Noontime talks are casual conversations between artists, curators, and other special guests with NOMA visitors frequently scheduled throughout the year.

For thirty-seven years, E. John Bullard served as the director of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Since his retirement in 2010, he has actively collected American studio pottery, a portion of which is on view in the exhibition Personalities in Clay: American Studio Ceramics from the E. John Bullard Collection. Bullard will discuss how he has assembled more than 500 ceramic works within a three-year period and the story behind many of the artists represented in his collection. The exhibition is accompanied by a full-color, 104-page catalogue, published by NOMA. The catalogue highlights significant work with a two-page spread for each of 32 artists in the exhibition, features an essay by John Bullard on his approach to collecting, and is anchored by an essay by Mel Buchanan, NOMA’s RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design that situates the context of the studio ceramics movement.