SPRING 2025
EXHIBITIONS | EVENTS | EDUCATION | ARTIST SERVICES
EXHIBITIONS
In Touch
On view March 15 - May 25, 2025
Curated by David East
Main Gallery
Virtual 3D Tour on view March 20
Free public opening reception Friday, March 14, 6 - 8 pm
In Touch will showcase a group of artists who engage with and utilize notions of touch from a broad perspective: through the core act of forming and leaving one’s imprint, to the broader implications of agency within the material, and meaning accruing within process.
Material exploration and critical engagement move through multiple approaches and frames of reference, all with a distinct position in regards to how touch informs all of our senses. This exhibition will bring together distinct objects, transient actions, and work created on site. Occurring in clay’s multiple states, from the transient to the geologic, this exhibit will seek to actualize the unique potential of ceramics through the language of touch to engage with ideas.
Participating artists include: Renata Cassiano-Alvarez, Magdolene Dykstra, Sam Mack, Paige O’Toole, and Nicole Seisler.
Renata Cassiano-Alvarez, a MexicanItalian artist born and raised in Mexico City, explores the interplay between material and process in her work. Her artistic practice centers on cultivating a deep connection with the materials she uses, delving into their varied languages and forms. Influenced by archeology and the collective Latin American experience, she believes in the power of the object as survival and witness to
Renata Cassiano-Alvarez, La Carne y el Hueso. Photo credit: Kes Efstathiou and Forrest Frederick
transformation and endurance over time, binding us to a sense of continuity.
Renata's work has been showcased internationally and is part of numerous public and private collections worldwide. She divides her time between her studios in Veracruz, Mexico, and Springdale, Arkansas, USA.
Cassiano-Alvarez earned her BFA from Universidad Veracruzana (Xalapa, Mexico) and her MFA from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She is the recipient of numerous awards including several residency fellowships from the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center (Skælskør, Denmark), Lanzhou City University (China), and the Master Artist Residency Fellowship at Clay Gulgong (Australia). Her most recent worldwide exhibitions include shows at Galería Banda Municipal (CDMX, Mexico), Lucy Lacoste Gallery (Concord, MA), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Alfredo Zalce (Morelia, Mexico), and Site Gallery (Sheffield, England). Cassiano-Alvarez divides her time between her studios in Veracruz, Mexico and Springdale, AK where she serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor at University of Arkansas (Fayetteville).
Magdolene Dykstra is a secondgeneration Egyptian-Canadian artist educator. Her work in sculpture, installation, and mark-making is grounded in research of feminist political ecology, anti-capitalism, and
craft. Dykstra uses sculpture, installation, and mark-making to visualize, actualize, and reconfigure connections between human and more-than-human bodies across space and time, disrupting the fantasy of an independent self. She states, “We humans are a part of one heaving organism, entangled and tumbling over one another.”
Her work meditates on the power of the small when gathered into a collective, prioritizing accretive processes that depend on consistent effort over time. Working with clay, wood, and fiber facilitates an exploration of broader notions of kinship that transgress suggested boundaries of us versus them, self versus other.
Existing along a spectrum of becoming and undoing, Dykstra’s work reflects on the transience of our collective existence, full of the potential for continual change. She embraces ephemerality and precarity for their poetic and anti-capitalist potential. Each of her works is impermanent and embedded with the possibility of transformation, waiting to be refashioned in an alternate configuration. In this way, they exist as a momentary pause in a never-ending process of emergence and decay, a cycle of deconstruction and reformation.
After studying both biology and visual arts (BS and BA respecitvely from Houghton College, NY) as an
Magdolene Dykstra, Framed Landscape.
EXHIBITIONS
undergraduate, she earned her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond). She also holds an MS Ed from Niagara University (Lewiston, NY).
Dykstra has participated in residencies at the Medalta Historic Clay District (Medicine Hat, AB), Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts (Newcastle, ME), and Concordia University (Montreal, QC). Dykstra has been awarded several grants from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, including Research and Creation Grants, Exhibition Assistance Grants, and Arts Abroad Grants. She has been recognized by the National Conference on Education for the Ceramic Arts as a
2024 Emerging Artist and received the 2024 Helene Zucker Seeman Fellowship for Women. Notable exhibitions include site-specific installations at the Gardiner Museum (Toronto, ON), Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (Waterloo, ON), and the Art Gallery of Burlington (ON), as well as solo exhibitions at the Jane Hartsook Gallery (New York) and A-B Projects (Los Angeles).
Sam Mack uses clay, metal, found objects, and other materials to create sculptural works and vessels that ideally communicate a response to the site in which they are viewed. Each installation is a discussion between the visible artworks and the “intentionally
invisibilized…unseen forces” in the space around them. Mack states, “The installed objects reference strategies of survival, pleasure, and refusal used by queer and trans people in the US to navigate the expanding obstacles of systemic bureaucratic exclusion. Tools, consumer objects, and artifacts are remade as non-functional clay forms individually constructed to crack, resulting in surface variation that values rips, fissures, and evidence of action.”
Mack earned a BFA in Studio Art from University of Missouri (Columbia) and an MFA in Studio Art from University of Arkansas (Fayetteville). They have shown nationally and internationally
Sam Mack, Installation View.
at the JEAE International Arts Center (Jingdezhen, China), the Aichi Ceramics Museum (Seto City, Japan), and The Clay Studio (Philadelphia). Mack is also the recipient of the 19th annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize (Baltimore, MD).
Paige O’Toole is a ceramic artist from the Hudson Valley region of New York (Garrison). Focusing on the intersection of gender, space and the domestic, her work explores themes of memory through gesture, and illusion through perception. O’Toole’s mark in clay is both immediate and archival, lasting and tangible evidence of her insatiable touch.
O’Toole earned a BA in Art History and BFA in Ceramics from State University of New York at New Paltz. She is a recent MFA graduate from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. O’Toole is currently a long-term resident at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (Pomona, CA).
Nicole Seisler creates dialogue and perspectives around ceramics that exist in the same conditions as the material: malleable, shifting adaptable, and enduring; existing within, between, and beyond conventional definitions.
Seisler comments, “I hold the clay, and the clay holds me back. This is how it has always been…except for that moment in grad school when I broke up with clay. I had convinced myself that I didn’t want to be limited by clay or pigeonholed as a ceramic artist; I swore that clay and I were done. It took me
all of two painful, uncentered weeks to come crawling back.
This temporary fissure with clay marked the beginning of my mission to reclaim and reshape what it means to be a ceramic artist. I became an artist because I wanted to learn to see the world differently. I am a ceramic artist because clay allows me to see myself
differently in the world. Clay is a conduit that grounds me in myself, connects me to others, and embeds me in place. "
Three interdependent, mutuallyreinforcing areas comprise Seisler's practice: making, educating, and curating. This tripod enables each aspect to support the others, thereby creating a platform for her broader,
Paige O'Toole, sf1
EXHIBITIONS
pluralistic vision for ceramics as a
Seisler earned her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MA) and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). She has exhibited her work at museums
ranging from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MA) and the Museum of Fine Arts Tallahassee (FL) to the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago) and Craft Contemporary (Los Angeles). Her work was recently featured in a solo exhibition at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (Pomona, CA), and
the two-person exhibition In Hand: Contemporary Material Engagements with the Built World at the Kennedy Museum at Ohio University. (Athens).
Seisler has taught ceramics for almost fifteen years at as many universities including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), the University of Washington (Seattle), Scripps College (Claremont, CA), and UCLA. She is currently Assistant Professor and Head of Ceramics at Lewis & Clark College (Portland, OR). As Founder and Director of the contemporary ceramics platform, A-B Projects, Seisler has curated forty exhibitions and offers alternative educational programming that reevaluates and redefines the trajectory of contemporary ceramics.
Related
event
Discussion Panel: Curator, David East Join In Touch curator, David East, and participating artists for a panel discussion about the themes in the exhibition.
25SpX13: Thursday, March 13, 6 pm, FREE
Nicole Seisler, Perching,+Clinging
conceptual field.
SALES GALLERY
Save the Date! American Pottery Festival
September 5 - 7, 2025
Join us for the 27th Annual American Pottery Festival (APF), September 57, 2025! Our annual fundraiser brings together ceramic artists from across the United States, showcasing the best in the field. Experience a stunning variety of creative processes, techniques, forms, and surfaces. The event kicks off with our Opening Night Party on Friday, September 5, 2025!
Your contributions to APF directly support NCC’s mission to advance the ceramic arts through education, exhibitions, scholarships, and grant programs. This festival serves as a thoughtfully curated platform for makers, clay enthusiasts, learners, collectors, and the curious to connect, create, and be inspired.
Each year, NCC prioritizes diversity when inviting artists, ensuring a wide representation of lived experiences
and perspectives. The 2025 festival will feature an extraordinary lineup of artists whose work highlights a vast range of techniques, aesthetics, and materials. Their unique journeys to a career in ceramics will inspire participants of all backgrounds.
The weekend will offer engaging opportunities to connect with artists through artist talks, workshops, demonstrations, and casual gallery chats. Whether you’re a student, a collector, or a fellow maker, you’ll find valuable learning experiences throughout the event. Scholarships are available for all demonstrations and workshops, making it accessible to everyone.
Please visit www.northernclaycenter.org for updates on APF events, artist rosters, ticket information, volunteer needs, and opportunities to purchase work.
FEBRUARY
Registration opens for spring classes, 10 am
MARCH 2 February Featured Artists closes
March Featured Artists opens, 10 am
Discussion Panel: In Touch curator, David East, 6 pm
Opening reception: In Touch and Stone Fruit, 6 - 8 pm
In Touch and Stone Fruit open
APRIL
1 April Featured Artists opens, 10 am
Applications due: WMAA and ECARs, 5 pm CT
Artist talks: Birdie Boone & Uriel Caspi, 6 pm
AAH Workshop: Sharing is Caring, 10 am - 12 pm
April Featured Artists closes
American Pottery Festival Preview opens, 10 am
MAY
Artist talk: Ellen Kleckner, 6 pm
Applications due: McKnight Fellowships and Residencies 5 pm CT
AAH Workshop: In the Round, 10 am - 12 pm
JUNE
L to r: APF Artist, Matt Repsher decorates a jar during his demo. APF Artist, Didem Mert (right) discussing their work with shoppers.
Stone Fruit
On view March 15 - May 25, 2025
Organized by artist, Jesse J Ring
Emily Galusha Gallery
Virtual 3D Tour on view March 20
Free public opening reception Friday, March 14, 6 - 8 pm
Stone Fruit is a site for contemplation. It is an orchard, a cemetery, a well, a beach. It is a participatory installation which is co-authored by the community that engages with it during its exhibition. During the exhibition, organized by Jesse J Ring, Stone Fruit will be one iteration of this ongoing community sculpture intended to create locations where visitors leave thoughts as material in symbolic gesture at a site for contemplation. Stone Fruit invites you to participate with the installation through sculpting a small trace in soft clay to leave behind as part of the work. All contributions will be fired at the close of the exhibition and permanently added to the work.
Originally exhibited at the Pensacola Museum of Art in 2021, the installation’s prompt responded to the profound trauma we as a society suffered over the course of COVID-19 and acknowledged that we all had something to leave behind from the experience. Following its debut, the Director and Curator of PMA noted that on average participants spent 30-45 minutes with the installation. Following the exhibition, over 400 of these objects were photographed before being fired and added to the work. Approximately 200 photographs were then used to compile an artist book of visual poems that reflected the themes apparent in the objects left behind by the community. One goal of this exhibition is to produce a similar record of offerings from the local audience.
Stone Fruit at NCC presents an opportunity to update the prompt for participation to respond to the Twin Cities and the communities that NCC Serves. Ring aims to identify and invite groups from the community, with a focus on community members who may not regularly visit the gallery, to add to the work through visits and short workshops in the exhibition. Through this exhibition, he hopes to expand the community’s exposure to ceramics and advocate for the importance of the cognitive and expressive value of craft and art.
Jesse J Ring was born in the Ozarks in an octagonal home that his father built. In his relationship with clay and sculpture, he has “come to understand making as a form of thinking.”
He shares, “As I shape materials, subtle shifts in form change their meaning, much like language. This process allows me to express ideas in both tangible and immaterial ways.
I focus on themes that challenge human-centered views, exploring
subjects like the Janus, psychoactive plants, speculative technologies, and the synthesis of urban and natural landscapes. My installations encourage embodied experiences, such as pebble beaches that grow as audiences add sculpted symbols of what they need to leave behind or inviting visitors to draw on a steel monolith that broadcasts the eerie sound of their marks, creating a unique audio landscape that fills the exhibition. Through my work, I ask how we can foster deeper connections between people and their environment. My sculptures provoke reflection on our place within the larger web of existence, inspiring a shift in perspective and encouraging a more thoughtful engagement with the world around us.”
Ring earned his BFA in Ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute (MO) and his MFA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He was a visiting artist at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing) and artist in residence at Vermont Studio Center (Johnson), Zentrum fur Keramik (Berlin), and Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (Otis, OR). His work has been shown nationally at the Aspen Art Museum CO), Burchfield Penney Art Center (Buffalo, NY, Pensacola Museum of Art (FL), and internationally in China, Germany, and Hungary. Ring is currently Assistant Professor of Art in Ceramics and Sculpture at University of Florida (Gainesville) in the School of Art + Art History.
Opposite page: Jesse J Ring, Pebble
This page: Jesse J Ring, Stone Fruit.
SALES GALLERY
NCECA 2025
March 26 - 29
NCC’s sales gallery, exhibition, and artist services programs will participate in Formation the 59th annual conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). The conference will take place March 26 - 29 at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center.
During the four-day conference, NCC will offer the work of guest artists, full-time sales gallery artists, NCC Early Career Artist Residents, and 2025 American Pottery Festival artists through our booth in the Gallery Expo at the convention center. We look forward to returning to the event in person and building the relationships with artists and ceramic appreciators that keep NCC vital and expand our community!
During the event, we will promote our grant and residency programs for current students, emerging artists, and mid-career artists in person at the conference. This is a great opportunity to ask questions, engage with staff, and gain valuable insights into the wide range of opportunities that NCC offers for artists at every stage of their careers.
If you are able to attend in person, please stop by our resource table and Gallery Expo booth to introduce yourself and say hello! If you are not attending this year, please follow along on Instagram.
As of press time, NCECA Gallery Expo artists include: Clarice Allgood, Chris Alveshere, Tom Bartel, Casey Beck, Milo Berezin, Birdie Boone, Sam Briegel, Wesley Brown, Larry Buller, Marissa Childers, Mike Cinelli, Adrienne Eilades, Celia Feldberg, Maddie Fowler, Yoshi Fujii, Del Goode, PJ Hargraves, Ariana Heinzman, Stephen Heywood, Heesoo Lee, Nicole McLaughlin, Didem Mert, Ron Meyers, Kristy Moreno, Sang Joon Park, Brent Pafford, Colleen Riley, Masa Sasaki, Ted Saupe, Josh Scott, Mark Shapiro, Hitomi Shibata, Takuro Shibata, Sam Taylor, Lars Voltz, Kate Waltman, and Veronica Watkins
Opposite page, top to bottom: Delvin M. Goode, Weeble Wobble Tumbler. Veronica Watkins, Cup
This page, clockwise from top left: Masa Sasaki, Mug. Mike Cinelli, Cup. Sam Briegel, Cup. Milo Berezin, Mug Celia Feldberg, Plate
ARTIST SERVICES
Spring McKnight Artist Residents: Birdie Boone and Uriel Caspi
Birdie Boone (Meadowview, VA) is a studio potter and independent ceramics educator. Her work is subtle, sensefull, and expressive—made for daily use and contemplation. Boone’s work is composed of simply composed forms and evocative surfaces that address the significance of everyday domestic experiences in terms of nature and nurture, connection and disconnection, balance and imbalance. She notes the flexibility and adaptability of ceramic materials and reflects on how they are the ideal tools to translate daily observation.
The insistence and persistence of time is addressed in the layers of ceramic materials and how they sort themselves out during manipulation, application, heatwork and then in the home. Birdie’s pots, through their receptive forms and nuanced surfaces, translate personal experiences and ideas into universal possibilities of meaning. In this way, the use of Boone’s carefully rendered objects reminds the user of their connections to others, to their experiences, and to themselves.
Born in West Virginia, Boone grew up in rural southwestern Virginia and in the city of San Francisco. She holds an AB in studio art from William & Mary (Williamsburg, VA) and an MFA in Artisanry - Ceramics from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Boone’s teaching experience includes introto advanced- level college courses in ceramics and 3D art, community courses, and workshops at craft schools. She has been an artist-in-residence at
numerous organizations, including The Pottery Workshop (Jingdezhen, China), West Virginia University (Morgantown), Starworks Ceramics (Star, NC), and as a long-term artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation (Helena, MT). In 2023, she became a mentor with Clay Cohorts and continues to lead workshops that explore hand building techniques, the manipulation of ceramic materials, ceramics philosophies, and aesthetics.
Related Event
McKnight Artist Talk: Birdie Boone
Please join Northern Clay Center in welcoming Boone to the NCC community as she presents a talk on her work and artistic journey.
25SpX14: Tuesday, April 22, 6 pm
ARTIST SERVICES
Uriel Caspi (Tilburg, Netherlands) has been fascinated with clay since his early childhood. He has developed unique working methods and his own visual vocabulary to explore and expand the spectrum of vessel-body-sculpture. Caspi’s investigations in clay allows him to manipulate traditional forms into ‘embodied objects,’ and to extrapolate familiar human genetics into abstract forms, where nature and technology become indistinguishable.
Originally from the Middle East, Caspi received a BFA in ceramics from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (Jerusalem) in 2018, and an MFA in ceramic art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University (Alfred, NY) in 2021. He cites archaeological remnants as key conceptual cornerstones in his work. Relics from antiquity are subject to his contemporary interpretations, and collide with multicultural references from across the globe. This amalgam of influences allows Caspi to perform a sort of inner excavation, revealing narratives, memories, and personal sediments that compose the iconography of his art. His immersive installations of ceramics operate as platforms for artistic interactions, and reflect both the aesthetics of antiquity and a visionary environment of the future.
Caspi has been working internationally as an artist-in-residence and in academia. He has exhibited works and installations in museums, galleries, art fairs, and venues across the world including the Armory Show with Yossi Milo Gallery (New York), Sculpture Space (New
York), Museo Internazionale Delle Ceramiche (Faenza, Italy) Salon C-14 (Paris), Keramikmuseum Westerwald (Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany), Eretz Israel Museum (Tel Aviv), New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum (New Taipei City, Taiwan), and Mino Ceramic Art Museum (Tajimi, Japan).
Related Event
McKnight Artist Talk: Uriel Caspi
Please join Northern Clay Center in welcoming Caspi to the NCC community as he presents a talk on his work and artistic journey.
25SpX14: Tuesday, April 22, 6 pm
Opposite page: Birdie Boone. This page: Uriel Caspi
Coming This Spring in the Sales Gallery!
March Featured Artists
Clarice Allgood, Tom Bartel, Sam Briegel, Nancy Green, Matt Repsher
On view: March 4 - 30
Sales Gallery & Online
Visit us in the Sales Gallery this spring for a sneak peek viewing of the work by our emerging artist residency grant recipients! During the months of April and May, we’ll represent the work of our Anonymous Artist, BIPOC, and The Pottery Museum of Red Wing Awardee— Jessica Hernandez, Khalil Jannah, Hannah Kautto, and Ivy Mattson.
Clarice Allgood
A somewhat unconventional ceramic history of workshops, open studios, and unofficial residencies led Clarice Allgood to Minnesota in 2018. In 2019, she graduated from the advanced certificate program MN NICE, and in 2020 she was a Fogelberg Fellow at Northern Clay Center. From a free-spirited, traveling childhood and her academic education in philosophy come a perspective rooted in thoughtfulness and curiosity. Though Allgood’s ceramics are often grounded in practicality, they maintain a particular whimsy and environmental aesthetic. The forms and use of her pots and objects are meant to enrich what she calls “quiet acts of self-reliance”: They are watering cans for gardening, bowls for knitting, utensils for cooking, bookends to organize reading. Though Allgood is thoroughly involved in the making and conceptualizing processes, the magic, nature and mystery of relinquishing her work to the powers of the soda kiln is currently an important part of her practice.
Tom Bartel
Tom Bartel holds a BFA from Kent State University (OH) and an MFA from Indiana University–Bloomington. He has lectured extensively and has been an invited faculty member and artist in residence at numerous locations across the country. Bartel has been featured in multiple publications, including Ceramics Monthly, Clay Times, and American Craft. His figurative sculpture reflects references ranging from antiquities to pop culture and is characterized as disturbing, humorous,
and fragmented. Currently, he is serving as a professor and ceramics chairperson at Ohio University.
Sam Briegel
Sam Briegel grew up in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in Knoxville, TN. She received her BFA in threedimensional she completed an internship at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts Clay Business (Helena, MT). Briegel earned her MFA in ceramics from Ohio University (Athens) in 2018 and went on to a year-long residency at District Clay Center (Washington, DC). Briegel then completed a residency at Baltimore Clayworks as their Lormina Salter Fellow. She has been a represented artist by the Smithsonian Craft Show in 2020 - 2022. Briegel currently works out of her home studio outside of Baltimore and is a parttime faculty member at the Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore) and Montgomery College (Rockville, MD).
Nancy Green
“Twenty-three years ago, I wasn’t even aware that people made pottery. A friend asked me if I had ever been to Liz Lurie’s sales. I said ‘no, what does she make and why would I want to go?’ My friend said ‘she makes pottery and I think you would like it.’ I went. I loved her work and after two years of collecting, Liz said ‘you know Nancy, you could make pottery,’ and so I did. I started at a local ceramic center. Based on Liz’s recommendations, I began attending demos to learn techniques and develop my aesthetic. My first workshop was a summer abroad in
Shigaraki, Japan through the University of Georgia (Athens). The journey just kept going.”
Matt Repsher
Matt Repsher’s exposure to art, design, and ceramics started early—learning about making pots from his father. Repsher earned his BFA in ceramics from Penn State (The Pennsylvania State University, Centre County) and then went on to receive his MFA from Indiana University (Bloomington) in 2003. He has worked for Santa Fe Clay as the studio director and taught ceramics at Indiana University and the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque). He was a resident at Pocosin Arts School of Fine Craft (Columbia, NC) in 2015 and was a long-term resident at the Penland School of Craft (Mitchell County, NC) from 2017 to 2020.
SALES GALLERY
Clockwise, from top left: Tom Bartel, Clarice Allgood, Nancy Green, Sam Briegel, Matt Repsher.
SALES GALLERY
April Featured Artists
Amanda Dobbratz, Jill Foote-Hutton, Jamie Lang, Ian M Petrie, Tricia Schmidt
Jewelry Spotlight: Melissa Mencini
On view: April 1 - 27
Sales Gallery & Online
Amanda Dobbratz
Amanda Dobbratz graduated with a Masters in Research in creative practice from Glasgow School of Art (UK). Previously, she received a BFA in studio art from the University of Wisconsin–Stout. Dobbratz was a lead artist at the Watershed Artists Inviting Artists summer residency program (Newcastle, ME) in 2019 and an invited artist in 2017. She makes functional, complex handbuilt forms which marry the whimsical and the pragmatic, often conveying a sense of play and humor. Dobbratz is a believer of “more is more,” and the richly-detailed surfaces of her work serve as an elegant testament to that sentiment. Her colors and patterns reference desert landscapes, body ornamentation, and historical textiles. She distills shapes and colors from her sources into a personal taxonomy of symbols.
Jill Foote-Hutton
Whether spinning her own tales, chronicling observations from the world of clay and the world at large, or facilitating other’s voices through word and form, Jill Foote-Hutton has always been committed to the craft of storytelling. Born and raised by the descendants of hillbillies, FooteHutton is an artist following in the tradition of medicine woman and storyteller through her creative practice dubbed Whistlepig Studio. “Monster” is a device she uses to engage a conversation about the disparities of what we think and what we do, about the distance between two human beings, and the nature of lightness
and darkness. She posits that totem, talisman, god, demon, angel, witch, hero, and spirit (from any tradition) have been equally used as devices of liberation and oppression. Renamed “Guardian Monsters” in her practice, Foote-Hutton, aims to seize the power of those objects from an authoritarian state of mind and put power back into the hearts and minds of the individual. They are a shibboleth. They are an interpretation. They are multivalent.
Jamie Lang
Jamie Lang received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and pursued his graduate studies in ceramics at the State University of New York, New Paltz. He received two Project Grants from the Jerome Foundation in St. Paul, the first in 2002 and the second in 2006. Lang’s work reflects his thoughts about architecture, decoration, and memory. His mixed media sculptures are minimal geometric structures that reveal their own architectural planning. Each structure is created by casting adobe into wooden forms, Lang then adds layers of plaster, pigment, and wax to emphasize and decorate the rough surfaces of the form. The altered surfaces of each layer assert the passage of time and the burying and recovery of memories.
Ian M Petrie
Ian Petrie received his BFA in ceramics from the University of Minnesota in 2013. He was awarded the Fogelberg Studio Fellowship at Northern Clay Center in 2013 and served as a resident artist at the Worcester Center for Crafts
(MA) from 2016-2018. Petrie’s body of functional pottery devotedly references the comic book universe and celebrates the tradition of illustration. Using a quill pen to draw each comic frame and then screen-printing the narratives by hand, his pots reveal an intentionally imperfect style. The gold or silver luster on his pieces is designed to slowly wear off over time and reveal the image beneath. Petrie encourages the user to consider the presented single moment of the story, and learn to experience it from all angles.
Tricia Schmidt
Tricia Schmidt has had a lifelong love of clay and illustration, and she marries the two in her functional and sculptural work. As a primarily self-taught artist, she embraces an aesthetic that is informed by the joy of doodling on a fresh sheet of paper and the satisfaction of a voluptuously curving form. Schmidt’s animals and figures are often self-referential, but universal enough to appeal to a larger audience through the use of her favorite motifs: ambivalent sloths, playful cats, industrious bunnies, malevolent squirrels, and introspective women. She references folklore in her archetypal red birds, symbolizing those who have passed on but are still watching over us.
Melissa Mencini
Melissa Mencini received her BFA from Bowling Green State University in 2000 and her MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 2003. Mencini moved to Austin, Texas in 2013 to be a full-time studio artist
and educator. Since moving to Austin, she has built and established her studio and she has become a core member of the Art of the Pot annual studio tour. Previous to her move south, she taught ceramics at the University of AlaskaAnchorage. Before moving to Alaska, she moved back and forth between Montana and Washington state, working as a studio artist and teaching at both Eastern Washington University and at the University of WashingtonSeattle. During her first stay in Montana, Mencini was a resident at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena for two years and was the recipient of the Lincoln Fellowship for one year. She became interested in art at an early age and enrolled in classes at a local art center in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Her current focus is making functional pottery embellished with graphic designs and decals. Mencini has exhibited her work nationally and internationally.
Clockwise, from top left: Jill Foote-Hutton, Melissa Mencini, Amanda Dobbratz, Tricia Schmidt, Jamie Lang, Ian M. Petrie.
May Featured Artists
American Pottery Festival Preview
On view: April 29 - June 1 Sales Gallery & Online
The American Pottery Festival Preview is your first chance to see and buy work by our 2025 APF guest artists until APF Opening Night on Friday, September 5. Please join us for this special opportunity!
Online work will go live at precisely 10 am CT on April 29, so set your alarms!
This year, we are fortunate to represent most of this year’s APF artists during the NCECA conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 26 - 29. NCC invites you to visit us at our NCECA Gallery Expo space, or follow along on Instagram, to be the very first to see their work in person at a special-preview opening on the evening of Tuesday, March 25. We hope to see you there!
As of press time, APF artists include: Clarice Allgood, Milo Berezin, Birdie Boone, Wesley Brown, Marissa Childers, Mike Cinelli, Adrienne Eliades, Maddie Fowler, Yoshi Fujii, Del Goode, Ariana Heinzman, Stephen Heywood, Heesoo Lee, Ron Meyers, Kristy Moreno, Sang Joon Park, Colleen Riley, Josh Scott, Mark Shapiro, Sam Taylor, Lars Voltz, and Kate Waltman.
Please visit www.northernclaycenter.org for updates on APF events, artist rosters, ticket information, volunteer needs, and opportunities to purchase work.
Opposite page: Ariana Heinzman.
This page, lockwise, from top left: Sam Taylor, Adrienne Eliades, Kristy Moreno, Wesley Brown, Colleen Riley.
OUTREACH
ClayToGo Partner Spotlight: Anishinabe Academy
During the fall of 2024, Northern Clay Center’s outreach program, ClayToGo, partnered with Anishinabe Academy (Minneapolis) for an in-school residency. Anishinabe is located just one mile from Northern Clay Center, in the Longfellow neighborhood. They are dedicated to serving and educating families through an Indigenous lens, with about 80% of their students of Native American backgrounds and 87% qualifying for free or reduced lunches.
The majority of our partners face barriers accessing educational art experiences, often due to financial limitations. ClayToGo’s mission is to provide access to clay to schools and their communities. One way that NCC lessens some of these barriers is by offering grant funds to partner
L to r: A participant decorates their sculpture with colored slips. A tray of finished sculptures waiting to be brought back to NCC for firing.
organizations help with costs. The benefits of ClayToGo programming are vast—connecting with more of our shared community as well as building curiosity and confidence in youth.
Led by our talented teaching artist E.C. Comstock, this residency program ran for a total of 20 hours, reaching two dozen students in 3rd to 5th grade. Comstock talked about how meaningful it was to see the evolution of the students’ relationship with clay over their time together. They worked on many different projects over the course of this program, one of them being the imaginary landscape project, where students created an island out of an upside-down pinch pot and sculpt anything on it to represent a moment in time, a place, a fictional realm. Comstock noted the impact and voice that clay can give to their students. “My favorite day was when a couple students landed on depicting dreams they've had, which they told me about while sculpting. What an incredible thing for a young neighbor of mine, who I'd never met a week prior, to be sharing the details of their dreams with me!” Clay is another device for us to be sharing parts of ourselves and what an impactful thing that is.
Our partner at Anishinabe, Siena—who helped make the program possible—had great things to say about the residency. She said that her students loved working with clay and that she “noticed
OUTREACH
ARTIST SERVICES Grant Deadlines
them thinking outside of the box and challenging themselves to be more creative.” One student, who is known for making intricate sculptures out of clay, expressed how he loved making the imaginary landscape which is notable since it was a new idea for him, expanding his idea of what is possible.
If you have a school or organization that is interested in working with clay as a part of a residency or after-school program, please contact the Community Engagement Coordinator at outreach@northernclaycenter.com or 612.339.8007 x313. Thank you for your interest in programming with us!
Northern Clay Center manages several grant programs that provide monetary awards or studio residencies to individual artists.
Deadlines are quickly approaching! If you are an early- or mid-career ceramic maker, visit our website for details about opportunities that you may be eligible for. Applications for all programs will be available on our website.
Deadlines:
Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award (WMAA)
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Early Career Artist Residencies (ECAR) comprising the Anonymous Artist and BIPOC Studio Fellowships Sunday, April 6, 2025
McKnight Residencies for Ceramic Artists
Friday, May 16, 2025
McKnight Fellowships for Ceramic Artists
Friday, May 16, 2025
Seeking Instructors and Assistants for 2025 Clay Camps!
Northern Clay Center seeks individuals ages 18+ for our 2024 summer camp positions. Every year, NCC recruits paid Clay Camp instructors, volunteer Clay Camp assistants, and one paid intern. We offer over 40 four- and fiveday camps which explore the basics of handbuilding (ages 6+) or wheel throwing (ages 9+), and occasionally some special collaborations with nearby art organizations.
Our Clay Camp instructors lead themed morning and afternoon programs inspired by various topics such as
sea creatures, outer space, fairy gardens, and more! They also work closely with Clay Camp assistants to provide guidance to students and maintain cleanliness in the NCC studios. Instructors and assistants work closely with the education manager to provide additional classroom support throughout the week.
See how a world-class ceramics education program operates from the inside out. As a NCC assistant or intern, you will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in preparing
classroom materials, assisting with clay demonstrations, and, most importantly, working directly with students ages 6 to 16. These paid positions are for 1520 hours per week, with commitments ranging from one- to ten-weeks. Assistants are valued team members and the experience can often lead to future summer teaching positions!
Experience working with clay, and interest and experience in working with young people is essential. See our website for full details about these positions and how to apply, or contact Education & Artist Services Manager, Sean Lofton, at seanlofton@ northernclaycenter.org should you have any questions.
NCC clay camp teacher with a group of young artists.
Spring Classes & Workshops
After a cold winter, what better way to put some spring in your creative step that joining a class at NCC! Join our exceptional roster of teaching artists for a 5- or 10-week class or one of our project workshops this spring. Whether you’re interested in handbuilding, wheel throwing, specialty topics, or family activities, our offerings are sure to have your creativity in full bloom.
We offer open studio time allowing you the space to digest demonstrations and practice your craft independently. Adult students generally have access to our studios Mondays, 4:30 - 9 pm; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 am - midnight; Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 9 am - 9 pm (subject to other NCC events, programming, and studio schedules). Students no longer need to sign up for access to open studio, and space is available on a first come, first served basis. We ask that in utilizing these studio hours, please be mindful of other students and make sure others feel welcome in this shared space. Weekly open studio schedules will be posted on the bulletin boards in each studio, as well as on our website; select the Education tab from the top menu on our homepage and click "Student Info"(northernclaycenter.org/education/ student-info).
Education Access Scholarship applications open Tuesday, January 28 NCC is committed to maintaining accountability and pursuing action to build meaningful diversity, impactful equity, and genuine inclusivity in the ceramic community. We recognize that there are significant systemic racial and economic impacts that impede participation in the arts, and resulting financial barriers contribute to further divide. To address and help bridge financial barriers to ceramic education, NCC has implemented scholarship options for our education programming. Our goal is to open access to the ceramic arts and welcome all who wish to learn, grow as an artist, and participate in the ceramic arts community.
We offer two scholarship options:
• a half-tuition scholarship open to artists and learners experiencing financial need
• a full-tuition scholarship open to artists and learners who identify as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color
Scholarships are limited. For more information about these scholarships and to apply, please visit our website at northernclaycenter.org/education.
BEGINNER CLASSES
Are you interested in learning the basics of making clay art but unsure of where to begin? Get your hands dirty with our beginner classes and develop the foundational skills for success in clay through hands-on experience and guided instruction during our five-week beginner classes.
These classes focus on the basics of building and glazing techniques that will set you up for success in future classes. These classes have plenty of guidance for beginners, making them ideal if you have little to no experience with clay and want to test your interest and grow your skills.
We recommend you take a beginner class two or more times (within one quarter, or over consecutive quarters) to build your skills and prepare for Beginnermediate or Intermediate Wheel or Handbuilding classes and beyond.
Wear old clothes and bring an old towel, a bucket (no larger than one gallon), and a beginner’s set of tools to the first class. Tool kits are available for $27 at NCC. Lab fee includes one 25 pound bag of clay up to a cost of $25, all glazing materials, firings, and open studio access.
Be sure to check out our series of oneday project workshops beginning on page xx—ideal for makers with little or no previous experience.
EDUCATION
Beginner Wheel Throwing
Take the potter’s wheel for a spin as you learn the basics of throwing pots. This class will get you familiar with the material of clay and introduce foundational wheel-thrown forms such as bowls and cylinders.
BW1: Wednesdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: NCC Instructor
April 2 - April 30
Fee: $190 + $60 lab fee (5% member discount)
BW2: Wednesdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: NCC Instructor
May 7 - June 4
Fee: $190 + $60 lab fee (5% member discount)
BW3: Thursdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Olivia Ahrens
April 3 - May 1
Fee: $190 + $60 lab fee (5% member discount)
BW4: Thursdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Olivia Ahrens
May 8 - June 5
Fee: $190 + $60 lab fee (5% member discount)
BW5: Saturdays, 10 am - 1 pm
Instructor: Lynda Buscis
April 5 - May 3
Fee: $190 + $60 lab fee (5% member discount)
BW6: Saturdays, 10 am - 1 pm
Instructor: Lynda Buscis
May 12 - June 7
Fee: $190 + $60 lab fee (5% member discount)
Beginnermediate Wheel Throwing
So, you’ve taken a few beginner classes, but don’t feel ready for an Intermediate-to-Advanced class just
yet? Try a "beginnermediate" level class for students who fall somewhere in between! Expand on the basics of wheel throwing, perfect your bowls and cylinders, and spend more time getting your hands dirty with an NCC instructor for a full term.
BW7: Mondays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Ruby Sevilla
March 31 - June 2
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
BW8: Wednesdays, 10 am - 1 pm
Instructor: Lisa Himmelstrup
April 2 - June 4
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
Beginner Handbuilding
Learn the basic skills for creating ceramic sculpture and handbuilt pottery through a series of projects and demonstrations. This class will introduce the three foundational methods of handbuilding—coiling, pinching, and slab-building—to provide the base for any project you might imagine.
BH1: Tuesdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Elizabeth Coleman
April 1 - April 29
Fee: $190 + $60 lab fee (5% member discount)
BH2: Tuesdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Elizabeth Coleman
May 6 - June 3
Fee: $190 + $60 lab fee (5% member discount)
BH3: Wednesdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Moz Rude
April 2 - April 30
Fee: $190 + $60 lab fee (5% member discount)
BH4: Wednesdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Moz Rude
May 7 - June 4
Fee: $190 + $60 lab fee (5% member discount)
INTERMEDIATE-TOADVANCED CLASSES
Looking to refine your techniques and further develop your voice in clay? Intermediate-to-Advanced classes will take your skill set to the next level and deepen your understanding of clay! Many of these classes have a specific focus but leave room for personal interests and growth. If you’re unsure which level to register for, our education staff will happily assist you in finding the appropriate class, just email education@ northernclaycenter.org. As with all NCC classes, please wear old clothes and bring an old towel, a bucket (no larger than one gallon), and a set of tools to the first class. Tool kits are available for $27 at NCC. Lab fee includes one 25 pound bag of clay up to a cost of $25, all glazing materials, firings, and open studio access.
INTERMEDIATE-TO-ADVANCED WHEEL THROWING
Build on all the skills you have already learned on the potter’s wheel and continue to push yourself and your pottery with one of these great 10week classes. Improve your skills and learn new techniques to improve iconic pottery forms such as mugs, bowls, vases, and plates. You can expect to learn new and exciting methods of surface decoration that span the gamut
from carving to glazing. These classes are designed for those with previous wheel-throwing experience, who have taken some beginner classes, and who feel comfortable navigating basic forms on the wheel.
Let’s Raise a Glass
The mug is a fundamental form in a wheel thrower's repertoire—but what are the other making options we have available to us? Turns out there are loads! In this class we will focus on making drinking vessels of all sizes, shapes, and functions. An emphasis will be placed on novel construction and personalizing our making processes to really reflect ourselves as individual artists. Handled objects, tumblers, stemware and bottles will all be covered as part of our course.
AW1: Mondays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Erin Holt
March 31 - June 2
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
Get a Grip
Take your handle making skills to the next level as you learn additional techniques for creating and refining handles of all shapes and sizes. This class is great for anyone who has a firm grip on throwing and trimming vessels but could use a little more practice and guidance on creating the perfect point of contact for their pottery!
AW2: Tuesdays, 10 am - 1 pm
Instructor: Lucy Yogerst
April 1 - June 3
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
Pottery Boot
Camp
Elevate your throwing skills by learning to tackle new advanced pottery forms while learning to work with more clay on the wheel! Whether you're still refining your skills or are an advanced potter aiming to refine your technique, this class offers personalized instruction and hands-on practice to help you achieve your ceramic goals.
AW3: Tuesdays, 2 - 5 pm
Instructor: Kevin Caufield
April 1 - June 3
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
Flowers and Feast
This class will concentrate on flower vases, decorative pieces, and serving dishes for your own banquet table! Learn all the techniques that you will need to create the perfect statement piece for your home.
AW4: Wednesdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Jennica Kruse
April 2 - June 4
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
Guided Study in Wheel Throwing
Are you looking for a more individualized approach to your ceramic instruction? Established artists and makers are invited to join this guided study to sharpen their throwing skills and techniques, expand their repertoire of forms, and advance their craft.
AW5: Thursdays, 2 - 5 pm
Instructor: Leila Denecke
April 3 - June 5
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
A student pulls the walls of a cylinder.
INTERMEDIATE-TO-ADVANCED HANDBUILDING
Take a break from the potter’s wheel and come over to Studio C for some handbuilding! Learn new techniques in coiling, pinching, and slab-building, and delve into concepts that offer new perspectives and ways to reimagine working with clay. Bring your favorite tools and challenging ideas to class.
Biomorphic Bonanza
In this class, we will explore natural textures and patterns to create abstract biomorphic sculptures. Using handbuilding and press mold techniques, you will work with found objects to create a reusable plaster press mold for modular sculpture building. You can also expect to use found objects to create impressions to develop new and exciting patterns
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and textures for surface decorations and more. This class will be fun and experimental, engaging your imagination and creativity to look at everyday objects in new and exciting ways.
AH1: Wednesdays, 2 - 5 pm
Instructor: Jessica Hernandez
April 2 - June 4
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
Building Bigger: Modular Construction
Learn to create the larger handbuilt works, sculptural or functional, you have been dreaming of. Then bring them to life while advancing your handbuilding techniques from an artist who specializes in modular building. Push the dimensions of your work by learning to combine multiple smaller components into a more substantial whole. You are encouraged to come with an idea so that construction can begin quickly.
AH2: Thursdays, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Instructor: Erin Paradis
April 3 - June 5
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
Bowls and Trays: Two Ways
This class is a twofer, learn two different techniques from two of NCC’s teachers. In the first five weeks, Marion Angelica will teach you how to hand-build bowls and trays from slabs and coils. In the last five weeks, Elizabeth Coleman will teach you how to make one-part molds to make bowls and trays from your molds. There will be pasta bowls, ice cream bowls, soup bowls, party trays, olive trays and appetizer trays and any other types of bowls and trays you can dream up.
AH3: Thursdays, 2 pm - 5 pm
Instructors: Marion Angelica and Elizabeth Coleman
April 3 - June 5
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
Sculptural Vessel or Functional Sculpture: The Choice is Yours
Explore the art of ceramics with handbuilding sculptural vessels and unleash your creativity. In this course, students will learn to manipulate clay using the fundamental techniques of pinching, coiling, slab-building, and other essential hand-building methods to create vessels that embody the aesthetic properties of sculpture with the design language of ceramic vessels. In this course, you explore form, texture, and surface design to bring your creative vision to life in clay.
AH4: Thursdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Hannah Kautto
April 3 - June 5
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
Guided Study in Handbuilding
Expand your handbuilding fundamentals to explore figural, architectural, animal, decorative, and functional applications of clay. Work with low- or high-temperature clays as you accept technical challenges and achieve your sculptural vision with guidance from the instructor. Investigate critical thinking as it pertains to the evolution of your work. Bring your favorite tools and have some challenging ideas ready for the first class.
AH5: Friday, 10 am - 1 pm
Instructor: Franny Hyde
April 4 - June 6
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
SPECIAL TOPICS CLASSES
Spanish Immersion Introduction to Wheel Throwing
According to science, multilingual speakers think differently. Now is the perfect time to shift your approach and see how different your ceramics develops when taking a class in Spanish! If you know a little or a lot of Spanish, have some ceramics experience, and want to get better at both, join us for this experimental 10-week class. This class is focused on beginning and intermediate level levels of experience with the potter’s wheel. All students are welcome in this exciting new offering.
T1: Tuesday, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Paola Evangelista
April 1 - June 3
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
A student refines their carved object in the handbuilding studio.
Some Assembly Required
Cups, bowls, and plates are great forms on their own, but imagine the possibilities if you pieced them together! Learn how to make simple forms into complex compositions, by altering thrown and handbuilt pieces into lidded containers, ladles, juicers, scoops, coffee pour-overs, and more! This class is recommended for those who have previous experience on the wheel and are working at an intermediate to advanced level.
T2: Wednesday, 10 am - 1 pm
Instructor: Lucy Yogerst
April 2 - June 4
Fee: $380 + $120 lab fee (5% member discount)
Introduction to Soda-firing
Want to try soda firing, but the fullterm class keeps selling out or seems too daunting? This class will be an in-depth introduction to the soda firing process—making pots, loading and firing the kiln, and unloading! One soda kiln will be fired during the shortened session. The first few classes will be a balance of in-class explanations of the soda firing process, and demonstrations showing how to craft pottery that will thrive in the soda firing process. The final class(es) will cover glazing and preparing pieces for firing and loading the soda kiln. After the firing process is complete, participants will be expected to attend an unloading/cleanup session to receive their finished pieces.
T3: Thursday, 10 am - 1 pm
Instructor: Chris Singewald
April 3 - May 1
Fee: $225 + $75 lab fee (5% member discount)
T4: Thursday, 10 am - 1 pm
Instructor: Chris Singewald
May 8 - June 5
Fee: $225 + $75 lab fee (5% member discount)
Soda-firing Methods
Join teaching artist Emily Murphy in the studio and dive deeper into the techniques and materials to get the most from the soda kiln’s kiss of fire. Load and fire at least three kilns on three firing dates and critically examine the results of each firing. Successive firings ensure that you will have the opportunity to understand the nature of atmospheric firing and, in turn, capitalize on the process by the end of the quarter. Explore more advanced forming and decorating techniques to take full advantage of what the kiln has to offer. Plan to participate in all kiln loadings, and in at least one unloading. This class is designed to provide an experiential learning opportunity for students who are keen to develop their approach to atmospheric firing. Primarily intended for those who are at intermediate to advanced levels of construction— throwers and handbuilders welcome.
T5: Thursdays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Instructor: Emily Murphy
April 3 - June 5
Fee: $380 + $195 lab fee (5% member discount)
SPECIAL TOPICS WORKSHOPS
NCC will provide all materials and tools for these workshops.
Shaping Your Vision:
Pinch & Coil Techniques
Are you enchanted by the look of pinch pots but having trouble executing your ideas? Pinch your way to new heights during this hands-on workshop and learn strategies to gain more control with your handbuilt forms. Practice a coiling and pinching method that can be used for basic forms all the way up to large dynamic forms, and create a uniquely shaped vase from an original concept. Then, spend some time thinking about surface decoration techniques to enhance texture with stencils and slips. Previous handbuilding experience is encouraged.
T6: Sunday, 10 am - 2 pm
Instructor: Samantha Gonzalez Longley
April 6
Fee: $65 (5% member discount)
The Hot Seat: Electric Kiln Firing 101
So, you’ve read your kiln manual but still have questions about firing? We’ve got answers! In this one-day workshop, you will learn the basics of firing and maintaining your own electric kiln. Covering basic information about firing speeds, kiln requirements, and firing temperatures, this class will have you walking away more confident in your ability to be in control of your kiln.
EDUCATION
The workshop is led by teaching artists who fire multiple kilns each month. This workshop does not authorize NCC students to fire our kilns independently, but is helpful for art educators and anyone aspiring to become an NCC studio artist. Basic clay knowledge is preferred.
T7: Saturday, April 26, 10 am - 1 pm
Instructor: NCC Teaching Artist
Fee: $55 (5% member discount)
Tackling Teapots
Whether you’re an avid tea drinker or interested in expanding your wheel throwing skills, this teapot-focused workshop is right for you. Join teaching artist, Sean Lofton, for a two-day workshop where you will learn a variety of techniques focused on creating the best teapot possible. This is a great workshop for anyone interested in expanding their clay skills. The skills necessary to create a great teapot can be applied to any form created on the wheel. Some experience on the potter’s wheel is highly encouraged.
T8: Saturday and Sunday, 10 am - 1pm
Instructor: Sean Lofton
May 3 - 4
Fee: $65 (5% member discount)
Out of the Ashes: Raku 101
Head out to an innovative new space in New Richmond, Wisconsin—Potter’s Without Kilns—for a two-day, handson Raku firing with Mark Lusardi. Bring decorative pieces to life with flashy colors and lively crackles when you move them from the red-hot kiln to
the combustion chamber where the Raku magic begins. Students should bring six to eight pieces—made of Raku clay, bisque fired, and no larger than a cantaloupe—to glaze before heading to the kiln. Pieces made with even thickness and strong attachments will handle the shocking transformation best.
Note: Students will not have access to NCC’s open studio time unless they are already enrolled in a ten-week spring class at NCC.
T9: Saturday, June 7 and Sunday, June 8
10 am - 4 pm
Instructor: Mark Lusardi
Fee: $280 (5% member discount)
PROJECT WORKSHOPS
No previous experience required! NCC will provide all materials and tools for these workshops.
Crafternoon & Crafterdark Pottery Workshops
Bring your friends and make a few new ones and get creative as you learn the secrets of throwing pottery on the wheel. This three-hour workshop is a fun and messy introduction to clay. The $55 fee includes instruction and materials for one adult. Students can expect to make three to five pots and decorate them using colorful slips and textures. Your pots will be ready to pick up in about two weeks.
X1: Saturday, April 5, 1 - 5 pm
X2: Friday, April 25, 6 - 9 pm
X3: Saturday, May 3, 1 - 4 pm
X4: Friday, May 16, 6 - 9 pm
X5: Sunday, May 18, 1 - 4 pm
Instructor: NCC Teaching Artist
Fee: $55 per person, per session
Clay for Couples Pottery Workshops
Looking for a unique date activity that is sure to impress your partner? Try NCC’s original Clay for Couples. Sign up with your significant other, BFF, or family member and learn the secrets of throwing pottery on the wheel in a fun and relaxed environment. Already attended a session? Sign up again and take your skills to the next level. The $110 fee includes instruction, materials, and firings for two adults. Completed pieces will be ready to pick up about two weeks later.
X6: Friday, April 11, 6 - 9 pm
X7: Saturday, May 3, 6 - 9 pm
X8: Saturday, May 24, 6 - 9 pm
Instructor: NCC Teaching Artist
Fee: $110 per couple, per session
A jar covered in spring attachments waiting to be glazed.
Mother’s Day in Clay
Celebrate Mother’s Day with your favorite mom! Work side by side as you design one-of-a-kind mugs for coffee in bed. You can work collaboratively or independently. Learn basic handbuilding and decorating techniques. No matter what you make, mom is sure to love it!
Ages 6+; all skill levels welcome
X9: Sunday, May 11, 10 am - 1 pm
X10: Sunday, May 11, 2 - 5 pm
Instructor: Eileen Cohen
Fee: $65 for two people, one adult and one child. $30 for each additional participant; please contact education@ northernclaycenter.org to register additional participants.
Garden of Delight
Celebrate nature and the outdoors in this garden-themed class. Learn basic handbuilding techniques to make toad houses, mushroom stools, or flower pots. Paint your projects with colored slips. Ages 6+; all skill levels welcomed.
X11: Saturday, June 7, 10 am - 1 pm
X12: Saturday, June 7, 2 pm - 5 pm
Instructor: Eileen Cohen
Fee: $55 (5% member discount)
CLASSES & WORKSHOPS FOR FAMILIES
For all family classes, children must be accompanied by an adult. Neither children nor adults will have access to open studio time during the quarter. Weekend workshops are open to all skill levels, ages 6 and up for handbuilding workshops and 9 and up for wheel-throwing; there are no exceptions to stated age requirements.
Throwing Together
Parents and kids spend a little quality time together learning a new skill! Learn to make basic cylinders, bowls, plates, and more as you grow your skills using the potter’s wheel during this 8-week class. High-temperature clay and glazes will be used. Wear old clothes, bring an old towel and a one-gallon bucket for each participant. Class sessions are designed to allow adults and children to work side-by side in a collaborative environment. Ages 9+; all skill levels welcome.
F1: Sundays, 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Instructor: Keather Lindman
April 6 - June 8
Fee: $340 for two people, one adult and one child
Family Wheel Throwing Workshops
Learn how to use the potter’s wheel in this warm and cozy wintertime workshop! Practice centering, opening, pulling, and shaping the clay, then paint your projects with colored slips. Dress for a mess! Ages 9+; all skill levels welcome.
F2: Saturday, April 12, 10 am - 1 pm
F3: Saturday, April 12, 2 pm - 5 pm
Instructor: Eileen Cohen
Fee: $65 for two people, one adult and one child. $30 for each additional participant; please contact education@ northernclaycenter.org to register additional participants
CLAY FOR YOUTH
Pottery Punch Card for Teens
Our Pottery Punch Card for Teens program is currently at capacity. If you would like to be added to the
EDUCATION
Students busily glazing their work at the end of the term.
waitlist, please reach out to education@ northernclaycenter.org and request to be added to the waitlist. When a spot opens, we will reach out and extend the opportunity to register.
Teens may purchase eight, 2-hour classes, to be used on any Saturday, 10 am - 12 pm. Classes will cover the fundamental techniques of throwing basic forms on the potter's wheel and creating surface decoration using glazes, slips, and applied elements, with varied demonstrations and projects for advanced students. Create a series of functional pots with high-temperature clay bodies. Previous experience is not required. Students may attend on a drop-in basis and the complexity of projects will depend on multiple consecutive classes. Great for students and families with busy schedules. Wear clothes that you don't mind getting
EDUCATION
dirty; NCC will provide the tools and the clay. Students do not have access to open studio time. For ages 13 to 17 only.
Y1: Saturdays, 10 am - 12 pm
Instructor: Erin Holt
Ongoing
Fee: $285 (5% member discount)
Four additional sessions: $145 (5% member discount)
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will meet every Saturday unless otherwise posted (some Saturdays are not available due to holidays or NCC events). Students must sign up for sessions in advance for sessions on our online sign up form. Sessions expire six months after the date of purchase.
ART@HAND CLAY FOR OLDER ADULTS
ART@HAND is NCC’s series of accessible programs for enjoyment of the ceramic arts. Intended for individuals 55 years and older (and their families!), ART@HAND offers lectures, tours, workshops, and hands-on activities.
Sharing is Caring
Spread love on a plate! Learn basic handbuilding techniques to make a tray to share your favorite food with friends and family. Paint your project with colored slips. All skill levels welcomed.
25AAH3: Sunday, April 13, 10 am - 12 pm
Instructor: Eileen Cohen Fee: Free
In the Round
Learn how to use a paper template to design a cylinder of the perfect height and width. Embellish with decoration to personalized your pot. Paint your project with colored slips. All skill levels welcomed.
25AAH4: Sunday, May 18, 10 am - 12 pm
Instructor: Eileen Cohen Fee: Free
VISITING ARTIST WORKSHOPS & LECTURES
Discussion Panel: Curator, David East
Join In Touch curator, David East, and participating artists for a panel discussion about the themes in the exhibition.
X13: Thursday, March 13, 6 pm, FREE
McKnight Artist Talks: Birdie Boone & Uriel Caspi
Please join Northern Clay Center in welcoming Boone and Caspi to the NCC community as they each present a talk on their work and artistic journey.
X14: Tuesday, April 22, 6 pm
Finished projects from an ART@HAND workshop.
Spring Class Registration Opens
Tuesday, February 18, at 10 am
Education Access Scholarship applications open Tuesday, January 28
To Register:
Register with cash or any major credit card. NCC accepts registration online at www.northernclaycenter.org, in the gallery, or by telephone at 612.339.8007. Member discounts are available online.
Due to the high demand for classes, we require full payment with your registration to reserve your seat in class.
NCC will send confirmation of registration. If there is insufficient enrollment, we will cancel class, notify registered students, and refund all payments without penalty. Decisions are made approximately one week before classes begin.
Please register early or you might find that your favorite class is full, or canceled due to low enrollment. If the class you are interested in sells out, reach out to education@northernclaycenter.org and ask to be added to the waitlist of your preferred class.
Education Access Scholarships:
To address and help bridge financial barriers to ceramic education, NCC is implementing new scholarship options for our education programming. This will open access to the ceramic arts and welcome all who wish to learn, grow as an artist, and participate in the ceramic arts community.
We offer two scholarship options:
• a half-tuition scholarship open to artists and learners with financial need
• a full-tuition scholarship open to artists and learners who identify as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color
Scholarships are limited and will be available on a first come, first serve basis to adult students only. Students are eligible to receive only one scholarship per session. We will do our best to offer students one of their top three choices of class or workshop. Once enrolled, all scholarships are non-refundable and non-transferable.
Scholarship students are committed to their selected class, and the scholarship cannot be applied to a different class or term. Should a selected class cancel due to low enrollment, students will have the option to transfer classes. Previous recipients can apply multiple times per year, though priority will be given to new applicants.
Within a week of your application, you will be notified of the status of your application and will be aided in registration from there should you receive the scholarship.
For any questions regarding NCC’s scholarship program, please contact education@northernclaycenter.org
Policies:
Tools: Standard tool kits are available during check-in on the first day of class and in NCC’s Sales Gallery for $27 + tax. Other specialty tools are available as well.
Open Studio: The tuition for regular adult classes includes access to open studio time. On average, adult students enrolled in a qualifying class will have access to our studios between 9 am and 9 pm Wednesday through Sunday, 4:30 to 9 pm on Mondays, and 9 am to midnight on Tuesday and Thursday evenings (subject to other NCC events and programming). Browse our open studio schedule online to check the most up-to-date listing of available studios. NCC reserves the right to close studios for special classes or workshops.
Minimum Age Restrictions: Unless otherwise specified, students must be 18 or older to register for NCC’s adult classes and workshops. Family wheel throwing classes and workshops are open to attendees aged 9 and above, while handbuilding workshops for families are open for those aged 6 and above. NCC’s age restrictions are nonnegotiable and will be strictly enforced.
Continuing Education Credits: If you are a teacher in need of CEUs, contact the education department to learn how NCC’s classes and workshops can be taken for continuing education credit.
Weather: As a general rule, NCC will remain open during inclement weather. We take our cues from local colleges and universities for canceling or rescheduling classes during particularly hazardous conditions. When in doubt, feel free to call us at 612.339.8007, and please be safe!
Tuition, Fees, & Refunds:
Please refer to class listings for tuition and fees. Unless otherwise noted, fees for adult classes include instruction, open studio time, 25 pounds of clay (up to $25), basic glaze materials, and a firing allowance. Tuition may not be prorated. Some students may incur additional expenses if they choose unusual glaze materials or if their work occupies a large volume of kiln space.
Class Refunds: 100% of tuition (less a $25 processing fee) will be refunded if a student elects to drop or transfer a class no later than one week (7 days) before the day of the first class meeting. 50% of tuition (less a $25 processing fee) will be refunded if a student drops or transfers a class within the seven days prior to the first class meeting or within the first two business days after the first meeting. After this period, if a student elects to drop a class, tuition and fees will NOT be refunded for any reason except documented medical emergencies. There are no other exceptions to this policy.
Workshop Refunds: 100% of tuition (less a $25 processing fee) will be refunded if a student elects to drop or transfer a workshop for any reason at least one week (seven days) prior to the workshop. No refunds will be given with less than one week’s notice.
If you find you need to cancel your enrollment, email education@northernclaycenter.org or call 612.339.8007 x309.
2424 Franklin Avenue East Minneapolis, MN 55406
612.339.8007
nccinfo@northernclaycenter.org www.northernclaycenter.org
Visit Us
2424 Franklin Avenue East, Minneapolis, MN 55406
612.339.8007
nccinfo@northernclaycenter.org
Gallery hours: 10 am - 5 pm, 7 days a week. Office hours: 9 am - 5:30 pm, Monday - Friday
Information for Visitors with Disabilities
Please contact us at 612.339.8007 or nccinfo@northernclaycenter.org with any questions about our facility or with requests for accommodations.
Exhibition Group Tours: Available for visitors with physical or cognitive disabilities and the hearing-impaired. Monday – Friday, 9 am – 4 pm. Please call at least three weeks in advance of the event to make a booking.
Signed Interpretation: Signed interpretation is available for any public NCC event. Please call us at least three weeks in advance to request an interpreter.
Mission: Northern Clay Center advances the ceramic arts for artists, learners, and the community, through education, exhibitions, and artist services. Ongoing programs include exhibitions by contemporary regional, national, and international ceramic artists, as well as historical and architectural ceramics; classes and workshops for children and adults at all skill levels; studio space and grants for artists; and a sales gallery representing many top ceramic artists from the region and elsewhere.
Front cover: Paige O'Toole, bbb
Wheelchair seating for classes or other accommodations: We offer a rehabilitationstyle potter’s wheel for those individuals who use wheelchairs. NCC is ADA compliant and is entirely wheelchair accessible. Please contact us in advance of attendance if there are other accommodations we can provide.
The information in this newsletter is available in large-print format upon request.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.