The 200 years celebration of the Ceramics Industry’s establishment of its world wide recognition as being at the heartbeat of pottery, fine bone china and associated products and industries, was located for a two week period at the former Spode factory in the old town of Stoke .

Speight of the Art - the Mark Speight Foundation was selected by the British Ceramics Board as a partner invited to assist in the celebrations. A week long artistic and creative workshops format was organised at the Spode factory. Some 150 children from the Stoke conurbation participated under the guidance of Speight of the Art ’s local professional artistes namely Denise O Sullivan and Rob Pointon . The object of the programme, linked to the 2012 Olympiad was an art competition intended to produce a Tile Design, which would then by fired by fellow Biennial Partner H & R Johnson Tiles, for ultimate display in the London Olympic Village prior to returning to Stoke on Trent to remain on public display in perpetuity.

The event was a huge success with pupils from 6 schools receiving individually signed certificates as a memento of the occasion.

One school, St Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Primary School who could not afford the hire of a coach walked almost six miles in total to enjoy the experience, so keen were they not to miss the event.

As a token of his appreciation and admiration the Founder later visited the school and presented each children with a souvenir of Speight of the Art ! The event was well supported by Sp8 volunteers and a sincere note of thanks in the regard to Tracy Popat and Amiee Ready together with our staunch supporter and events’ photographer, Dave Chesters.

We were also blessed with the presence of Ian Marsden , the Stoke based Paralympic Athlete who is specialising in the 2012 Olympiad in the Kayak and Archery events. Ian is currently helping to design the Kayak to ensure its stability in the rapids. Exciting times!

Ian was circulating amongst all the children telling them of his past successes, showing his awards and medals, talking of his preparation and dreams of Olympic gold and encouraging them to ‘Go for Gold’ themselves and achieve their own dreams and goals. Cross fingers for him please! We have welcomed Ian into the Speight of the Art family and we are honoured by his presence as an Ambassador for the Foundation