The CPA Governing Council
The CPA’s governing body has up to nine Selected and Fellow member councilors, who are proposed and voted for by the membership to serve for a term of three years. The honorary officers of Chair, Vice chair, Treasurer and Secretary are appointed by Council to serve for one year at the first meeting after the AGM. Occasionally Council may co-opt members from outside the membership, who might bring in specific expertise.
The Associate membership is represented on Council by a non voting councilor. Council is responsible for the selection of new members, and for all the activities of the association and it’s companies through their respective sub committees and boards. Council is also supported by the Members and Associates Advisory Committee(MAAC), which organises lectures, studio visits, workshops and other activities. MAAC is mainly composed of volunteer Associate members.
Peter Snowden
Chair of the CPA Council
Peter Snowden has been a maker for over 45 years, alongside a career in agricultural and horticultural plant breeding and seeds. Within the plant breeding industry Peter was CEO of UK companies employing up to 250 staff, and held senior positions in companies in the Netherlands and France including Group Limagrain. He was also board or council member for a number of trade bodies including the Agricultural Industries Confederation, the Processors and Growers Research Organisation and the National Institute of Agricultural Botany.
In semi-retirement Peter is a commercial maker of mostly stoneware tableware, and a collector.
Contact Peter here: petersnowdenceramics@outlook.
Jenny Alexander
Treasurer of the CPA
Jenny is the Treasurer of the Craft Potters Association and is a chartered accountant. She is also a ceramics and pottery enthusiast and makes pots in her spare time.
Anna Lambert
Membership Secretary of the CPA
Anna makes hand built earthenware ceramics. After studying at Bath Academy of Art (Corsham) she set up her first studio in Gloucestershire in 1980.
She now shares a studio near Skipton, North Yorkshire with her artist husband and teaches part-time on the MA Ceramics course at UcLan. Examples of her work can be seen here: www.junctionworkshop.co.uk/
Benedict Brierley
Council member
Ben’s work is wheel thrown, hand built, and assembled using stoneware and porcelain clays. Once assembly is complete, still soft forms are decorated with slips and engobes, and may have wood ash and or shino glazes applied. Pieces are placed and fired to 1400°C in a wood fired anagama cross draft kiln for three to four days. Some pieces may have multiple firings until the desired qualities are achieved. His workshop is situated within Loughborough University School of the Arts. https://www.benbrierley-woodfiredceramics.co.uk/
Lara Scobie
Council member
I have been making ceramics since graduating from Camberwell College of Arts and Crafts 28 years ago. In this time, I also taught ceramics and design at Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee, where I have developed a broad experience of ceramics and the principles of design and expression. Through my teaching, I was involved with many aspects of student engagement and guidance that included facilitating interdisciplinary projects, curating and designing exhibitions and sitting on various committees as a member of academic staff. I have exhibited widely and have given many workshops and presentations about my work and the work of students.
Moyra Stewart
Council member
I have worked in clay for more than 40 years in U.K. and Canada. Teaching and bringing pottery to a larger audience has been a big part of my practice including public events, community pottery and residencies. More recently I have been inspired by the process of Naked Raku.
Paul Wearing
Council member
I am based in Cardiff where I have lived since starting my ceramics training in 1997. Upon graduation I co-founded Elements Studio and Gallery and since 2007 have been a member of the Fireworks Clay Studios cooperative holding positions of Chair and Director. I gained Selected Membership of the CPA in 2016. I have exhibited widely across the UK and internationally and have been the recipient of numerous funding awards from the Arts Council of Wales. My work is hand-built, employing press-moulding and coiling techniques. My focus is on nature’s seasons and cycles expressed through simple cylinder and ellipse vessel forms contrasted with complex textured surfaces rendered by brushed layers of slips and glazes. I carry out multiple oxidized firings. See examples of Paul’s work: www.paulwearingceramics.com
Peter Beard
Council member
Peter studied a degree in industrial design and furniture design at Ravensbourne College of Art. Later he helped set up a pottery workshop in Scotland making thrown domestic stoneware. Peter opened his first studio in Kent in 1975, making sculptural pieces. He currently lives and works Leamington Spa. See examples of Peters work: www.peterbeard.co.uk
Stephen Parry
Council member
Stephen Parry trained at Croydon College of Art 1974-77, Dartington Workshop 1977-79 and in France using wood-fired kilns. Stephen set up his present pottery at Ryburgh, near Fakenham in rural Norfolk in 1981 and makes a range of functional pots and one-off pieces using stoneware and porcelain clays. Glazes are made from different types of wood ash. All his work is fired using wood, either in a 120cuft Phoenix Kiln or in an Anagama kiln.
http://www.spwoodfiredceramics.co.uk/
Victoria Jardine
Victoria Jardine is a Studio Ceramicist with a particular interest in Applied Art Theory and the ‘Language of Things’. Alongside teaching Museum Studies at London Metropolitan University, she set up her own Ceramics practice in 2001 and has been a Selected Member of the CPA since 2003. Now living and working in Dorset she has been a founding member of ‘Making Dorset’ as well as sitting on the Board of Trustees for Dorset Visual Arts.
Rachel Holian
I have worked with porcelain since graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2005. I used to produce functional yet decorative tea utensils. However, my work has now become much more concerned with the production of ‘applied arts’ and ‘installation pieces’. I make miniature porcelain vessels, ‘installations’ that are hand thrown, turned, stamped and glazed or sometimes left unglazed and simply high fired, which sit on slab rolled porcelain bases. Celebrating the handmade and delicate, moveable qualities of porcelain. These collections of porcelain vessels are grouped in a specific way to give meaning to a particular collection. I work as a ceramicist from my home studio in Llangollen, and also teach at Further Education College in Wrexham.