Take a fresh look at Stoke-on-Trent

Emerging talent in contemporary ceramics will provide a major highlight of the UK’s biggest ceramics celebrations, when the British Ceramics Biennial returns to the spiritual home of British pottery this autumn.

Twenty-five early-career artists have been selected to take part in ‘Fresh’ at the British Ceramics Biennial - a vibrant, world-class, six-week celebration of clay in Stoke-on-Trent from 23 September to 5 November 2023.

Staged every two years, it has grown to be the country’s single largest contemporary ceramics event, and will take place throughout Stoke-on-Trent, a world capital of ceramics.

Featuring new artist commissions, exhibitions and events, the prestigious event celebrates the life, character and creativity that the clay industry brings to the only city in Britain to be named after its primary industry: The Potteries.

All Saints Church in Hanley, regarded as the ‘potters’ church’, is the new Biennial hub for 2023 and will host the flagship exhibitions Award, which presents major new work by 10 of the UK’s most innovative ceramic artists, and Fresh, a showcase for 25 emerging talents from the UK and Ireland.

The work of these bright new artists - chosen from over 300 applications - will be on display, including Erum Aamir, a former physicist who fuses scientific research with artistic imaginings and Hugo Hutchins, who combines pop culture and Queer life in his work.

Fresh Talent Residencies will be awarded to four of the artists during the event, with one of the residencies hosted in the BCB Studio based on the original Spode factory site in Stoke-on-Trent. All four artists will then return to showcase their work at the next Biennial in 2025.

The British Ceramics Biennial supports artists at every stage of career - from spotlighting the UK’s leading ceramicists to introducing work by international artists and fresh new talent.

For the eighth time the British Ceramics Biennial – which is free to visit - will be hosted in Stoke-on-Trent, a city that has been shaped by ceramics production for centuries. Today it is home to award-winning attractions, tours, and factory shops - as well as the place where TV’s The Great Pottery Throw Down is filmed each year.

Full details of the British Ceramics Biennial 2023 programme can be found at www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/bcb-festival/