INTRODUCTION : Celebrating Pete Moss at the National Centre for Craft & Design,
by Melanie Kidd - Head of Exhibiitons

Pete Moss has a long and respected career as an artist, educator and arts activist. He has brought passion, intelligence and commitment to all facets of his practice. His ceramics are internationally acclaimed and widely collected, and he has spent thirty years living and working in our region.

Throughout his career Moss has maintained the philosophy that his work holds equal bearing as a pedagogue to his artistic output. It is therefore only appropriate that his retrospective not only illuminated the technical and aesthetic brilliance of his ceramics, but also celebrated Moss’s legacy as an educator. Five large-scale public art commissions created by young people and adults from various schools, colleges and community groups, sit alongside Moss’s personal collection in the show; reflecting the artist’s on-going desire to foster a sense of collective cohesion and egalitarianism amongst the citizens of the future.

A third strand to Moss’s practice, and perhaps most poignant to this gallery, is his ongoing support and promotion of the arts in Lincolnshire. Moss demonstrates this unrelenting commitment by generously giving his time to museums, galleries, societies and committees, with the sole goal of enriching our communities through arts and culture. The National Centre for Craft & Design became aware of this advocacy work ten years ago, three years prior to our opening, when Moss sat on our own advisory board and championed the development of a venue promoting craft and design practice of the highest artistic integrity.

Moss’s influence at this venue has since remained in both our exhibition and learning programmes, and we in turn have followed his career with interest — seeking the appropriate moment to revere such an influential and energetic practitioner that has sat at the heart of our community. At the time of Moss’s seventieth birthday, the National Centre for Craft & Design is pleased to stage his retrospective, celebrating the artist’s life and work - past, present and future.

Download this curriculum vitae here