lecture about ceramics and its developmental history. She studied ceramic folk art throughout the world. Curious about every aspect of the creative process, she often spent weeks or months observing how an artist lived and worked. Peterson donated her archives and ceramic collection to the
Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
Ceramic Research Center. She was the host of an early educational television series, ''Wheels, Kilns, and Clay'', with 54 episodes that were first broadcast 1964-1965 in Los Angeles by the CBS station KNXT-TV Channel 2. Later, she reworked the series into a 26-week course of study that could be taken via television through USC's College of Continuing Education. It could be completed for credit by watching (an early example of fully distanced learning by media) or for more credit by attending two additional hands-on seminars and passing an exam. The course was broadcast in 1968-69, 1970, and 1972. Peterson studied Native American pottery and wrote the definitive biography ''"
Lucy M. Lewis Lucy Martin Lewis (1890/8–March 12, 1992) was a Native American potter from Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico. She is known for her black-on-white decorative ceramics made using traditional techniques. Biography Lucy Martin Lewis was born in Sky Cit ...
; American Indian Potter"'', in 1984. Her ''"Pottery by American Indian Women: The Legacy of Generations"'' was an exhibition catalog for the 1997 show at the
National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...
in Washington, D.C., that she had also curated. Peterson's book publications include: ''" Shōji Hamada: A Potter's Way and Work"'', ''"The Craft and Art of Clay"'', and ''"The Living Tradition of Maria Martinez"''. She became head of the ceramics department at USC in the 1950s and spent 23 years teaching there. She also led summer sessions at the university-sponsored Idyllwild School of Music and Arts located in the San Jacinto Mountains. She continued to teach at Hunter College in New York City and retired from working there in 1994. Peterson died in Scottsdale Arizona on March 26, 2009.


References


External links


An interview with Susan Peterson, conducted 2004 March 1, by Paul J. Smith, for the Archives of American Art

Image of Susan Peterson with Acoma Pueblo potter Lucy M. Lewis displaying Lewis' work in Los Angeles, California, 1984.
Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library The Charles E. Young Research Library is one of the largest libraries on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. It initially opened in 1964, and a second phase of construction was completed ...
, University of California, Los Angeles. {{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Susan 1925 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American writers American ceramists Artists from Kansas Hunter College faculty People from McPherson, Kansas Writers from Kansas 20th-century American women artists 20th-century ceramists American women ceramists 21st-century American women