Art Gallery Coordinator’s career builds on his passions

Ben Clore, a Delta College Art instructor and art gallery coordinator, gets inspiration from his students and his family history.

“I’ve always been interested in art,” Clore said, “In high school I took a lot of art classes, participated in a lot of community activities.”

Clore worked in a Washington state park before deciding to go back to school. He attended Whatcom Community College where he got an Associate of Fine Arts.

While at Whatcom he took Ceramics and got interested in Two-Dimensional Design and Three-Dimensional Design classes.

“It was a great experience to feel things out at the community college level,” said Clore.

He transferred to Western Washington University. His instructors there encouraged him to go to graduate school. At Western Washington University, he got a Bachelors in Ceramics and Sculpture.

He took their advice and applied to several schools, eventually settling on Michigan State University. At MSU, he did a sculpture for the Blue Bridge Project. A Grand Rapids lumber company, Universal Forest Product, sponsored it.

“I was doing some kind of larger wood sculptures, so they asked me to design a sculpture, it took the form of an old train car. This was an old train bridge that they converted to a pedestrian bridge.”

Clore collaborated with Art Professor Andrew Reider on the project.

“He designed some paintings that went on some crates that we built,” Clore said. “The cargo part of the train car became these pieces of artwork on the project. It was sort of an interactive piece too so people could walk up on it and see the paintings and view the city.”

He graduated from MSU with a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramic Art.

Clore teaches Ceramics, Two Dimensional Design and Three Dimensional Design. He has also taught Art History and Appreciation and Sculpture here at Delta.

As the art gallery coordinator, he works on bringing in different shows, and putting together the student show that happens every spring.

In regards to teaching art, Clore said, “You’re surrounded by these talented students. It’s very inspiring when you’re in a class room and seeing what everyone comes up with, and share ideas.”

Clore is a member of the College Art Association, the National Council for the Education of Ceramic Art, the Michigan Ceramic Art Association Advisory Board, and the Saginaw Art Museum Advisory Board.

All of the art in the gallery now is Clore’s work. A lot of it is woodwork. Clore said that his father and grandfather were both carpenters.

Part of the reason he does a lot of woodwork is because he doesn’t have a kiln at his townhouse, though he does own woodworking tools, which fed into his family history of carpentry.

A lot of his materials are repurposed wood from Saginaw and Detroit, as well as objects from the local community, which he recycles into his art.