Gallery
Byzantine Flower, 2006 Maiolica, 25 cm
Tulipire, 1983, Maiolica, 23 cm
Artist. Scholar. Advocate.
For 38 years at NSCAD University, “Walter Ostrom” and “ceramics” have been synonymous.
And now, Walter—our exuberant, passionate, often irreverent, but always profoundly committed friend and colleague—is retiring.
Professors Walter Ostrom and Neil Forrest on the NSCAD ceramics from NSCAD University on Vimeo.
So we’re honoring this remarkable man and his distinguished career at NSCAD University in the best way possible: with the Walter Ostrom Scholarship for Ceramics—and we invite you to celebrate with us.
“A major force in the world of contemporary ceramics.”
—Canadian Museum of Civilization
As an internationally renowned professor, innovative ceramicist, and technical expert, Walter’s influence extends across the world and beyond ceramics.
Walter has always believed his craft represents the virtue of necessity, the marriage of utility and beauty. At its most basic, he believes that the clay pot should never stop working.
Reviving and making contemporary the ancient technique of low-fire maiolica production, is a skill for which Walter became known worldwide. Over the years, Walters vast body of work, from his early conceptual pieces to his more recent botanically themed work, earned him the regard of peers and collectors alike. His art has been exhibited throughout the world and is found in major museum collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Recognized with the Jean A. Chalmers National Craft Award (1995), Saidye Bronfman Award for Outstanding Creativity in Craft (2003), and the Order of Canada (2006), Walter is also an Honorary Professor at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, China—located, fittingly, in the town that discovered and developed porcelain.
Teacher. Mentor. Inspirer.
But teaching is what truly speaks to Walters soul.
“The best assignments I had were teaching classes in topics I knew nothing about, but was interested in.”
Working alongside his students, Walter has helped four decades of NSCAD students discover new ways of approaching and applying their craft. By no means a regionalist, Walter nonetheless taught the virtue of place as material. Long before the ecology movement made local vogue, Walter encouraged the use of Nova Scotian clays and low-fire technology, reviving out of fashion traditions using contemporary terms.
Today, Walter’s students are making art in studios around the world, teaching in leading schools, or applying their artistic training to successful careers in other fields, away from wheel and kiln.
Walter’s passion for both his art and his students—for helping them see what they hadnt seen before and to create what they never thought possible—is what makes him, in all senses of the word, a teacher. A seminal force, both serious and joyously irreverent. Scholarly and non-conforming. Intensely playful and playfully intense.
But always, and under all circumstances, Walter.
We thank Walter for sharing the gift of his immense talent with us and with NSCAD University’s legions of graduates worldwide.
And we invite you to recognize Walter’s contribution to NSCAD in a tangible and lasting way, with a generous gift to the Walter Ostrom Scholarship for Ceramics.