Tom and Ginny Marsh papers

Virginia Jean Stein “Ginny” Marsh was born on August 13, 1945 in Sherman, Texas. She worked as a children’s art instructor at the Joslyn Memorial Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska from 1960-1963. She graduated from DePauw University with a undergraduate degree in Art in 1967 where she continued to teach children’s art classes. She then attended Ohio State University and earned a Masters in Fine Arts in 1969. While at OSU, she worked as a graduate teaching assistant who was fully responsible for ceramics classes. Mrs. Marsh became co-owner of Marsh Pottery in 1968 with her husband, Tom.

Mrs. Marsh became a Fine Arts professor at the University of Louisville in 1975 and continued teaching until 1995. She (along with her husband) worked as a visiting professor at Purdue University during the summer of 1972. She also obtained the position of Artist-in-Residence at Banff Centre School of Art in Alberta, Canada in 1984. Mrs. Marsh worked as editorial advisor for Chilton Book Company from 1980-1995 to increase its holdings on pottery and its history.

Mrs. Marsh moved back to north Texas in 2000 and continues to exhibit her work throughout the southwestern United States while teaching part-time. She has been a workshop instructor at the Craft Guild of Dallas as well as a visiting artist/adjunct instructor at the University of Dallas.

Edwin Thomas “Tom” Marsh was born on February 11, 1934 in Winchester, Kentucky. He graduated from Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg in 1951. He began attending the University of Louisville in that year and worked towards a music degree. In 1952, Mr. Marsh moved to Japan where he attended International Christian University and became fluent in Japanese. He returned to the University of Louisville in 1955 and became a painting and ceramics major. He graduated in 1960 with a BS in Art and became the first ceramics major to do so at the university.

After undergrad, Mr. Marsh moved back to Japan where he spent the next four years studying under master potters Totaro Sakuma (1961-1962) and Kei Fujiwara (1963-1964). He attended Indiana University and graduated with a Masters of Arts in Teaching Ceramics in 1970. During that time, he worked as an art teacher at Silver Creek High School. In 1971, Mr. Marsh became a full-time instructor at the University of Louisville. He was known for using music, literature, philosophy, and art in his teaching. In 1983, he was recognized as a Distinguished Graduate Teaching Professor by the university. Mr. Marsh also spent the summers of 1970, 1971, and 1972 as a visiting professor at Purdue University alongside his wife, Ginny.

During his years as a professor, he also continued to display his own work. He participated in more than 70 exhibitions in galleries such as Bendigo Pottery International in Melbourne, Australia, Concorso Internazionale del Arte in Faenza, Italy, and Greenwich House Pottery in New York City. In 1968, he and his wife, Ginny, opened Marsh Pottery. His work has been displayed in various museums and galleries such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Modern Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan. Tom Marsh died on December 2, 1991. He was survived by his second wife, Virginia Jean Stein Marsh, five children, and four grandchildren.