Clarissa Jasso
Greater Austin Clay Tours serves as a blueprint of what local art’s future could look like as the closure of nonprofit art gallery, Big Medium, leaves the destiny of the Austin Studio Tour uncertain.
The Austin Studio Tour is an annual art event that features thousands of artists over 100 different studio locations across the city. For the last 30 years, organizers invited the public to museums, galleries, venues and studios to see the work of Austin creatives.
“We are committed to exploring every avenue possible to continue this Austin tradition, which is a critically important economic driver for artists, while creating strong cultural bonds that define our creative sector and community at large,” Big Medium said on their social media.
The hazy future of the tour has led people to view smaller, medium-specific events like the Greater Austin Clay Studio Tour as viable alternatives due to their smaller size and financial accessibility.
The Greater Austin Clay Studio Tour is a city-wide showcase of over 90 ceramic artists around 20 different studio locations. The Greater Austin Clay Artists began hosting pottery workshops in the early 2000s to share techniques and network with other ceramicists.
They started the tours in 2023 to share their art with the city. Some stops host markets, workspace tours and classes for visitors. Most of these showcases take place right in the backyards of local potters and artisans.
“It’s really a grassroots effort,” ceramic artist, educator and group coordinator, Sarah German, said. “We used to do group exhibitions over the years and it was just getting harder to get a space for that, so we figured we’d just invite the public to come to our spaces.”
Many people in Austin are now interested in clay and ceramics, as Austin-based social media accounts promote new studios and pottery activities on their pages. Over 20 pottery studios have opened in Austin offering classes and open-studio time for people of all skill levels.
The popularity inspired ceramic artists to create a studio tour specifically dedicated to clay. While the large-scale tours helped connect artists of various mediums for future collaboration, having a tour specifically for clay presents benefits that the Austin Studio Tours lack.
“In a bigger tour format, there’s so much going on that you kind of drown out in the hundreds of stops,” clay artist Katie Palomares said. “Smaller, more specific tours can help build connections in the space of that specific genre of art.”
Unlike the Big Medium’s tours, the clay tours are mostly self funded by the artists and organizers. The group charges artists a $25 fee to participate, a cheaper price compared to that of the Austin Studio Tours, making it more accessible for emerging artists to showcase their work.
“There were a lot of artists that set up unofficially because of the Austin Studio Tours price point, but when you’re not in the catalog you’re not promoted at all,” German said. “With a lower price point, we’re hoping that artists get a little more attention.”
With the support of the clay community, ceramicist Victoria Zhuk participated in her first pop-up during the clay tours after moving to Austin in 2021. Zhuk felt immediately welcomed into the organization and said it felt like a family. Having a group of artists who can help with anything and answer all of her questions allowed her to showcase her work in an impactful way.
“I think if we work together and do more [events] like the Austin clay tours, it can be the next big medium with a different name,” Zhuk said. “The key is the community itself— people that want the same thing, the same dreams and the same intention.”
The organizers never intended the clay tours to replace the Austin studio tour, but to instead show how smaller tours like it serve as a more accessible version of the larger art shows.
“If we can’t have the big studio tour, then we can have something to still share and open up artists’ spaces for the people (so) that the community can see and get to know each other,” Palomares said.