Studio Potter is delighted to announce the recipients of the 2027 Grants for Apprenticeships. Each team will receive $15,000 for educational endeavors, building their practices as independent studio potters as they deepen their knowledge and relationship in the coming year. Congratulations to all!
We also extend our appreciation to this year's jurors: John R. Hamilton, III, Jan McKeachie Johnston, and Andy Shaw.
Mentors: Clayton Amemiya and Stephen Freedman
Apprentice: Tara Mayer
Hilo, HI
Mentor: Daniel Garver
Apprentice: John Quick
Spruce Pine, NC
Mentor: Michael Kline
Apprentice: Ethan Katz
Bakersville, NC
Mentor: Alan Perillo
Apprentice: Jack Orgill
Tenino, WA
Mentor: Tara Wilson
Apprentice: Allison Breen
Montana City, MT
2027 Jurors
John R. Hamilton III
John R Hamilton III was born in Colorado Springs, CO. He attained a BFA in Ceramics and BS in Art Education from Fort Hays state University in 2012. Since graduating, John has taught classes and workshops, and sold work in art fairs and galleries across the US. He currently runs the ceramics program at the Art Students League of Denver and works in his private studio in Colorado.
“Blending the world of science fiction and functional art has allowed me to find a voice in ceramics. Each Piece utilizes various elements of the ceramic process, using trompe-l’oeil to draw the viewer in closer, enticing them to touch each piece. My purpose is to create functional art that demands to be on the counter, table or shelf opposed to the inside of a cabinet out of view.”
Jan McKeachie Johnston
Jan McKeachie Johnston studied at the University Of Minnesota, Southern Illinois University, and University Of Wisconsin at River Falls, and since 1979 has been very active in teaching workshops and demonstrations, and working in her Wisconsin studio. For the past 15 years she has participated in important exhibitions throughout the United States. Exhibitions in 2004 includeJan McKeachie Johnston and Randy Johnston Redstar Studios, Kansas City, Kansas;Sculptural Utility, Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA; From The Garden: Forms, Images, And Ideas, Northern Clay Center, Mpls, MN; and This Splendid Table: Fantastic Dishes For Food, Kentucky Museum Of Art And Design, Louisville, KY. Her work has also been featured in Clay Times and Ceramics Monthly, and she is represented in many private and public collections, including the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia; the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Andy Shaw
Currently Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Andy formerly taught at East Carolina University and at Louisiana State University. His creative projects include the conceptual development and coordination of the Mid-Atlantic Keramik Exchange (MAKE) in Reykjavik Iceland, the LSU Ceramics Factory team-production studio, the first Queeramics Symposium, and The Boneyard exhibition at LSUMoA. Andy has completed internationally based artist residencies including the Royal Danish Academy, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Canada, and the Icelandic projects with SÍM Residency in Reykjavik, Íshús Hafnarfjarðar in Hafnarfjörður (2016), and MAKE 2019, 2022, and 2025. Additionally he completed artist residencies within the U.S. including the Northern Clay Center as a funded McKnight Artist, The Clay Studio of Philadelphia as the 2007 Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellow, the Archie Bray Foundation, Red Lodge Clay Center, and the Arrowmont School of Crafts. In 2000 he earned his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and in 1992 a BA in History from Kenyon College with a senior study on medieval Icelandic literature and law. He also studied at Penn State University, the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and apprenticed at Basin Creek Pottery, Montana.
Among the distinguished permanent holdings of his work are the Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Everson Museum of Art, the Swidler Collection at the Crocker Art Museum, and the E. John Bullard Collections at the LSU Museum of Art and at Bates College. Andy is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.