Peter Sohngen

This interview with Peter Sohngen took place at the Memphis Listening Lab on June 10, 2022. Peter Sohngen was the ceramics professor at the Memphis Art Academy (that later became the Memphis College of Art) from 1969 to 2002. From the description on the  Tennessee Arts Commission page written by Aiden Layer: “Peter Sohngen was working towards a PhD in English literature at Claremont Graduate University when he became fascinated with the ceramic work that the art students were doing at the time. Later, he went to Istanbul, Turkey, as an English teacher, but decided while he was there that he needed a change and decided to do something else. He met a man who made and sold flower pots at the local bazaar, and learned how to use a potter’s wheel and make simple forms. From there, Sohngen traveled to a German salt-firing district, where he got a job as a potter, which he enjoyed very much. Deciding to switch careers, he went back to school at Alfred University in New York to get his M.F.A. in clay. After graduating, he took up a job as a professor at the Memphis Academy of Art in 1969.” While he taught at the Memphis College of Art Sohngen was a part of a legendary cohort of instructors that included Dolph Smith, Veda Reed, Murray Riss, and others. After retiring from the Memphis College of Art in 2022 he was a full time potter and tended to the garden with his wife, Judith. While he retired from making pots years ago he continues to be an influential potter and revered maker in the city’s clay community. This interview was done when Peter was 85, shortly before Sohngen and his wife, Judith, entered a memory care facility.  There are a number of long pauses where Sohngen gathers his thoughts.