Interview with
Ellen Braaten

Ellen Braaten joined the faculty of the Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design (formerly the Department of Architecture) in 1971. Charles Burchard and Olivio Ferrari hired her as an editorial assistant and pottery teacher. She served the college as Assistant to the Dean for three deans and as Director of Student Affairs. She is an emeritus professor and currently teaches an independent study class in pottery and advises fifth year architecture students. She studied pottery with famed potters Alexander Giampietro and Vally Possony.

How did you start to do ceramics?
I had polio when I was five.  Because of that, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the hell I was going to make it. I know that sounds weird, but I had to ask myself where am I going with this? What is my life going to be like? I had a fiercely independent personality and, in this instance, it served me well.

My sister Fran told me I should think about doing ceramics, and I started to study. When I was living in Alexandria I met my mentor, master potter Vally Possony. I worked with her in her studio in Falls Church twice a week from 7 to 10:30 at night.

There were some parallels in our lives. She was involved in a very bad accident, and she didn’t walk well. And she was a gardener, and she had a daughter who she brought up by herself.

I knew her for 15 years. During that time I could never make a pot that she liked. There was always something wrong. She would always say, "let’s cut it and look at the section." On one of my last trips to her, when she was 88,  I took her a bowl. I handed it to her, and she said ‘ya it’s good.’ It was the only compliment I ever got from her and she died the next year.

When did you move to Blacksburg?
Well, I had a friend  who was an anti-war radical, as I was, during the Vietnam war. We banded together and participated in Resurrection city, which was a tent city that was built on the Mall in DC, and we stayed there demonstrating against the war and against poverty.  It was pretty intense.

Anyways, one day he said he wanted to take me to Blacksburg to go to an anti-strip mining conference. When we got here I fell in love with Blacksburg. The conference was incredibly interesting. And I realized that Blacksburg was where I wanted to raise my child. I decided it would be a great idea to buy a house and fill it with architecture students, so Lia and I would have a life. It was rewarding, and a very interesting time.

Is this when you started teaching?
First, my friend Robert decided he was going to introduce me to Olivio Ferrari, so he took me to Cowgill. I remember exactly what I was wearing, I had on a pair of navy bell bottom pants and a poet’s shirt with big sleeves, and my hair was wrapped up with the tie from the blouse. I am sure I looked like an outrageous hippie! And Olivio was kind of curious. So he hired me to write a piece for him to celebrate 100 years of the university, this was 1972. I had my little boarding house, but I didn’t have a job, and it was really scary.

I decided one afternoon after a few glasses of wine that I would go over and see Mr. Ferrari. I told him I needed a job. He hired me as an editorial assistant for $3000 a year to teach ceramics and do all of his writing and editing.

After that, there was a whole crew of people who came and lived at my house. The house became very much a public house. For about five years we had friday night seminar at my house, a student would give a presentation and the faculty would have a discussion with the students.

We had a beautiful home, always filled with architecture students, always hosting international guests, it was such a wonderful experience.

I started teaching and I realized I was good at it. I was good at it because I had mentors. I had Vally Possony and I also had Olivio. I learned a great deal from both Lucy and Olivio Ferrari. I needed to teach because I felt it was important to let my students know that it doesn’t matter what your physical condition is, if you have your wits about you, you can succeed. I want students to get rid of their stereotypical views of the world. You can change the world even though you have your own challenges.

Your students come to your house for class, which is somewhat unusual.
Today, now that I am retired and an emeritus professor, I open my studio for students to use. This may seem unusual in some ways, but it’s an offshoot of the Roanoke Street house, where everybody was there and knew that they could come and go and knew they had a place they could be. For me there is no such thing as an anonymous student.

I hear people say to me, ‘you’re very direct. You’re very straight forward.’ Well, what am I supposed to do? I’ve been told that I’m intimidating. I don’t try to be intimidating, I am just so committed to the success of my students. My character defects are just outrageous. But I own them, I do own them.