ALT Quote: The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

ALT Image contains the poem “Questions” by Rachel Richardson

ALT Background is a Dutch still life of flowers with vivid reds and pinks. Layered on top is a white text box with two lines from Claude McKay's poem "Poetry": "I fear, I fear my truly human heart / Will perish on the alter-stone of art!"

ALT In an ornate black frame against a deep red wall, there is a painting of half a loaf of bread in a woven basket on the edge of a wooden table. In front of the painting on a plinth is what appears to be the bread depicted in the painting, only it and the basket have been painted gold.