AMERICAN POTTERY FESTIVAL

Weekend Workshops

You can’t spell STATE FAIR without a-r-t-i-s-t!

Saturday All-day Workshops

Saturday, September 9, 10 am – 4 pm CT

Fees: $60 In-person workshops

$30 In-person for students and educators

$30 Virtual content only

Kristina Batiste, Darcy Delgado, & S.C. Rolf

On the Mainstage at the Grandstand

10 – 11 am

Come to a listening party—a fun and exciting new panel discussion format for this year’s APF—and discover where clay and music meet. As entertaining as the Grandstand at the fair, but with even better seats! Join APF artists Kristina Batiste, Darcy Delgado, and S.C. Rolf as they engage the audience and each other with a curated selection of songs chosen in response to their own studio practices and work styles. Find a new way to experience and appreciate the work of these artists through this rousing, multimedia experience (without the crowds or risk of rain).

Kristina Batiste & Donna de Soto

Design on a Stick

11:15 am – 12:30 pm

If you’re like us, you have been left in disbelief at how well the vendors at the fair are able to deliver tasty treats on demand. Ordering up some great pots is much the same. It is not an easy process; it springs from understanding the core principles of design. Join seasoned pot slingers Kristina Batiste and Donna de Soto as they dole out nuggets of wisdom about their wheel-thrown work’s relationship to ideas of surface, line, form, and color and share thoughts on embracing good design to create even better pottery. This demonstration is sure to leave you feeling full and ready to order up some great pots of your own!

Darcy Delgado & Tricia Schmidt Talent Show

1:30 – 2:45 pm

How does an artist find their voice? Be entertained as talented potters and sculptors Darcy Delgado and Tricia Schmidt step into the spotlight to share the evolution of their winning aesthetics. Try not to be star struck as Delgado and Schmidt take to the stage and showcase their signature styles while regaling the crowd with stories about the development of their inimitable artistic visions and how they’ve nurtured their performance as artists throughout their stage-worthy careers.

House of Mirrors

3 – 4 pm

Discover how artists Chris Alveshere and Mike Cerv embrace the idea of nearly identical in the creation of their work. While Alveshere prefers to use the potter’s wheel and Cerv slab builds using tarpaper templates, both artists reproduce their forms with a remarkable accuracy that will leave you wanting to examine every angle. But, they also encourage the natural differences and nuances that are reflected during the process of making. Watch as both artists navigate the maze of making nearly identical pots and explain how small variations make a big difference. Don’t forget to look closely, as little changes to a pot can mean the difference between mirror image and nearly identical

Sunday All-day Workshops

Sunday, September 10, 10 am – 2 pm

Fees: $45 In-person workshops

$25 In-person for students and educators

$25 Virtual content only

Bekah Bliss & S.C. Rolf

FFA: (Functional Forms of APF)

10 – 11 am

How can you choose between agriculture and livestock at the state fair when there is so much to see? While we don’t have an answer for that one, we guarantee that you won’t have to choose between hand builder, Bekah Bliss, and wheel thrower, S.C. Rolf. Experience the best of both worlds as the artists demonstrate how each uses their preferred method of creation to make their blue-ribbon bowl forms. See where techniques intersect and diverge as Bliss handbuilds using bisque molds to emphasize the development of surface texture, while Rolf alters wheel-thrown pots to find new formal possibilities. You are sure to leave this exciting demonstration feeling like you won first prize, and the future is bright.

Michaela Bromberek & Shikha Joshi

People Watching

11:45 am – 12:45 pm

Yeah, we love the food, fun, rides, and games at the fair, but a “must do” is people watching, and this tag-team artist extravaganza is sure to provide some entertaining education. Michaela Bromberek and Shikha Joshi place a premium on the wood-fired aesthetic, but each gets there with precise individuality. Watch as they demonstrate the development of their rustic ceramic forms designed to embrace this aesthetic. Bromberek will prepare her work for the wood kiln with slips, wax resists, and glazes; Joshi will demonstrate her clay and glaze combinations that emulate the subtle beauty of the wood-fired pot while employing an electric kiln. So, grab a seat and watch!

Nancy Green & Minsoo Yuh

Machinery Hill

1 – 2 pm

Tools are a marvelous necessity in the field of clay. Artists Nancy Green and Minsoo Yuh employ an array of tools (hands included) to develop their recognizable, decorated ceramic surfaces. See what crops up as similarities and differences emerge between both artists' pottery while their shared materials influence their individual artistic outcomes. Green and Yuh will demonstrate tool-based techniques at the core of their practice and informed by their own favorite implements, including faceting, stamping, inlay, and the careful use of slip to create their thoughtfully-considered work.