The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, July 25, 1979-Page 17 The art of persuasion: Non-profit groups publicize concerns By PATRICIA HAGEN While the city is inundated with art lovers this week one corner of campus is reserved for a group of people that has little connection with art. The corner in front of the Engineering Arch at the in- tersection of South and East University will be a soap- box of 80 local non-profit organizations during the next four days. The various groups and individuals annually distribute information and literature, and sell T-shirts, bumper stickers and buttons to the thousands of passersby. Each year the University's Office of State and Com- munity Relations coordinates the corner as a "public service," said Vivian Green, coordinator of Visitor Relations. A wide variety of groups take advantage of the space provided by the University. "They range from the Libertarian Party to the Student Revolutionary Brigade ... to church groups ... to Greenpeace," Green said. The University provides each of the groups, who are chosen on a first-come, first-served basis, with a measured space on the sidewalk and a table. The cor- ner gives them a place to spread their message "in an organized way," Green explained. "It's like Hyde Park corner in England," she said. "It's one of the most interesting parts of the fair." "Many fairgoers make it a point to go to the corner and check out the groups," she said. "It is one of the Doary oto more leisurely parts of the fair." The various groups THE BOOTHS and tables by the Engineering Arch are covered with enjoy socializing with each other and with passersby leaflets, t-shirts and bumper stickers. Local non-profit organizations gather while enjoying the chance for free advertising, she ad- annually at the intersection of East University and South University to raise ded. M"% l funds and interest in their causes. Potter creates practical wares By PATRICIA HAGEN Rows of gray mixing bowls, cas- seroles, butterdishes, and one-quart pitchers in various stages of completion rested upside down on the ceramist's clay encrusted workbench. Working steadily on the still-soft clay, I. B. Remsen explained, "It's street fair time." Clay dust covered every surface in, the cellar studio and the bumpy stone walls added to the cave-like appearan- ce of the rooms. The dozen butter dishes looked almost identical. Actually, Remsen said, threis a "great deal of variation" between the pieces when you look closely. By carefully throwing the same weight of clay and gauging the height of the rim along the indicator attached to his 'The best thing about it (Ann Ar- bor) is as an artist you can't rest on your laurels. . . You have to keep working on what you do.' -I. B. Remsen Summer Arts Festival exhibitor wheel, he is able to keep the dishes somewhat standard in size and ap- pearance. Peering through wire-rimmed glasses, the clay besmeared Remsen said he does "production pottery." Wbiebeenjoyscreating "show pieces' for the added "technical challenge," Remsen spends 50 r So hours a week producing the series of decorative and practical kitchenware, step by step, The pieces produced"'nmutiples"to ar aye evolved to their present forms after years of work and experimentation. "Everything I make is really me," he explained. "They are all my favorites now." The ideas for many of his pieces result from the cooking he does in his own old fashioned kitchen, he said. "I think I'm attuned to the scale and design needs of most people's kitchens and tableware." The Remsons "try out new forms," and test for proportion and adapability and decide on improvements and changes at home, he said. The forms and designs an artist creates, Remsen explained, are the result of their environment. They "ab- sorb patterning and design elements" while they are very young and "the imagery later comes out in their work," he said. Remsen said he "didn't get serious about clay" until he met some graduate students in anthropology, his un- dergraduate major at Antioch College. After completing work at the Univer- sity School for Art in 1971 Remson set up a studio in Ann Arbor. "I didn't have any money to go anywhere else," he said. Since then Remson has worked full-time as a ceramicist. See CERAMIST, Page 18 THE CRACKED CRAB SEtaFOOD SPECIAILTIES '0 & COMPLETE BAR FACILITIES "Lot's of Crustacean's & Fishey Things" MUG OF CONE CLhMBROFHof orO \ FRIED CLAMS EE "!'T Mon-Tha lam-I1pm Fr-Sat Ilam-midnight Sun 5pm-1 1pm 769-8591 112'W. Wasmgtun, between Main and Ashley Vs R ' 4 1'if For the TALL GIRL we now carry: SLACKS, TOPS, BLOUSES, SKIRTS, JACKETS, DRES- SES, and much more TALL WOMEN'S apparel- TUEW REMOOSLED 4 ecV0 ,OR 126 S. MAIN ST. ANN ARBOR