OUr 2027 Theme: Many Paths, Shared Practice!
"Many Paths, Shared Practice!" - Many Paths, Shared Practice explores the ways knowledge is formed, shared, and sustained through clay. Demonstrating artists and speakers will not only reflect on how they teach—across classrooms, studios, and community spaces—but also share practical techniques, processes, and tips from their own making. From foundational skills to personal approaches, this theme highlights the intersection of pedagogy and practice, sharing with attendees both how to make and how to teach through clay.
This year’s conference will follow the format of past gatherings, featuring two full days of demonstrating artists alongside multiple speakers. Three demonstrators will work side by side, engaging with the audience, answering questions, and exchanging ideas with one another. Interspersed throughout the program, additional speakers will share their techniques and insights, all tied to the conference theme.
Demonstrating Artists
Maria Dondero (Athens, GA)
Maria Dondero has lived in Athens, GA for 26 years with her partner and fourteen-year-old twins. Born in Yaoundé, Cameroon she grew up in a large, travel-loving family that shaped her artistic perspective. She discovered pottery in 2000 while living in Mexico and has been making and teaching ever since.
She completed her MFA at the University of Georgia in 2008 and founded Southern Star Studio in 2016 – a thriving ceramics space. She teaches, and her work is exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2022, she co-founded a Clay Studio in Cortona, Italy called Tuscan Clay Lab and now takes groups to Tuscany for clay workshops twice a year.
Maria creates mid-range earthenware pots that draw on the rich history of ceramics. Her work subtly references global pottery traditions while remaining deeply personal and rooted. She intuitively sketches imagery from her everyday surroundings onto each surface, grounding her forms in the red clay and cultural landscape of Georgia.
Website: Marmalade Pottery
Social Media: Instagram
Kathy King (boston, MA)
Kathy King is a studio artist in Boston and is the Director of the Ceramics Program at Harvard's Office for the Arts. Before relocating to the Boston area in 2008, she was an Associate Professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. She received her BA in Studio Art with a major in Ceramics from Connecticut College in New London, CT and her MFA from the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL.
She has given workshops and lectures at over eighty-five colleges, schools, and art centers throughout the USA. The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts featured King as an Emerging Artist in 1999, a Demonstrating Artist in 2002, a co-juror for the 2012 National Student Juried Show, and a co-juror for the Emerging Artist Fellowships in 2025.
Kathy was awarded a Brother Thomas Fellowship by the Boston Foundation, Boston, MA, and a Craft Schools US Residency at the Shigaraki Ceramics Cultural Center. Other residencies include the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine, and the Winter Residency at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. She has served on the Board of Directors of Studio Potter, The Marks Project, and hosts the podcast “For Flux Sake" with Matt and Rose Katz.
Website: Kathy King Pottery
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram
Malcolm mobutu smith (bloomington, in)
Malcolm Mobutu Smith lives and works in Bloomington, Indiana as Professor of Ceramic Art and Director of Graduate Studies in the Eskenazi School of Art at Indiana University. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute and Penn State University in ceramics receiving his BFA in 1994. Smith earned a master’s degree in ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1996.
Smith is represented by the Wexler Gallery in Philadelphia. His works are held in private and public collections including, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Nora Eccles Museum, the Petrucci Family Foundation of African American Art, the Eskenazi Museum of Art, The Palmer Museum of Art.
Website: Malcolm Mobutu Smith
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram
Speakers
Susan Feagin (Penland, NC)
Susan Feagin was born in Burbank, California and when she was 11 years old her family relocated across the country to the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. She earned a BFA in ceramics from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1992. Susan started taking clay classes at the Penland School of Craft in 1994 and was a Core Fellow there from 1998-2000.
In 2007 Susan finished an MFA in ceramics from University of Florida. Susan has been the clay studio coordinator at Penland School since 2007 and maintains a small home clay studio in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
Website: Susan Feagin Ceramics
Social Media: Instagram
Simon Levin (Pawnee, IL)
Simon Levin has been working in clay since 1990 when an elective ceramics course changed the arc of his life. Simon is a full-time studio potter known for his expertise with wood firing. An MFA recipient from the University of Iowa, Simon exhibits, teaches, builds kilns, and is published internationally. In 2013 he was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan.
Between 2004 and today his apprenticeship program has trained 27 potters. He hosts a video series on the Ceramics Arts Network, bringing dialogue to process. Formerly Director at Large for the National Council for Education of the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), and the founder of Cohorts.Art (an innovative craft mentorship program) Simon seeks to advance the frontiers of clay, and evangelize for this empowering material.
Website: Simon Levin Pottery
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram
Lindsay emery (Greensboro, nC)
Lindsay Emery is the owner and artist behind Suite One Studio. She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina and makes feminine, modern pottery that is recognized and sold throughout the world!
She founded Suite One Studio in 2009 and through hard work created a thriving online art business, partnering with companies like Anthropologie, Nordstrom, Samsung, and Chobani to bring creative projects to life for their brands.
Lindsay has a BA in ceramics with a minor in psychology. In 2018 she cofounded, The Studio Source with painter, Allie Dattilio. This online program and community teaches artists how to build their dream online art careers.
Website: Suite One Studio
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram