HoboEye Art:
Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana

Wandering the grounds of the Archie Bray Foundation on the outskirts of Helena, Montana, there’s a feeling of standing on the boundary between fact and mythology.

Certainly, the Bray’s assortment of brick and earth buildings, some clearly inhabited, others somewhat overgrown—a couple in a seeming state of decay—lend to this feeling. In the slow pulse of a June day, it feels like history might just win out, like the grasses and growth just might reclaim the site in the name of Mother Earth.

But once you remember you’re in a potter’s sanctuary, that feeling fades. These guardians of the sacred mud are not perturbed by time. Like mud-caked monks, they go about the day’s tasks, one wandering across the sparsely populated grounds, another inching out of the studio for a cigarette.

The Bray is sacred ground for potters, as it should be for artists everywhere. It is the site of a glorious transformation. This arts foundation used to be the home of Western Clay Manufacturing Co., a brick manufacturing company. This transformation is the source of its mythology.

Depending on who’s telling the story, there are different nuances. The Bray’s website tells a pretty straight-ahead version of the story that lacks the deliciousness of the more mythic version told to me by Orland J. Rourke. Orland was a master potter, painter, teacher and friend who died in 1997. Orland knew and was friendly with former Bray director, and master potter, David Shaner.

Three years prior to Rourke’s death, he told me of the role Bray legends Rudy Autio and Peter Voulkos had in that transformation. Both potters were born and raised in Montana—Voulkos in Bozeman and Autio in Butte. Being clay hounds and having studied pottery, Voulkos and Autio worked at the Western Clay Manufacturing Co., making bricks during the day and bringing out the kick-wheels at night to throw pots.

Archie Bray owned the Western Clay Manufacturing Co., having inherited it from his father in 1931, and was impressed with the work Autio and Voulkos were producing. In 1951, Bray bankrolled the construction of the Pottery on the grounds of the brick company. Bray died only two years after the founding his eponymous foundation.

The following year, a historic gathering took place. Potters Shoji Hamada and Bernard Leach and philosopher Soetsu Yanagi joined Voulkos and Autio at the Bray. The ideas generated by their exchange were passed on to a generation of potters.

Now the entire grounds are the Bray Foundation’s. And while brick making portion of the operation has long-since ceased, it remains a glorious residence and workspace for potters, as well as a world-class source for clays and potter’s tools.

Learn more about Archie Bray Foundation >