Ceramics exhibit seeks to raise water awareness

water jars med

Jars like this one will be on display in
Northwest's DeLuce Gallery Sept. 8-Oct. 3
in an exhibit designed to increase awareness
about the scarcity of clean, drinkable water
in much of the developing world.

The 2008-’09 Visiting Artists Series sponsored by Northwest’s Department of Art will open Monday, Sept. 8, in the first-floor gallery space in the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building with an exhibit designed to raise awareness about the Potters for Peace Ceramic Water Purifier initiative.

On tour nationally since 2006, the group exhibition of water jars based on the Potters for Peace purifier was initiated by Richard Wukich, a ceramics professor at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. The show is meant to raise awareness about the organization’s humanitarian effort to provide clean drinking water in developing countries where it is often a scarce commodity.

Wukich will show slides and talk about the exhibit during a lecture beginning at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 8, in DeLuce 244.

The Potters for Peace Ceramic Water Purifier, or CWP, of which the pots in the exhibits are artistic representations, is a simple bucket, 11 inches wide and 10 inches deep, that is created using a mix of terra-cotta clay and sawdust or other combustible material, such as rice husks.

When the clay is fired, the combustible material burns away, leaving a network of fine pores. After firing the filter is coated with colloidal silver, which acts as an antibacterial agent. The combination of fine pore size and colloidal silver produces an effective, low-cost filter capable of removing more than 99 percent of most water born disease agents.

When in use, the terra-cotta filter is simply filled with water that has been strained through cloth and placed over a 5-gallon bucket fitted with a plastic spigot. The water is purified as it drips through the bottom of the pot and into the bucket.

According to Potters for Peace 1.7 million deaths occur each year due to diarrhea caused by unsafe water, with most of the victims being children under the age of five. The group cites United Nations figures indicating that 80 percent of all sickness in the developing world is linked to unsafe water.

Women and children, especially girls, bear the burden of collecting and transporting safe water in regions where it is scarce, meaning they have less time for the schooling and paid work necessary to alleviate extreme poverty.

The Potters for Peace purifier is not sanctioned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in the United States. Sale or use of such filters in this country is restricted to research or display purposes.

To learn more about the Potters for Peace Ceramic Water Purifier, go to http://pottersforpeace.org. For information about the DeLuce Gallery exhibit, contact Laura Kukkee, assistant professor of art, at kukkee@nwmissouri.edu.

The exhibit runs through Friday, Oct. 3.

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Manager
E-Mail: abrown@nwmissouri.edu
Phone: 660.562.1704
Fax: 660.562.1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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