MCAA: Building the Michigan Clay Community

Presenters Highlight: Henry Crissman @henrycrissman and Virginia Torrence @virginiaroset ▫️ Building a Community Ceramics Studio and Artist Residency ▫️ Crissman and Torrence have spent the last eight years renovating their home and storefront in Hamtramck, Michigan, into a vibrant community ceramics studio and residency space. The Ceramics School offers classes and memberships and hosts resident artists from around the globe. Crissman and Torrence will share their story and lessons learned and discuss their teaching philosophies, personal art practices, visions for the future, and the necessity of community art spaces.

Henry Crissman earned a BFA in Craft from the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in 2012, and an MFA in Ceramics at Alfred University in 2015. He and his wife, Virginia Torrence, co-founded and co-direct Ceramics School, a ceramic-centric community art school and artist residency in Hamtramck, Michigan, where Crissman lives and makes his art. He is an adjunct professor in the Studio Arts and Crafts Department at CCS. He and Torrence have been co-teaching the wood-firing courses at Oxbow School of Art in Saugatuck, MI since 2023.

Virginia Torrence earned her BFA in Crafts from the College for Creative Studies in 2013 and her MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University in 2016. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Trinosophes (Detroit), Wasserman Projects (Detroit), and The White Page Gallery (Minneapolis), among others. She and her husband, Henry Crissman, co-founded Ceramics School, the community ceramics studio and artist residency in Hamtramck, Michigan, where she teaches, manages the studio, and makes pottery and sculpture. She and Crissman have been co-teaching the wood-firing courses at Oxbow School of Art in Saugatuck, Michigan, since 2023. #michmud25 #michiganmade #nceca #nceca2025 #ceramics ...

Presenter Highlight: Julie Devers @devers_julie ▫️ Art Education, Community, and Collaboration: The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts ▫️ Devers will provide a lecture on the topic of community and clay at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts’ Kirk Newman Art School. This community-based art center, housed within a prestigious Midwestern museum, offers a wide range of courses, strong student-instructor relationships, and a space for community, friendship, and artistic expression. In addition, Devers will discuss the Art School’s exceptional anagama kiln, which draws students from near and far.

Julie Devers is the Chair of the Ceramics Department in the Kirk Newman Art School at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Devers began teaching at the KIA in 2001 and has been responsible for their successful anagama program. Her life as a studio potter has taken her to juried art shows across the Midwest for more than 30 years. Devers’s ceramic work has also been exhibited in many national juried shows. She has her B.F.A. from the University of Notre Dame and received her M.F.A. from the University of Montana.


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Presenter Highlight: Blake J. Williams @blakejw13 ▫️ Petals of Porcelain: Simple Mold Making for Multiples ▫️ Various hand building and mold making techniques with white clay for floral inspired mixed media ceramic sculpture.

Blake J. Williams is a ceramic artist and Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Williams discovered her love of clay in high school at Cranbrook Kingswood in Michigan and her passion for teaching at Pottery Northwest in Seattle. She earned her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and her MFA from Louisiana State University. She has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her pieces are in private collections, including the Michigan State University Spartan Stadium and the Jingdezhen Ceramics Museum. Williams’s work has appeared in publications, including American Craft, Ceramics Monthly, and Hyperallergic. Her current conceptual focus examines the relationships between the tangible and intangible aspects of objects and mortality, represented in the fragility and permanence of porcelain bones and flowers.

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Presenter Highlight: Hedy Yang @hedyyang_ ▫️Design in the Clouds: Slip Casting and Production Methods ▫️ Yang will demonstrate her signature designed cloud vases. In addition to creating and decorating the form, she will discuss how she markets her work.

Hedy Yang’s interest in clay began as a means to fulfill a class requirement, but the ceramics studio quickly became her sanctuary. It was the place she would go to hide from her other classes and ponder her life and future while elbows deep in mud. In college, Yang majored in ceramics and minored in entrepreneurship while building her business on the side. She had the opportunity to sell hundreds of pieces internationally and decided to take a real stab at making her art a sustainable career after graduation. Yang was artist-in-residence on a farm in the Adirondack mountains of New York for a year, focusing on creating work that she truly enjoyed and felt inspired by. Afterward, she attended a post-baccalaureate year at Syracuse University, where she assisted in teaching, focused on honing her skills, and tried new firing techniques. In 2020, she leased a beautiful pottery studio in Berkley, Michigan, and has been happily playing in mud in her very first personal studio ever since. Yang’s work has been featured at Charlie Cummings Gallery, Guy Hepner Gallery, and Louis Buhl Gallery, among many others.


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Conference Registration is now open - Early Bird pricing is available - Join us, May 16-17, 2025, in Kalamazoo!

Important Notes — You must be logged in to the MCAA website to access member pricing. Please register using a valid .edu email address and remember to bring your current student ID to the conference to qualify for student pricing. *On-site tickets will be available.

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Presenter Highlight: Heidi Fahrenbacher / Bella Joy Pottery @bellajoypottery ▫️ Business Models: The Unconventional ▫️ Traditionally, the path to becoming a full-time ceramic artist has been likened to chasing rainbows–the closer you get, the more distant you might feel. As Fahrenbacher demonstrates her process for producing her wares using screen printing and slip casting, she will also share her journey as a maker and the creation of her small business.

Heidi Fahrenbacher is an artist and educator from Plainwell, Michigan. She graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and Art History from Kalamazoo College. Her work is sold nationwide in galleries and gift shops and has been featured on the Today Show, the Museum of Art and Design, 500 Ceramics Sculptures, and 500 Ceramic Vases. She has written for Pottery Making Illustrated, presented at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), and Michigan Mud.

Conference Registration opens February 24th!

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