What is Keramis ?

Open since 2015, Keramis is Wallonia-Brussels Federation's Centre of Ceramics. Built on the site of the former Boch Frères Keramis earthenware factory, this museum includes an old listed building containing three giant bottle ovens, which is the last of its kind in Belgium. Keramis holds a remarkable collection of Boch earthenware manufactured in the 19th and 20th centuries and a valyable collection of contemporary ceramics. Each year, Keramis explores the world of ceramics through temporary exhibitions designed to promote an unknown and yet millenary art. Besides retrospectives of historical figures (Antoine de Vinck...), the museum devotes most of its programming to collective or personal exhibitions of contemporary artists (Françoise Pétrovitch, Gisèle Buthod-Garçon, Frank Steyaert...).

What has been going on in Keramis these past days...

Because of insufficient structural funding, the non-profit organization's Board of Directors took, on May 2, 2019, decisions with grave impacts :

limited opening hours ;
temporary exhibitions are suspended ;
employee layoffs.

These decisions include the cancellation of all future temporary exhibitions.

Why a crowdfunding ?

The crowdfunding is meant to raise money to guarantee the making of a major exhibition devoted to Chinese contemporary ceramist Bai Ming. Curator Christine Shimizu is a world renown expert in ancient and contemporary Asian ceramics. If this Chinese sponsored exhibition is cancelled, it would not only greatly damage the name of the institution but also the reputation of Wallonia-Brussels Federation.

Bai Ming is one of the most famous contemporary ceramists in the world. He would certainly leave his mark on this first Belgian exhibition.

Please share, comment, contribute. Whether big or small, your participation counts! Become an actor in an international exhibition and allow a cultural institution to pursue its projects.

Sauvons Keramis et l'exposition Bai Ming