The National Museum of Ceramic Art was a non-profitartsinstitution active in downtown Baltimore, Maryland, during the 1990s. Located at 250 West Pratt Street near Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the art museum displayed a variety of earthenware, stoneware, porcelain and glass. Although most of its exhibits were American and contemporary, it also displayed ancient and medievalceramic arts from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Occasionally, the museum sponsored judged competitions of artists from around the U.S. Eastern coast. The street-level, glass-walled museum opened its doors in 1989, and was active until late 1993. It closed after the 1992 opening of the Baltimore Oriolesbaseball stadium across the street at Camden Yards. A drop in publicrevenue from the city and state and a decline in donations and visitors were the cause of its closure. The institution's very first exhibition was "Surface and Form" in 1989. Many photographs of the ceramics shown then have been publicly posted. One of the ceramic museum's early exhibits was "Ceramic Sculptures". A display of glass objects was provided in "Personal Vision / Diverse Images: An Exhibition of Recent Sculptural Glass". Among the artists represented was glass sculpturist Dale Chihuly. A "Regional Juried Exhibition" was held in August 1991. The jurors included professor William Daley and curator Frederick Brandt. A subsequent exhibition was "Maryland Collects" which featured clay artists such as Gertrud and Otto Natzler. The exhibit "Three in Clay" included works by potter Paula Winokur. In May 1992 the pottery museum displayed "18th and 19th Century Utilitarian Porelain and Pottery," one of its more geographically diverse exhibitions. Artists of Norway were featured in "Contemporary Norwegian Ceramics". In January 1993 various daylong workshops were provided to students of varying ages. A show of wildly artistic teapots was highlighted as "The Tea Party" in February 1993. One of the museum's final exhibits was "Jack Lenor Larsen: Designer / Collector -- A Retrospective", an exhibit featuring both terracotta and textiles. The director of this institution, sometimes later called the National Museum of Ceramic Art and Glass, was Shirley B. Brown, while the full-time administrator was Dr. Ralph W. Bastedo, and the president of the board of trustees was J. Richard N. Tyler.
