Rose Milovich Interview

Here are some excerpts from my interview with Rose Milovich who was a student from the late 1970's. Rose is currently the Preservation Manager and Exhibition Program Director of the Special Collections and Archives at Utah State University. Our inteview lasted almost half an hour and she had some great memories of professors, descriptions of the use of the barn, and other fun tidbits. Hope these help.

-Jason Neil-

Born: Price Utah
First came into contact with Barn “through ceramics class as a freshman” in “a beginning wheelthrow class” – Art Barn Era
Attended at USU between 1976 – 1980
Raku Kiln Cookout

“One of the things that I remember in the old days is that they used to have the raku kilns at the back of the barn and there was a kind of a fence around it. There was cluster of students who were there eighteen to twenty four hours a day and I was one of those students. We would eat together and fire pots and make pots. One of our friends Masihiro decided that we should cook dinner over the raku kilns and so he made fried rice over the raku kiln. In those days I don’t think knew or maybe it wasn’t illegal to have beer on campus, so he would throw a little beer in the fried rice and drink some beer. It was a lot of fun, it was like a family, we were all different people and all from different places. We helped each other, if we needed to mix clay together we’d mix clay together, glazes. We would take turns watching the kiln. In the raku kiln you would pull things out when they were hot, when they were glowing red hot and you would put them in combustible material. We helped each other with different things…The other kilns you had to watch pretty much from whenever you started it for another day. We would take turns and relieve each other. Somebody would stay there for three hours, somebody else would stay for six, somebody else would go through the night.”

Talking about sleeping overnight at the barn

“That wasn’t uncommon. It was actually pretty common. There were a few couches around, the drawing studio was on the third level. There was a little loft on the top and a little ladder you could go up if you wanted to sleep. You could bring a sleeping bag. Now you would never think of doing that…It’s a whole different world of security and safety.”

**Describing the Barn***

“When I was taking ceramics in the Art Barn there was an area that was set aside for glazes and doing glaze work, that was on the east side of the building, pretty much the whole length of it. (I am guessing the first floor) On the west side, the larger part, they had all the potters wheels. They had some kick wheels and they also had some shimpo electric wheels…The second floor when I was there was strictly sculpture. The third floor was drawing. There was some jewelry casting that was taught underneath sculpture. They did some metal casting.”

"My most vivid memory is walking in and seeing all the potters wheels and the clay all over the place. They had a room that was humidified so that your ceramics wouldn’t dry out too quickly. You would walk through it and you would have to go through it sideways because it was so small. If you turned this way you would knock somebody’s pots over.”