Early on in my time with the Manitoba Craft Council, I began working on MCC’s 2009 Juried Exhibition. As many of you know, there are two awards associated with the annual juried shows, one of which is the Marilyn Wolodarsky Levitt Prize for Functional Pottery. Seeing Marilyn’s name on the award documents made my heart jump. While I had only met her once or twice, I was close friends with her daughter Emily back in my early university days, so her name naturally brought up warm feelings. I also, sadly, recall the day she passed away in 1997.
Today, I found myself looking through the MCC archives and found a file with her name on it. Below you’ll find some of my discoveries from that file: images of her work and a Winnipeg Free Press article about her teaching practice from February 1, 1994. There was also a lovely photo of Marilyn and a piece about her ceramics in the Jewish Post here.
When I searched Marilyn’s name online, what came up first was a list of contemporary Manitoba ceramic artists, all of whom have benefited from Marilyn’s legacy through the award bearing her name. In the ceramic objects she created, through her students and in this generous award, Marilyn’s commitment to her craft lives on.
