Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour's 20th Anniversary
Launches Field Guide to Ceramics In Weetern Massachusetts
By: Leslie Ferrin - Jul 22, 2026
Open House and Public Talk at Project Art in Cummington, MA
During the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour 20 Year Anniversary
July 25–26th, 2026, 10am-5pm both days
Public Talk July 25, 2026, 1:30-2:30pm
Project Art in Cummington, MA - In celebration of the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour’s 20th Anniversary, Project Art is hosting an Open House and Public Talk to announce the launch of a new, digital resource: A Field Guide to Ceramics in Western Massachusetts. Throughout the weekend of July 25 & 26, 2026, the community is invited to celebrate and share their experiences with the contemporary ceramics and studio pottery created in the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts.
Independent potters and ceramic artists draw the public to their rural studios for annual tours and open houses. Project Art – also the home to Ferrin Contemporary – will feature new public art installations, recent works by resident artists Sergei Isupov and Kadri Pärnamets, and selectedworks by Ferrin Contemporary artists.
Project Art studios and Ferrin Contemporary's galleries will be open Saturday and Sunday 10am-5pm during the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour.
Since 2006, Project Art has hosted interns and short and long term residencies for international artists working in clay in historic Cummington, MA, a well known center for generations of artists and writers.
The Public Talk on July 25th from 1:30-2:30pm will focus on and celebrate the community of ceramicists who have found homes, established studios, and formed alliances over the past 20 years and their contributions to the changing creative economy in Western Massachusetts. With support from the first of Project Art’s experiential learning internships offered in partnership with Alfred's Museum Studies Program, Alfred University scholar Shay Ye and artist and Ferrin Contemporary Web Designer Isabel Twanmo will share a Field Guide to Ceramics in Western Massachusetts.
Drawn from over 20 in-person interviews with multiple generations of potters and sculptors who have made Western Massachusetts their home, Shay’s research and Isabel’s design have resulted in a digital guide to the artists, studios, public collections, museums, annual pottery tours, and opportunities to work with clay. Shay’s research traced connections between the artists, their affiliations and studio practices, creating a timeline and “family tree”, a map, and index. Her findings discover the lineage created through apprenticeships, shared studios, employment opportunities and communities that were built through connections established and mutual interest in working with clay.
“As a student and researcher, I came to Western Massachusetts hoping to understand what has made this region such an important place for ceramics. What I found was not only a concentration of studios and artists, but a living network shaped by teaching, apprenticeships, shared kilns, friendships, public collections, and a shared commitment to clay.
The Field Guide responds to the ways a medium can shape the lives built around it. In Western Massachusetts, ceramics has generated more than objects; it has shaped places of learning, systems of exchange, intergenerational relationships, and communities sustained through making. This guide traces those connections and invites visitors, students, artists, and collectors to see ceramic practice in the region as both an artisticfield and a living community.” -Shay Ye, Ferrin Contemporary Intern & Alfred University Scholar
The Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour was founded in 2005. The Tour began with a group of nationally recognized potters’ desire to develop a coordinated studio tour highlighting the variety of functional and sculptural ceramics made here in the community. The tour offers rare access to working studios and showcases the range, rigor, and relevance of contemporary ceramics created in rural New England. What started as a modest weekend event has grown into an anticipated annual destination drawing collectors, curators, and visitors from across the region.
Michael McCarthy, a founding member of the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour, acknowledges the significance of twenty years of the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour: “This year’s Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour is especially meaningful as it marks two decades of connection among the Hilltown 6 host potters, the many guest artists who have participated over the years, and the supportive community of ceramic enthusiasts who attend the tour annually. The Tour offers all of us a wonderful weekend to celebrate, appreciate, and collect ceramic art. Reaching this twenty year milestone provides an opportunity not only to reflect on the tour’s history but also to recognize the collaborative spirit that has shaped the tour and will continue to guide its future.”
Project Art in Cummington began as a partnership between internationally recognized sculptor Sergei Isupov and Leslie Ferrin, director of Ferrin Contemporary. The renovated 19th century mill building became the permanent studio for resident artists Isupov and his wife Kadri Parnamets who exhibit their work and offer classes and workshops that attract international students and faculty,from the community, throughout the US and as far as Australia.
The Ferrin Contemporary galleries and Project Art studios will be open from 10am-5pm each day. Recent projects by Russell Biles, Paul Scott, Mara Superior, Jacqueline Bishop, and works from Private Collections will be on view to accompany a new exhibition in the Ferrin Contemporary Summer Gallery, Sergei Isupov & Kadri Pärnamets: Reunited, featuring works by Project Art resident artists Sergei Isupov and Kadri Pärnamets.
“As we reflect upon the achievements during our 20 years in the Hilltowns, it is also a moment to appreciate the support from our community at a time when so many rural arts initiatives are challenged. Guided by working artists, the Hilltown 6 and Project Art together represent a model of sustainability driven by collaboration, community engagement, and long term commitments to shared visions. The anniversary events invitethe public to see and acquire not only finished works, but also experience beautiful artist made environments, peak of summer gardens and go behind the scenes to learn stories told through hand made objects and historic architecture.” - Leslie Ferrin, Director of Project Art
Project Art 01026
54 Main Street, Cummington, MA 01026
info@projectart01026.com