It has been more than 15 years since I launched a personal website. At that time, the focus was on academic accomplishments, including both teaching and research. Now, as Professor Emeritus, it is time to reorient the website. Its focus now is on service to the ceramic community and, at the same time, I plan to return to my first love, the studio.
Judith S. Schwartz is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Art and Art Professions at New York University. She directed the Sculpture in Craft Media area (Clay, Metal, and Glass) and taught studio-based courses in ceramic sculpture from 1970 through 2017.
Her doctoral dissertation, identifying the use of satire in the ceramic work of Robert Arneson, Howard Kottler, and David Gilhooly, has since expanded her interest to identify an international movement of artists who use clay confrontationally - more specifically, those artists who employ clay to reveal personal alienations, social and political struggles, popular and material culture at its worst - all within the context of what might be called art activism. Her research culminated in the book Confrontational Ceramics, published simultaneously by A&C Black Publishing, London, and the University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. The book is an international survey of the contemporary use of clay as a tool for social commentary.
Dr. Schwartz lectures and consults extensively, continues to publish numerous journal articles, artist’s reviews and catalogs for both national and international journals, chairs national conferences, juries and curates ceramic competitions and exhibitions worldwide, and serves as board or honorary member on many notable not-for-profit organizations.
She is President of the Museum of Ceramic Art and is a trustee of the Howard Kottler estate, facilitating the publication of two books about him and several national exhibitions of his work.
She was the educational consultant to the Lenox China company, President of the University Council for Art Education, served on the Board of Studio Potter and the Clay Art Center, is Past President of the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and is currently on the board of the International Museum of Dinnerware Design and Vice President of the International Academy of Ceramics. Dr. Schwartz received the JD Rockefeller III grant in Art Education, the Everson Museum’s award for service and excellence in the field of ceramic education, Fulbright Senior Specialist to the National School of Art and Design, Dublin, and was awarded educator of the year by the Renwick Museum of Art in Washington, DC., the NYCATA/UFT Higher Ed Art Educator Award of Excellence in Teaching, and the Excellence in Teaching Award from the National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts.
Click here to visit the website and to learn more about the project.