Julia Galloway is a professor and the Director of the School of Art at the University of Montana-Missoula. Julia has exhibited across the United States, Canada, and Asia and her work is included in the collections of the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC, Long Beach Art Museum, Long Beach CA, and the Ceramics Research Center at the Arizona State Art Museum, among many others. Julia will discuss the state of ceramics today and provide illuminating demonstrations in throwing/handbuilding combinations, handles and spouts and surface decoration.
www.juliagalloway.com

Jessika Edgar is a ceramic artist based in Detroit. Her research focuses on concepts related to identity and value through an investigation in contemporary craft and sculptural abstraction. Raised in both Western Massachusetts and Southern California, Jessika has an MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2011), an MA in Studio Art (2009) and BA in Studio Art (2008) from California State University Northridge. Jessika has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at The Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Regis Center for the Arts, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI, Ceramic Research Center and Brickyard Gallery, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, India, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX and Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. She has been awarded residencies at Guldagergaard: International Ceramic Research Center, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Wassaic Projects, and the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild.
www.jessikaedgar.com/

Lane Kaufmann is a ceramic artist focused on public engagement and community development. He grew up in a Mennonite family in Goshen, Indiana where he learned the importance of social justice, the value of being a part of a community and to value purpose whether in idea, object, or occupation. His work investigates meaning in our daily lives, the individual’s role in the collective and how art can engage within a community to bring about social reform.
A graduate of Goshen College with a BA in Studio Art, Lane furthered his studies at Michigan State University where he recently graduated with a Masters of Fine Art. Lane moved to South Korea to teach English and study the Korean ceramics tradition. An influential moment in Lane’s career was learning about the impact caused by trade and wars between Korea, Japan, and China and how those exchanges are reflected in the ceramic wares of that time. From then on Lane was conscious of the historical connotations of particular forms and styles.
After returning from Korea, Lane was invited to be a resident artist at Cub Creek Foundation in Appomattox, Virginia. This year gave him the opportunity to focus on developing his art within a small, dedicated community of artists. Here Lane spent time mining the native clays and preparing wood for firing his work. The sleek and controlled forms he made in Seoul gave way to more rustic and natural ones, inspired by the land and people around him at Cub Creek.
His current work is a synthesis of functional pottery and socially engaged art. Currently, he is teaching foundation level classes at Michigan State University as Fixed-term Faculty.
www.lanekaufmannpottery.weebly.com/

Originally from Houston, Texas, Travis Erxleben is currently Studio Technician and Instructor at Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan. Travis earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas in 2016. His works revolve around a fascination with historical objects. Having never known his paternal grandparents, Travis was given only the objects they left behind after death to learn who they had been and where his family had come from. His portfolio is comprised of sculptural works that stimulate a thematic commentary about the lasting legacies of previous generations. The works highlight the importance of preserving historically significant objects, the unique testaments that they embody, and the lessons they have to teach us about our origins. Travis’ work has been exhibited in solo, invitational, and juried exhibitions throughout the United States. He is currently represented by Gathered Glassblowing Studio and Gallery in Toledo, Ohio.
www.traviserxleben.com/

David Velez Felix is a graduate from Yale University with a BFA in photography. He pursued his photography career in New York City until 1999 when he moved to Michigan for an Art Directorship. As a decidedly “American Artist” his subject matter is culturally all inclusive. His Americana is defined by his belief in the melting pot as portrayed in his latest body of work. It wasn't until 2010, when he received the generous gift of a clay hand-building class, that David found his true passion. Since then, clay has been his favorite and primary medium for his constantly evolving artistic expression as a ceramicist.
www.dvf.design/

Ebitenyefa Baralaye is a ceramicist, sculptor, and designer. His work explores cultural, spiritual, and material translations of form/objects, text, and symbols interpreted through a diaspora lens and abstracted around the aesthetics of craft and design. Baralaye received a BFA in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Ceramics from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Baralaye was an Emerging Artists Program recipient at the Museum of the African Diaspora in 2017 and an AICAD Teaching Fellow at the San Francisco Art Institute from 2016 to 2018. He is currently an Assistant Professor and Section Head of Ceramics at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
www.baralaye.com/

Emily LoPresto is a ceramic artist who has been working with clay for more than half her life. Her current work is functional slip cast ceramic objects for everyday use with an empasis on the process of mold making. Using modern technology to aid her process Emily vies each mold as a problem to solve to result in a functional ceramic object. Emily graduated from the College of Creative Studies with a major in Crafts, Ceramics and a minor in Jewelry Metals. She has a full-functioning studio and is actively making ceramic work. It is her hope that people purchase her work and enjoy using it in everyday life as much as she does.
www.eloceramicart.com/