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About Watershed 
Click on the links below for quick refrence. History . Facilities . Location . Directions Watershed is a residency/retreat which provides artists with time and space to create in clay. We serve artists from across the country and abroad. Watershed’s unique niche grows out of its small and intimate communal approach to a non-hierarchical, process-oriented environment for experimentation, exploration, collaboration and growth. Watershed serves the local community with a variety of clay arts programs. We teach community classes in clay for adults and children statewide through our Mudmobile, hold clay workshops for people with special needs, collaborate with other non-profit organizations to offer learning opportunities through art, and hold public lectures and events to open Watershed’s studio environment and present artists for interaction with the local community. 
Watershed is a 501 c 3 non-profit organization with strong grass-roots
support. The international community of clay artists support Watershed with
donations of their time, work and funds. Nationally, collectors, arts educators,
businesses and individuals concerned with the arts contribute to Watershed.
Maine artists, community class participants, and local schools, colleges and
universities as well as other social services organizations lend their support
to Watershed.
Back to top History of Watershed 
The history of Watershed begins with the geological gift of clay which is
found along the banks of the local rivers of mid-coast Maine. For much of the
19th century, making waterstruck brick, so called because it was made from a
wet mixture of clay and water, was a popular and vital source of income for the
local community.
Waterstruck brick had such historical appeal that in 1974, an attempt was
made to re-establish its manufacture in Edgecomb at the Watershed Brick and Clay
Products Company. Unfortunately, high production costs and insufficient demand
necessitated the closing of the facility after only one year of operation.
Inspired by an idea, Margaret Griggs, an artist and investor in the brick factory, enlisted artists George Mason, Lynn Duryea and Chris Gustin in 1986 to organize a pilot project to utilize the site in a new way. Twelve artists from the United States and Britain came to live and work in the facility over the course of the summer. That fall, a second group of artists comprised of students and graduate faculty from the Ceramics Department of the Swain School of Design were invited to live and work for ten days at the former brickyard. The rustic and open-ended aspects of the facility encouraged the artists to approach their work with a new vigor and awareness. As a result, an enlightened community of artists came together to establish Watershed’s philosophy and shape its future. Back to top Facilities 
Watershed’s summer studio is housed in a spacious old barn. Sixteen thousand square feet of space on two floors supply ample, flexible studios to accommodate functional, sculptural, and experimental work in clay. Numerous kilns, including wood and soda kilns, and a variety of low and high temperature gas and electric kilns, complement the studio’s array of equipment. A hillside of local, glacially formed earthenware clay is free and abundant. A large inventory of raw materials to make clay and glaze is available for purchase. The Facilities Director and staff artists maintain and manage the studio. 
Led off by the 2004 fundraising efforts of California resident artists Kevin
Nierman and John Toki, Watershed began construction of a new concrete and steel
kiln shed in 2005. The new 2600 sq ft annex will house all the Center’s new and
rebuilt electric, gas, and other atmospheric kilns. With completion of the
concrete pad in August 2005, Facilities Director Mark Urbanik and the artists of
the summer’s last residency session built a 35 cu ft kiln, the rest of the new
gas kilns soon to be housed there! Until completion of Watershed’s multi-phase capital
campaign, which will also rebuild and winterize the summer studio barn, winter
studios continue to be re-established each September with the annual transformation
of the central residence building into a winter work space. The residence
building provides a central gathering place and dining room in summer–site of
conversation and superb, healthy meals prepared by staff artists–in addition to
dorm housing. Separate Maine camp-style cabins, built in 2003, provide double
and single housing accommodations with or without private baths (outdoor shower
too!) for both summer and winter residents.The intense focus on ceramic materials, paired with a facility and surrounding landscape of extraordinary size allows opportunity for residents to think expansively, and outside the confines afforded by their own studios." - Paul Sacaridiz Back to top Location 
Located in Newcastle, Maine, Watershed is about an hour's drive northeast of Portland and three hours from Boston. The thirty-two rural acres are set on gently rolling hills of both open and wooded land, surrounded by a neighboring farm, nature conservancy land, and the Sheepscot River. Several lakes and the ocean are a short drive away. Back to top 
Directions
19 Brick Hill Rd. Newcastle, ME 04553 Click here for printable directions From the South: Take I-95 (Maine Turnpike) north to I-295 (South Portland- Exit 44). I-295 takes you through Portland. Note: I-295 is NOT the Maine Turnpike at this point. Follow I-295 approx. 28 miles north to Brunswick Exit 28- the exit signs read toward “Bath-Brunswick coastal route.” After exiting I-295 at Brunswick you are now on U.S. Route 1 North. Follow Rt. 1 north through Brunswick, Bath and Wiscasset. After crossing the Sheepscot River, leaving Wiscasset and entering Edgecomb, go 1 mile to Cochran Rd. Cochran Rd. is on the left at the top of a hill, just past the Rt. 27 turnoff to Boothbay, and is located between Mary’s Pop-In convenience store and Skip Cahill Citgo Gas Station. See continuation below at "After turning onto Cochran Rd". 
From the North:
Watershed is about 8 miles south of Damariscotta/ Newcastle Via Rt. 1. Turn right onto Cochran Rd., at the top of the hill- after Skip Cahill Citgo Gas Station and before Mary’s Pop-In convenience store. See continuation below at "After turning onto Cochran Rd". After turning onto Cochran Rd: Go .7 mile down Cochran Rd. and look on the right for the turquoise Watershed sign. The first building on the right is the residence building and offices. Take a hard right turn into our parking lot. The studios in the old factory building are at the bottom of the hill, to the right, past the residence building. Note: the farm behind the residence building is not part of Watershed. Back to top |