April 22, 2024

The Tops at the Bray
Helena, Montana
2024

The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts (the Bray) has been around since 1951. It was founded by Archie Bray, an “entrepreneur, brickmaker, and avid arts patron.” it is located on the 26 acre site of the former Western Clay Manufacturing Company and contains 17+ buildings, including all the old brick and claymaking facilities which have not largely been restored or even kept up. Throughout the acreage and scattered seemingly helter-skelter among the old buildings are an amazing number of ceramic pieces created by the students, faculty, and art residency participants over the years.

I’ve known about the Bray pretty much since moving to Montana 40 years ago and finally, after all this time got around to visiting it. It was an amazing experience to wander through the mixture of old buildings and ceramic work. Needless to say I took a lot of photographs. One set of items that kept recurring at random locations throughout the acreage were these small, pleasingly formed tops. It was fun to be wandering around and suddenly come across another one.