Taking over ownership of an established gallery and pillar in the local and ceramics community proved to be a unique opportunity that came with a lot of learning and growing.
Good Earth Pottery, a gallery nestled in the Fairhaven district of Bellingham, Washington, is one of the tall trees in the ceramics community of the Pacific Northwest (PNW). AnnMarie Cooper has been the sole owner since 2019, and in the last six years, she’s been tending a forest that reaches far beyond the PNW. Through her efforts, with help from her daughter, Jillian Cooper, who is also her assistant manager, along with three other part-time employees, she’s taken a humble gallery that opened in 1969 and is extending wider rings nationally and internationally in the clay field.
The gallery’s location, the tile mural outside by Joyce Russell, the walls of the gallery painted with trees are all part of the look and feel of this rustic and modern space. She made a few updates to the Good Earth Pottery logo, but there’s a cozy home vibe to the space. Walking into this gallery, the shelves beckon with works asking, “Pick me up and hold me, how does this feel in your hands?” She shares, “I have people who come into the gallery every week to buy something new. The community is excited about their favorites and wants to see new and featured artists. Collectors from around the country are excited as well. Going to the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference and meeting someone for the first time who knows about Good Earth, or is an artist that has been in a juried show, and getting hugs—it feels good.”
Beginnings in the State of Washington
“Being a Washington state girl through and through,” she tells me she graduated from Western Washington University in Bellingham, with a BA in creative writing in 1999. She’d taken a high school ceramics course where she grew up in Edmonds, but didn’t really get bitten by the clay bug until starting to work at Good Earth Pottery in 2009. Her family had moved back to Bellingham and a former boss recommended her to Linda Stone, a potter and a co-owner with Deb Martin. Stone retired in 2016 and sold her shares to Cooper, and three years later Martin followed by selling her shares as well.
Cooper found herself a business owner just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Nervous and driven to succeed, connect, and create, she started the online component of Good Earth. Her savvy, long-term vision and understanding of community building are paying off. Jillian says about AnnMarie, “Her name and Good Earth Pottery are completely interconnected. You think of Good Earth, and I can almost guarantee you think of my mom’s name. And while Good Earth has had a long and beautiful legacy before my mom began her time here, the name recognition is a testament to the hard work and care she puts into this business and into the ceramics community.
Shifting Possibilities
AnnMarie Cooper was not a potter when she started working at Good Earth Pottery. Within three months of starting her new job, she had enrolled in courses at a nearby community college, and in the next three years she built her skills, began selling her work at the gallery, and participated in other shows in the Pacific Northwest. Eventually, Cooper was able to get into national juried exhibits and she remains a strong believer in applying for shows. By 2017, she was showing and selling work nationally. As an artist and gallery owner, she understands the complexity, frustrations, and stress that go into applying and being rejected. “When a jury or juror doesn’t accept the work. Turning people down, hurting feelings, this can be painful to tell folks. Space in juried shows is limited. Often, it’s not the right fit for that particular show or the vision of that juror. What speaks to one juror might not speak to another. Even though it’s hard to not take it personally when you don’t get into a show—still it doesn’t feel good. And I’ve been rejected from a lot of shows.”
She’s the administrator organizing moving parts for juried shows at Good Earth. Seeking new artists beyond the local potters for the gallery, she often finds them through the jury process and it has its pros and cons. “I get to see a lot of amazing pottery,” she tells me; she is committed to lifting artists and says, “I find joy in helping other people get their art out there. I like being a jumping-off point for newer artists. It’s one of the reasons I like doing the juried shows, it gives me the chance to include people who may not get a chance somewhere else. I get excited for artists when their work sells at Good Earth Pottery. Artists are passionate about what they are doing, and I want to be able to help them achieve their goals and dreams.” Currently, the gallery represents over thirty artists and tries to host juried shows twice a year.
Running a Gallery
“What have you learned over the years?” I ask. We talk about the back end, the invisible labor that goes into management, details, and minutiae. “A lot goes into running a gallery. A gallery can take 40–50% of the sales. We pay for the space and the employees. We offer opportunities to show work all the time,” the gallery is like an art fair in a brick and mortar space. All galleries have to take a cut, and we discussed the marketing, promotion, packaging, and shipping, customer interaction, updating a website, and photography, all the sweat and labor of love that goes into running a business. Juried shows can be very time consuming; gathering applications and information, organizing images, communicating with all artists, including sending notifications and updates to prepare for a show. She uses a blind jury process and makes sure all image entries have no names. These are organized into folders for the juror, and unless the juror recognizes the work, they don’t know who the artist is. The number of applications is growing and accessibility is very important to Cooper. Currently, she doesn’t charge an entry fee for juried exhibitions, although she pays the juror. She is considering charging a nominal entry fee. Any work that doesn’t sell during a juried show, Cooper pays to ship work back to the artists. Some galleries ask artists to plan up front for the end-of-show shipping or provide a PayPal account to charge and then invoice the artist. She shared concerns regarding the current economic climate and uncertainty with materials costs, shipping to customers internationally and artists who ship to Good Earth from outside the country. She ships nationally and around the globe and has sent pottery to Australia, Iceland, Japan, and Germany. Cooper survives with her business, and every year has been better than the last.
A Forest and Galaxy of Abundance
Cooper wears many hats. In the ceramics field, she is a magic gardener sowing seeds, fostering growth, and spinning wild and wide interconnections. She joined Simon Levin in 2022 to help run Cohorts.Art, formerly Clay Cohorts, which he began in 2021. Going into year six, they support artists with professional development and networking strategies. She recently started Starflower Studios in the downtown district of Bellingham. Starflower rents studios to artists, houses Cooper’s studio and Jillian’s painting studio, and will eventually host a variety of art classes for the greater community. She’s also been teaching ceramics to youth and adults since 2012. Her primary interest in the studio is handbuilding. She will sometimes use a visible coil technique utilizing a plaster or bisque armature. For over a decade, she embedded herself within the wood-firing, atmospheric community, but is interested now in color and cone-6 oxidation firing. Shifting her time from wadding, loading, and stoking to focus on her studio practice, she usually can get 16–40 hours a week. It’s as though Cooper has her roots planted deep and yet can multitask in a vast array of spaces, always connected to the stellar capacity of creativity. Her ever-growing constellation of dreams continues to unfold. I appreciate her tenacity, her smiling determination, and the fortitude of her vision as she strives to co-create, grow, and build with other artists.
We closed our interview talking about the name “Good Earth Pottery,” and Cooper shared with me, “I feel like Good Earth is about grounding. The building itself is the anchor of the historic arts district of Fairhaven. We are in an artist-studio building, housing galleries and studios; essentially an artist cooperative, we are all tenants and technically co-own the building through a land trust. Above us are two floors of artist studios and next door is the Artwood Gallery. It’s named the Morgan Block studios, although most folks call it ‘The Good Earth Building’ because it is a cornerstone of the community.” Good Earth Pottery has been rooted for decades in the small college town, and yet its branches reach far and wide into the bright foliage of ceramics.
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Taking over ownership of an established gallery and pillar in the local and ceramics community proved to be a unique opportunity that came with a lot of learning and growing.
The gallery’s location, the tile mural outside by Joyce Russell, the walls of the gallery painted with trees are all part of the look and feel of this rustic and modern space. She made a few updates to the Good Earth Pottery logo, but there’s a cozy home vibe to the space. Walking into this gallery, the shelves beckon with works asking, “Pick me up and hold me, how does this feel in your hands?” She shares, “I have people who come into the gallery every week to buy something new. The community is excited about their favorites and wants to see new and featured artists. Collectors from around the country are excited as well. Going to the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference and meeting someone for the first time who knows about Good Earth, or is an artist that has been in a juried show, and getting hugs—it feels good.”
Beginnings in the State of Washington
“Being a Washington state girl through and through,” she tells me she graduated from Western Washington University in Bellingham, with a BA in creative writing in 1999. She’d taken a high school ceramics course where she grew up in Edmonds, but didn’t really get bitten by the clay bug until starting to work at Good Earth Pottery in 2009. Her family had moved back to Bellingham and a former boss recommended her to Linda Stone, a potter and a co-owner with Deb Martin. Stone retired in 2016 and sold her shares to Cooper, and three years later Martin followed by selling her shares as well.
Cooper found herself a business owner just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Nervous and driven to succeed, connect, and create, she started the online component of Good Earth. Her savvy, long-term vision and understanding of community building are paying off. Jillian says about AnnMarie, “Her name and Good Earth Pottery are completely interconnected. You think of Good Earth, and I can almost guarantee you think of my mom’s name. And while Good Earth has had a long and beautiful legacy before my mom began her time here, the name recognition is a testament to the hard work and care she puts into this business and into the ceramics community.
Shifting Possibilities
AnnMarie Cooper was not a potter when she started working at Good Earth Pottery. Within three months of starting her new job, she had enrolled in courses at a nearby community college, and in the next three years she built her skills, began selling her work at the gallery, and participated in other shows in the Pacific Northwest. Eventually, Cooper was able to get into national juried exhibits and she remains a strong believer in applying for shows. By 2017, she was showing and selling work nationally. As an artist and gallery owner, she understands the complexity, frustrations, and stress that go into applying and being rejected. “When a jury or juror doesn’t accept the work. Turning people down, hurting feelings, this can be painful to tell folks. Space in juried shows is limited. Often, it’s not the right fit for that particular show or the vision of that juror. What speaks to one juror might not speak to another. Even though it’s hard to not take it personally when you don’t get into a show—still it doesn’t feel good. And I’ve been rejected from a lot of shows.”
She’s the administrator organizing moving parts for juried shows at Good Earth. Seeking new artists beyond the local potters for the gallery, she often finds them through the jury process and it has its pros and cons. “I get to see a lot of amazing pottery,” she tells me; she is committed to lifting artists and says, “I find joy in helping other people get their art out there. I like being a jumping-off point for newer artists. It’s one of the reasons I like doing the juried shows, it gives me the chance to include people who may not get a chance somewhere else. I get excited for artists when their work sells at Good Earth Pottery. Artists are passionate about what they are doing, and I want to be able to help them achieve their goals and dreams.” Currently, the gallery represents over thirty artists and tries to host juried shows twice a year.
Running a Gallery
“What have you learned over the years?” I ask. We talk about the back end, the invisible labor that goes into management, details, and minutiae. “A lot goes into running a gallery. A gallery can take 40–50% of the sales. We pay for the space and the employees. We offer opportunities to show work all the time,” the gallery is like an art fair in a brick and mortar space. All galleries have to take a cut, and we discussed the marketing, promotion, packaging, and shipping, customer interaction, updating a website, and photography, all the sweat and labor of love that goes into running a business. Juried shows can be very time consuming; gathering applications and information, organizing images, communicating with all artists, including sending notifications and updates to prepare for a show. She uses a blind jury process and makes sure all image entries have no names. These are organized into folders for the juror, and unless the juror recognizes the work, they don’t know who the artist is. The number of applications is growing and accessibility is very important to Cooper. Currently, she doesn’t charge an entry fee for juried exhibitions, although she pays the juror. She is considering charging a nominal entry fee. Any work that doesn’t sell during a juried show, Cooper pays to ship work back to the artists. Some galleries ask artists to plan up front for the end-of-show shipping or provide a PayPal account to charge and then invoice the artist. She shared concerns regarding the current economic climate and uncertainty with materials costs, shipping to customers internationally and artists who ship to Good Earth from outside the country. She ships nationally and around the globe and has sent pottery to Australia, Iceland, Japan, and Germany. Cooper survives with her business, and every year has been better than the last.
A Forest and Galaxy of Abundance
Cooper wears many hats. In the ceramics field, she is a magic gardener sowing seeds, fostering growth, and spinning wild and wide interconnections. She joined Simon Levin in 2022 to help run Cohorts.Art, formerly Clay Cohorts, which he began in 2021. Going into year six, they support artists with professional development and networking strategies. She recently started Starflower Studios in the downtown district of Bellingham. Starflower rents studios to artists, houses Cooper’s studio and Jillian’s painting studio, and will eventually host a variety of art classes for the greater community. She’s also been teaching ceramics to youth and adults since 2012. Her primary interest in the studio is handbuilding. She will sometimes use a visible coil technique utilizing a plaster or bisque armature. For over a decade, she embedded herself within the wood-firing, atmospheric community, but is interested now in color and cone-6 oxidation firing. Shifting her time from wadding, loading, and stoking to focus on her studio practice, she usually can get 16–40 hours a week. It’s as though Cooper has her roots planted deep and yet can multitask in a vast array of spaces, always connected to the stellar capacity of creativity. Her ever-growing constellation of dreams continues to unfold. I appreciate her tenacity, her smiling determination, and the fortitude of her vision as she strives to co-create, grow, and build with other artists.
We closed our interview talking about the name “Good Earth Pottery,” and Cooper shared with me, “I feel like Good Earth is about grounding. The building itself is the anchor of the historic arts district of Fairhaven. We are in an artist-studio building, housing galleries and studios; essentially an artist cooperative, we are all tenants and technically co-own the building through a land trust. Above us are two floors of artist studios and next door is the Artwood Gallery. It’s named the Morgan Block studios, although most folks call it ‘The Good Earth Building’ because it is a cornerstone of the community.” Good Earth Pottery has been rooted for decades in the small college town, and yet its branches reach far and wide into the bright foliage of ceramics.
To learn more, visit goodearthpots.com and annmariecooper.com, and on Instagram @goodearthpottery and @annieoclay.
the author Erin Shafkind is an artist and educator living in Seattle, Washington. To learn more, visit www.erinshafkind.com and Instagram @eshaffy.
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