Ceramics museum plan gains collection

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Hopes for setting up a national museum of ceramics at Hobsonville have been boosted by an offer of an internationally acclaimed collection to go on permanent display.

The offer, from the Fletcher Trust art collection, contains winning entries over 21 years of the Fletcher Challenge ceramics awards, which started in 1977.

Senior potters say the collection gives credence to their move to set up a museum in the historic former home of pottery industry founder Rice Owen Clark.

Clark House, built between 1897 and 1902, is at present the stylish quarters of the Air Force's medical unit but will be offered back to the Clark family in about three years with the closure of the Hobsonville and Whenuapai Air Bases.

NZ Ceramic Heritage Trust chairman Howard Williams said an ownership change was an opportunity for the trust but meant it would have to do some major fundraising.

The two-storey homestead overlooks Limeburners Bay and has glazed ceramic blocks and mosaic surrounds.

Mr Williams said the trust had the backing of the Waitakere City Council and Mayor Bob Harvey for the plan.

It would be a tourism drawcard which would celebrate the studio pottery movement and the once flourishing heavy clay industry of Hobsonville and New Lynn.