Call out to artists and potters who make plates to present and sell work in an exhibition supporting reconciliation. As part of our Ceramics Season 2024 Messums West invites the creative community to work with us in a fundraising effort to raise awareness and support the work of the David Nott Foundation by submitting work to be selected for our Ceramics Season exhibition – Plates with Purpose, Make for Peace.

Plates, like the physical act of making, are connected to sharing, bringing people together around a table.

They can also be symbolic, passing commentary, depicting trends, marking significant personal events and much more.  From 2 March – 6 April we will be exhibiting a series of plates as part of our Ceramics season in the Long Gallery at Messums West.  

If you would like to be part of the exhibition, please submit your work before the open call closing dates. Works will be curatorially selected for inclusion based on overall balance to visual presentation of the collection and we will try and include as many as possible.

Exhibition dates: 2 March – 29 April 

Exhibition venue: The Long Gallery, Messums West, Tisbury, Wiltshire | www.messums.org

Call out closes: 15 January  

Application Process: 

Please make a submission by completing the Artwork Submissions form. 

Ceramic Artists and Potters may submit up to 5 works for selection. The maximum size of each plate: 45cm in diameter.

Artists may submit an image for each plate. Images should be taken on a neutral background. 

Image files must be titled with the Artist's initals followed by the artwork number.  For example: XY1, XY2, XY3. 

If individual plates are titled, please upload this information as supporting material. 

Applications must be made by the closing date Monday 15 January 2024. 

Please note, any applications made after the closing date will not be considered for selection.

Selection Process:

Works will be selected on strength of design,  execution and originality. 

Works will be curatorially selected by a professional panel for inclusion based on overall balance to visual presentation of the collection and we will try and include as many as possible.  

Artists selected for exhibition will be contacted via CuratorSpace on Friday 2 February  

If selected, the work will be exhibited with the aim of selling under the following terms:

1. Charity: 40% of selling price

2. Artist: 40% of selling price 

3. Gallery: 20% of selling price 

The artist will agree to deliver their work to Messums Studios in Chilmark, Wiltshire on 15th or 17th February 2024 (10.00-13.00).

Messums West team will be responsible for installing the work which will be wall-hung. Messums West will insure the work when with the gallery.

If unsold, the artist is responsible for the collection of their work on 9th or 11th May 2024 (10.00-13.00). 

The Gallery commits to maximise exposure for the exhibited works in this time and to work to complete sales on behalf of the contributing artist and the charity.  

Selection includes an invitation to supper on the opening night of the exhibition.  

Important Dates: 

• Submission Close:  Monday 15 January
• Selection Announcement: Friday 2 February
• Delivery of Work: 15 or 17 February (10.00 - 13.00) 
• Exhibition dates: 2 March - 29 April
• Collection of Work: 9 or 11 May (10.00 - 13.00) 

About Messums:

MESSUMS ORG is a collaborative environment for artists, collectors and thinkers nationally and internationally.  It is a virtual and physical network for the presentation and engagement with creative expression across artistic genre.  

We have to recognise the unwelcome truth that the world in our times is becoming polarised and increasingly turbulent. Yet amongst the unrest there are organisations and people whose profession it is to help bring about healing and reconciliation between divided communities and which remind us that the human spirit is on balance collaborative; all our achievements have come from this way of thinking.  

As an organisation whose expertise is presenting, selling and funding creativity, we understand the potential for creativity to bring people together and how making can offer a way to enable reconciliation. We believe that peace making is a physical act in which the key ingredients of empathy, generosity and gratitude combined with the non verbal language of creating can help to open unexpected doors.

About the Charity: 

The David Nott Foundation was established with a simple mission: to provide the surgeons and medical professionals working in the most hostile environments with the skills and the confidence to save more lives. 

There is unfortunate certainty in the enduring occurrence of conflict and natural disaster. Environmental catastrophe and civil unrest are increasingly becoming an inherent part of our global landscape. At the frontlines of these crises are the doctors and medical professionals who work tirelessly –often against the odds – to help victims and preserve life.

Yet in countries where resources are scarce, and access to equipment and training is limited, these doctors are left, ill-equipped and unsupported, to face the most challenging of circumstances. In order to overcome these circumstances the David Nott Foundation has trained 1500 doctors and run 48 courses around the world, making an immediate impact on the ground and leaving a legacy of better education and health for years to come.