New Trend of International Ceramic Art Development :
Nov. 6. 2020
Final Opening Speech
The International Academy of Ceramics New Members Exhibition 2020
Torbjørn Kvasbø, President of the International Academy of Ceramics.

On behalf of the International Academy of Ceramics I will thank the Gouzhong Ceramic Art Museum in Beijing for this warm and hospitable welcome. A special thank you to our New Members, and especially to those who participate in this exhibition

The IAC received outstanding applications  for its 2019 New Member Elections,  and would like to thank the candidates for the development of this global network of enthusiastic professionals. We are pleased to welcome 224 new members.
The Council was meticulously involved in their selection and we were all impressed by the high quality of the applicants. Our new members represent diverse expressions and content, and innovative, experimental and critically important work.
Here is much to see, learn of and reflect on.
Without your generous contributions this could not have happended. 

You are acknowledged by your peers for the excellence of your work.
You are each one of you involved at the highest level in the field of international ceramics.
You are interested in the culture of the other, and in exchange. 
You have come to a global organisation and network where ego and competition is developing towards contribution and cooperation.
In the IAC you will get to know colleagues all over the world, colleagues who support you, fully understand and accept you. 

We share a lot in common, all over the world, in our daily lives through our ceramic work and interest: we talk to each other, face to face, and tell each other true stories from lived lives.
 This can only be achieved with your participation.

Due to a request, a proposal, and very generous offer from the Gouzhong Ceramic Art Museum to arrange an IAC New Members Exhibition,
the New Members Exhibition was first planned on-site in Guozhong Ceramic Art Museum in Beijing, China, then being shipped to Korundi museum on-site exhibition during the IAC General Assembly and Congress 2020 in Rovaniemi/ Posio, Finland. 
This could not happen, as we all know.
However, the first edition ever of the New Members Exhibition are held both on-site and online. It is impressive that the Beijing Guozhong Ceramic Art Museum is able to perform this, the difficult circumstances taken into account.

As President of the International Academy of Ceramics I am very pleased, on behalf of the IAC, that the Beijing Guozhong Ceramic Art Museum is arranging the IAC New Members Exhibition, and makes available its human and financial resources to accomplish this.

The online performances, the Opening Ceremony and the on-site and online  New Members Exhibition, are historical.  
It is in the IACs' quest to build on the experiences from this event to  find online solutions for future communication.
 The IAC New Members Exhibition is organized and hosted by Beijing Guozhong Ceramic Art Museum and sponsored by the International Academy of Ceramics. 

I will congratulate the organizers of this exhibition, Beijing Guozhong Ceramic Art Museum, Beijing Guozhong Ceramic Research Institute and The Ceramic Culture Development Fund of China International Cultural Exchange Foundation,  and supported by China International Cultural Exchange Center, China Ceramic Industry Association, China Arts and Crafts Society and Jingdezhen Ceramic University, and finally all the participating artists.
  
I hereby declare the 2020 IAC New Members Exhibition at Beijing Guozhong Ceramic Art Museum open

Thank you!