Make It Funky: Bay Area Influence On Missoula Ceramics

Make it Funky looks at the influence of the San Francisco Bay area Funk movement on Missoula ceramists, many of whom attended the University of Montana. The Funk movement started in the late 1950s/early 1960s in the San Francisco Bay area at the University of California-Davis among studio art faculty such as Robert Arneson, Roy de Forest, and William T. Wiley, and students like Richard Shaw and David Gilhooly, and other artists like California College of the Arts professor Viola Frey and Marilyn Levine. The name ‘Funk’ carried the dual meanings of a strong and musty smell—like the raw, earthiness of cannabis, patchouli, or sweat—and danceable soul-inspired music with a strong beat, both associations related to the counterculture.