Robert Arneson, a ceramics instructor at UC Davis, led the development of the funk ceramics movement. He taught his students to use humor and non-traditional approaches to their ceramics.
California funk was one of the first ceramics movements to draw influences from counterculture influences like the beat movement and psychedelia while using ceramics to challenge conventional thinking.
The California funk movement has traces in the artistic movement in San Francisco in the 1950s, but its heyday was in the 1960s through early 1970s. However, proponents of the movement are still working today.
Although frequently known as California funk, proponents of the movement could be found throughout the West Coast. Many Australian ceramists also are affiliated with the movement.
Peter Held, curator of ceramics for the Arizona State University Art Museum, said that California funk ceramists showed "little respect for traditional craftsmanship and pottery and created work that drew inspiration from Dada, surrealism, pop art and the beat culture."