T bones arrived safe and sound and on time. Modern travel can be amazing.  We walked straight to Caezar’s for dins en route back from the train…..a great way for T. to start his travels. Sarah Williams from Boston, has just arrived for a one month residency. She will work in the ‘fishbowl’ or ‘birdcage’studio.  
She hopes a perfect fit. The next day was consumed with getting ready for and heading out on the big bus for the opening of the ‘Art from the Cloister of Clay’.

The opening was quite formal, as befitted the occasion, with music, wine and speeches.  Emese taking her pictures, Janos talking with reporters,  Jona greeting visitors, and Marinann distributing flowers to friends from the ICS.  Everyone who could come, came. The Exhibition was in the planning stages during the time that Janos and Jona withdrew from their involvement with the ICS.  They proceeded despite many difficulties to curate a fascinating exhibition.

The exhibition, made up of 260 plus works taken from the ICS Collection,  showcases the most important  Hungarian  and International artists who have worked at the ICS over the last 40 years.  Janos and Jona curated the exhibition to emphasize the cultural importance of this unique world-class collection of contemporary ceramics.  The Collection came into being because of their leadership and vision.  The catalogue supports and re-initerates the importance of this collection for the Hungarian people and for people interested in ceramics worldwide.  We all hope that the various levels of Governments and funding agencies are paying attention.

Terry and I spent the last day packing, finding my trunks amazingly heavy, and running out of bubble wrap.  I pulled Annie’s Tribute out of a trunk, and happily handed her over to Jakab’s care…he often came in and gave her a pat.  She was last seen in the back of his car!  Jakab left a bottle of Palinka on my worktable, so I nipped off to have a comforting Palinka with Zsolt, Balzs and Marton. Then emptied my fridge of wine, beer, eggs,  sausages and all,  and asked Marton and Balzs, a  great cook,  if they would kindly whip us up a dinner…..it was fabulous –  a classic Hungarian ‘casterole’ and good company – with a rainstorm outside accompanied by thunder and lightening.