About this Event
For the next episode of Clay in Conversation 14: Collect, we’re switching things around to hear from five contemporary collectors, prominent in the field of ceramics. Each with their own story surrounding their involvement with collecting, through their own collections or as champions of the business of collecting and supporting ceramic artists. We are thrilled to welcome Connor Coulston, Caroline Fisher, Crispin Kelly, Daniella Wells along with Preston Fitzgerald who will be chairing the conversation.
Join us to hear first-hand how their collecting journeys began, what piques their interests, what role collecting can play in current practice for both collector and artist, what is the relationship between galleries/museums and collectors. Followed by a Q&A with the audience, this episode will offer thoughtful insights and fresh perspectives into the world of collecting.
We’re delighted that Clay in Conversation 14: Collect will again be kindly hosted by County Hall Pottery.
Venue: County Hall Pottery, Belvedere Rd, London, SE1 7PB
Date: 24 April 2026
Time: 6-8pm
Connor Coulston
Connor Coulston (b. 1992, Oldham, UK) is an artist whose practice can be defined as an ongoing articulation of the relationship between self-deprecating humour as a means of enquiry, the mutability of clay, and a wild imagination. Coulston’s work emerges from a fascination with the kitsch ceramic ornaments one might find in charity shops or museums, or that might adorn a grandparent’s fireplace. He subverts these often ‘mundane’ objects through a rigorous questioning of their legacy and hidden narratives, connecting these historical signifiers to symbols of contemporary struggles he has personally experienced, such as depression, queer identity, and his grandmother’s problematic love for right-wing politicians. Coulston creates surreal and kitsch sculptures which, on first inspection, appear to communicate levity, only revealing their more critical and sinister undertones once the audience has been lured into a misguided sense of security.
A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Coulston has received national recognition including winning the Ingram Prize, and has been commissioned by Sky Artsand selected for the British Ceramics Biennial AWARD exhibition 2021.
@connor.coulston www.connorcoulston.com
Caroline Fisher
Fisher is a curator and gallerist specialising in ceramics and is also a ceramic artist herself. Her interest is in clay as a material with the versatility to express ideas as well as to perform a function and relate to other artforms.
Fisher studied medicine in Cambridge as her first career and then realised an ambition to go to art school, studying Fine Art at Central St Martins College of Art.
She later did a MA in Museum Studies at the University of East Anglia and worked as a curator at institutions such as Wellcome Collection, the British Museum and ran East Gallery at Norwich University of the Arts as well as teaching on the MA in Curation.
Caroline Fisher Projects was set up in 2018 to produce exhibitions in a range of venues in Norfolk and London with a focus on ceramics. Fisher developed an interest in clay from around 2010 and has a particular fascination with the blurring of boundaries between functional and sculptural ceramics. Exhibitions she has produced include Plants, Porcelain, People in 2021 with Katie Spragg, Thoughts From a Sleepless Night in 2022 with Connor Coulston and Littoral in 2023 with Emily Stapleton Jefferis.
Fisher is currently working on the exhibition The Garden Comes Inside, a thematic contemporary art exhibition that highlights making in relation to the historic garden at Bolwick Hall, Norfolk. Running from 10 – 24 May, the exhibition forms part of Norfolk and Norwich Festival
Fisher also makes ceramics, mainly sculptural pieces inspired by architecture and her work Crossing Venice is currently on show as part of In Proximity at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.
@carolinefisherprojects www.carolinefisherprojects.org
Preston Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald’s primary vehicle for exhibiting artists’ works is the annual House of Pots exhibition in Chelsea, London. He has curated exhibitions at London Craft Week and London Design Festival and has been promoting the expansion of ceramics appreciation beyond London in the Midlands, through exhibitions at Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire.
Fitzgerald is the current Chairman of The Crafts Council’s Patrons group and provides tours of their annual Collect Fair for VIPs. He supports Cockpit Studios as a member of the selection committee for the Cockpit Ceramics Residency. In addition, he supports both the young through Fired Up 4 and the ‘un-young’ through the Second Half Art exhibition. Fitzgerald has been a curator and judge of The Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize since its inception in 2014.
For the past 12 years Fitzgerald has sponsored and curated a Work in Progress exhibition with Royal College of Art students on the MA Ceramics and Glass. Hosted in his home the exhibition aims to He has hosted this annual ‘work-in-progress’ exhibition in his home to help students to consider their works in a domestic-setting instead of a white box gallery space.
Preston started his professional life in financial services in New York City after graduation from Bradley University with a finance degree. London-based for over 25 years, he made a major career change after earning post-graduate degrees at Christies’ Education and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
@fitzartsadvisory www.fitzartsadvisory.com
Crispin Kelly
Crispin qualified as an architect but worked as a developer with the ambition of building homes and workplaces where people can flourish, employing architects’ conscientiousness enough to deliver this.
He has been President of the Architectural Association and chaired the boards of the London School of Architecture as well as Open City.
Crispin is now focused on CLAY 1A, an ambitious new museum in Ipswich due to open in 2028, celebrating how the everyday can be extraordinary, explored through the things we have in our homes made of clay. The psychodrama of the home expressed through what we find there. This will be operated by the Ipswich Ceramic Foundation, a registered charity.
@crispinkellybaylight www.baylight.co.uk
Daniella Wells
Daniella has over 25 years experience in the art market with a focus on museum quality craft. Her work encompasses a range of events, predominantly art fairs.
As an independent, Daniella is the Market Consultant for Collect, the leading international art fair for contemporary craft and design, presented by the Crafts Council at Somerset House.
Daniella has devised market development initiatives both in the UK and internationally and works with galleries, fairs and events. After studying Ceramics at Central Saint Martins, Daniella began her career at Sotheby’s working on selling exhibitions of contemporary applied arts.
Currently she is heading up sales for Kate Malone’s charity FiredUp4 providing Clay Clubs at OnSide youth zones, allowing young people from disadvantaged backgrounds access to clay. The next charity sales will be presented in partnership with London Craft Week at Sotheby’s in May.
@wellsdaniella www.daniellawells.co.uk
Julia Ellen Lancaster
Julia Ellen Lancaster is an artist working out of London and Kent, UK. Graduating from the Royal College of Art she spent time in Tokyo, researching and exhibiting at Youkobo Arts Centre, Tokyo. Lancaster was subsequently selected for the Leach 100 Residency, St Ives, UK in 2020 as part of the Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada pottery centenary celebrations. In 2021 she was awarded a further residency with Leach Pottery, being one of the first artists to take up residence at the historically significant Anchor studio, the original home of the Newlyn Art School. In 2024 Lancaster was awarded the first international Residency at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Ceramics school, culminating in a sell-out show of new work.
Recent exhibitions include Odyssey, Hastings Contemporary, 2026; Ground Works, County Hall Pottery, London, 2025; The Whole World In Our Hands, The Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Greenwich, London, 2025; The Liberty Vessel no.162 at Clink Street Ceramics, London, 2025/26. Lancaster is a selected member of the Royal Society of Sculptors and the Public Statues and Sculpture Association with works held in Public and Private collections in the UK, Japan, Australia.
@juliaellenlancaster_ceramics www.juliaellenlancaster.com
This is an ‘in person’ event to be held at venue:
County Hall Pottery, Belvedere Rd, London, SE1 7BP
All are welcome.
Places are limited so please book early.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
County Hall Pottery, Belvedere Road, London, United Kingdom
GBP 3.00
