The SoCal Section held a networking and social outing as a weekend visit to the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, California! The museum had everything from mass produced steins and mugs from the 1850s, high art ceramics from the 1950s studio pottery movement, to pieces made in recent times. A renovation is currently underway, on over half of the museum, but is expected to fully open sometime next year. After viewing the museum, the group was given a tour of the adjacent building that houses a large space for several artists in residence, kilns for various standard, salt, and soda firing methods, and classroom space for workshops and introductions to clay. As engineers and scientists, the members were fascinated to see how artists leverage the chemistry and properties of clay to produce such a large variety of colors, textures and shapes.
