Front from left: artists Chloe Marr-Fuller, Debra Fleury, Angel Cunningham, and Eric Schwarzenbach, and (rear) Wayne Fuerst made the trip from Massachusetts to attend Salad Days. Fuerst created some of the striking ceramic beer steins on offer at the event’s beer tent. (Christine LaPado-Breglia photo)
Chilly, damp weather did not deter the hundreds of people who turned out for the 22nd annual Salad Days celebration on Saturday, July 9 at the Watershed Center for the Arts, located on an expansive, bucolic property in Newcastle.
Fran Rudoff, executive director of the center, said “at least 500 people” were in attendance. This year’s Salad Days artist, Liz Hafey, made more than 500 ceramic plates for the event, she said, and “there were about a dozen left.”
From left: Wendy Jackson, of New Hampshire, and Liz Langyher, a summer staff member at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, warm themselves by an outdoor oven used to bake pizzas and bread. (Christine LaPado-Breglia photo)
“This was the biggest Salad Days we ever had,” said Rudoff.
Salad Days is one of two food- and ceramics-focused community events – the other being Soup Bowl Supper, held every spring – that the brick-factory-turned-arts-center puts on annually.
Near the entrance to the event, people with eager faces stood happily, chatting in a long line to pick out one of Hafey’s lovely creations. On the sidelines, Whitefield musicians Will West and Michele Roy, on guitar and fiddle, respectively, kept the folks in line happy with their catchy Celtic tunes.
Under a nearby canopy, attendees took time to sort through the assortment of sturdy, colorful plates – red, green, yellow, pink-and-blue, and so on – piled high on several long tables before settling on the one they liked the best. Besides getting to fill their plates with salads, bread, and desserts, attendees got to take home the signed and dated pieces of artwork.
A sneak preview of the playful ceramic plates made by 2017 Salad Days artist Kurt Anderson for next year’s event. (Christine LaPado-Breglia photo)
Next, it was off to the salad tables, where people could choose from a constantly replenished (and changing) supply of mouth-watering salads supplied by a number of local and area eateries – from green salads to a vegan couscous salad with corn, poblano and red peppers, red onion, cilantro, scallions, and garlic from Frontier Cafe in Brunswick; from beet salad with horseradish and Dijon mustard from S. Fernald’s Country Store in Damariscotta to those perennial favorites, macaroni salad and potato salad.
Treats of Maine bakery in Wiscasset, among others, weighed in at the dessert tables with yummy toffee cookies with pecans, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate cake. Water, lemonade, Maine Root sodas, and craft beer were also on hand to keep everyone satisfied.
Under the expansive canopy covering the dining area, hundreds of people of all ages chowed down and chatted while listening to the decidedly entertaining bluegrass trio Jerks of Grass, from Portland. Hafey was introduced to the crowd at one point, to much applause.
Those who had finished eating were free to do such things as wander the beautiful grounds of Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, dotted with eye-catching ceramic sculptures; go on a guided tour of the center; and watch pottery-making demonstrations.
They could also try their hand at making a clay cup on the Pots on Wheels potter’s wheel, or peruse the merchandise tent featuring beautiful, creative ceramic pieces made by members of the artist collective Objective Clay. The collective, made up of potters and visual artists from around the U.S., was hosted by Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts for a special Salad Days-related residency session.
In fact, artist residencies are central to the mission of Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, which was founded by clay artists Lynn Duryea, Chris Gustin, and George Mason in 1986 as “a place for clay artists to live and work in community,” as the center’s website, watershedceramics.org, puts it.
Rudoff spoke of long-standing plans aimed at evolving the center into an increasingly thriving, supportive place where ceramic artists can spend time honing their craft.
“Watershed has had a plan for the campus that is 15 years old. Our first capital campaign, in 2001-2002, raised money for the center’s residential cabins for artists,” said Rudoff. The center’s second capital campaign, in the late 2000s, raised money for a new kiln shed.
Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts is poised to launch a third capital campaign at some point in the not-too-distant future to update the center’s main artist studio, currently a non-heated barn used seasonally, in summer and fall, Rudoff said.
“We want to replace (the barn) with a new studio building to be used year-round. … It’s the next part of a bigger master plan for the campus that we have been slowly implementing over the past 15 years, in a fiscally responsible way.”
However, she said, “We are just in the planning stage right now.”
Next year, said Rudoff, will be the 30th anniversary of Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. Salad Days will take place on July 8. Artist Kurt Anderson is currently in the process of making hundreds of plates for next year’s event as part of his residency at the center.
“We have a lot of extra special things planned for Salad Days (next year),” Rudoff said. “We hope everybody will come back!”
Go to watershedceramics.org to learn more about the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, which is located at 19 Brick Hill Road, Newcastle.
