news-record.com

RALEIGH (AP) - The center dedicated to supporting North Carolina's potters is in danger of closing unless it raises $100,000 to continue supporting the state's most enduring art form, supporters say in a letter.

The North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove needs immediate help or it will have to close within a few months, says the letter, signed by potters Mark Hewitt of Pittsboro and potters Vernon and Pam Owens of Seagrove.

"In a state that values pottery as we do, it makes no sense to close an institution that embodies what is certainly our most important and famous indigenous art form," reads the letter, which was sent last week.

Vernon and Pam Owens own Jugtown, one of the best-known potteries in North Carolina, and Vernon Owens has received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award. Hewitt holds just three kiln openings a year, with buyers lining up hours ahead of opening to grab the best pieces.

The state Department of Cultural Resources had proposed that the state take over the center at a cost of almost $187,000. But the governor didn't include that item in his budget, leaving the center at loose ends for money for the coming year.

"We need to go back to our supporters and those who appreciate pottery in the state of North Carolina and outside the state to help us raise money to keep our doors open," said Tim Blackburn of Huntersville, president of the center's board and one of the people who signed the letter.

"If you look at our cash flow ... it's tough. It's going to be impossible without the support of potters and pottery lovers to continue to be able to operate."

The center opened in 1998 with the mission to support and promote all North Carolina pottery, but it's no accident that it's located in Seagrove, located about 85 southwest of Raleigh. It's been described as the largest continuing community of European-based potters in the United States. In the mid-1700s, seven families from England settled within a five-mile radius of each other and began producing pottery from locally dug clay, and the area is now home to more than 100 potters.

The Legislature has recognized the Seagrove area as the official location of the birthplace of North Carolina traditional pottery. It defined that area as portions of Randolph, Chatham, Lee, Moore and Montgomery counties.

The center's role in all this is to exhibit pottery, both in changing exhibitions and a permanent one on the history of North Carolina pottery. It also has an educational component, such as pottery-making projects with students at Seagrove Elementary School.

But its supporters acknowledge that its funding problems have meant the center missed its goal on education, a failing noted by Cultural Resources in seeking the money to make the center a state museum.

"In the 10 years since it opened, the board and staff of the Pottery Center have struggled to raise the funds needed to operate the facility," the department notes. "The Center has not met its potential as an educational resource or realized its goal to become a destination for heritage tourists."

The center also is part of a simmering feud among potters in the five-county Seagrove area, with two groups now planning to hold separate pottery festivals on the same day, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. One is sponsored by the Museum of Traditional of North Carolina Pottery in Seagrove, which will hold its 27th annual festival Nov. 22-23.

A breakaway group, unhappy with the museum's leadership, is holding its own festival the same weekend. That group is limiting participation to potters who work in and around Seagrove proper and near N.C. 705, dubbed "The N.C. Pottery Highway" because of the number of potters working there.