Rick Berman will present a workshop/lecture exploring 12,000 years of ceramic history across cultures worldwide, beginning with the Jomon culture of China and later Japan (14,000–300 BCE), known for some of the earliest and most original pottery ever made. The lecture will also examine handbuilt ceramic traditions from North, Central, and South America, including pinching, slab, and coiling techniques, decorative slip surfaces, and open-pit firing methods, before moving to Mesopotamia, where the potter’s wheel developed over 7,000 years ago and later spread through Asia and Europe. It will also touch on utilitarian pottery traditions in early America, including the important ceramic legacy of the Edgefield District, and conclude with a discussion of influential 20th-century studio potters such as Peter Voulkos, Paul Soldner, Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach, Betty Woodman, and Judy Chicago, among many others who shaped contemporary ceramic practice.