Published in the Bennington Banner

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BENNINGTON — When local sculptor Joshua Primmer was offered an artist-in residency position at the historic Medalta Potteries in Alberta, Canada, he knew it was an opportunity he couldn’t afford to pass up. Now, using popular crowd-funding website Kickstarter, Primmer is turning to the community for help bringing his dreams to life.

Primmer, a lifelong Southern Vermont native who earned his B.F.A. in ceramics at Maine College of Art, has been running a ceramics studio in his home on Gage Place for the past six years. Specializing in modern ceramic sculpture and functional wares, including free-standing and wall-mounted sculptures, his work has been exhibited throughout Vermont, Massachusetts and New York. After years of independent work, Primmer recently decided re-focus his energy on returning to graduate school and becoming a full-time ceramics professor at the college level. Having already built up a strong portfolio, a long-term residency would be the last thing he needed to qualify for a master’s in fine arts program. After his years of hard work, Primmer was excited to be accepted for a six-month residency at Medalta Potteries in Medicine Hat, Alberta — a facility in the town’s 150-acre Historic Clay District with an active artist-in-residence program.