The Department of Art’s Visiting Artist Lecture Series in Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) will present a talk by John Krouse, president and general manager, and Sheri Carter, architect/sales and marketing director, of Boston Valley Terra Cotta, a specialized architectural terra cotta manufacturer. It will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 6:30 p.m. in Shemin Auditorium in the Dorothea Ilgen Shaffer Art Building. The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available for $4 in Booth Garage. Patrons should mention that they are attending the lecture to receive this rate.
The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Art’s ceramics program as part of “Crafting the Urban Surface: Tiles, Skins and Screens,” a cross-disciplinary course between the ceramics program and the School of Architecture.
Located in Orchard Park, N.Y., Boston Valley Terra Cotta was established by the Krouse family in 1981, following the purchase of Boston Valley Pottery, a company that had been in existence since 1889. Originally a brick manufacturing facility and later a clay pot manufacturer, Boston Valley Pottery was converted to an architectural terra cotta facility by the Krouses. Utilizing both superior ceramic engineering knowledge and sculpting talent, Boston Valley Terra Cotta has become one of the leading manufacturers of architectural terra cotta in the country.
Boston Valley commenced operations with the restoration of the Guaranty Building, a Louis Sullivan building in Buffalo, N.Y. Since that time, the company has been awarded contracts for some of the most notable buildings around the country, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Texas Theatre, the San Francisco Civic Center, Stoeckel Hall at Yale University and many others.
For more information about the lecture, contact Errol Willett, associate professor of ceramics and chair of the Department of Art, at (315) 443-3012 or eswillet@syr.edu.
