In 2014, when the KPG was moving back to our  studio in the newly renovated Tett Centre, I was helping go through all the boxes of archives. I found information about a raku plate wall hanging that members of the Kingston Ceramists’ Guild, as it was called at that time, had donated to the City of Kingston in 1973 to celebrate the City’s tercentenary and demonstrate their appreciation for the City’s support.

I wondered what had happened to that wall hanging? I contacted Paul Robinson, the City of Kingston archivist at that time. He was very interested and after looking for them he found them in the City storage. Most of the plates were in good shape but the leather thongs that held them together had rotted away.

The Tett Centre held an event marking the opening of the newly renovated building and the tenants set up displays in the Activity Room. I was helping with the Guild display and Paul was keen to display some of the plates. He brought a case with a glass top to display the plates and wrote a blurb about them.

We had discussions about the fact that they should be displayed at the Tett, not stuck away in boxes in storage! But, how to display them safely? Should just a few be in a glass fronted case on the wall outside the KPG studio? Would it stick out and be a hazard? Paul was busy and we kept putting off talking about them and eventually left the project ‘hanging’!

In 2023 the City contacted the Guild asking about the plates. Paul had died and others were taking over his job and they were planning an exhibition of the gifts the City had received over time at the Pump House Museum. As I was the one who knew about the plates I had a few meetings with the three women involved. I brought up the subject of displaying the plates at the Tett and they were very interested in doing this, so we looked at different ideas for displaying them. They were displayed at the Pump House Museum  as part of “The Stuff Stories Are Made Of” for 8 months.

Finally it was decided that the safest place to permanently install them would be at the Tett Centre on the stairwell wall opposite Anna Elmberg Wright’s sculpture on the ground floor.

They were at last installed in the Tett in December 2024, not just a few but all of them! And there is now a plaque accompanying the plates, explaining what the display is about.

Mission accomplished!!

Happily sent by Ruth George