(Wilmington)

Aaron is a practicing artist and Professor of ceramics at UNC Wilmington. He is the primary faculty member for UNCW's Ceramics Program and has taught various courses, including Sculpture, Design, and Senior Exhibit.

(Chapel Hill)

Barbara joined the UNC School of Social Work in 2022 as assistant dean for strategic communications and marketing. She previously served at Carolina as a communications strategist with UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media (2018–2022) and as director of UNC’s in-house design team (2006–2008). Her service to the state also includes roles with the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) as publications director and, earlier, as head graphic designer. She is also an avid pottery lover.

(Liberty)

Brenda is a graduate of the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture who has been making pottery since 20210. In the summer of 2012, she became a co-owner of a farm, where she had the chance to put down some clay roots and, with a Regional Artists Project Grant, built a 60-cubic-foot wood-firing kiln. For her work, she uses the method of single firing, which has given her the chance to experiment with glazes made from local clay, ash glazes, and natural clay glazes.

(Wilmington)

Heather was born in Seoul, Korea, and grew up in Montclair, Virginia. Heather received her BA in Psychology from Elon University with a minor in Art. She furthered her education at UNC at Wilmington, where her interest in wood-fired ceramics started. Continuing her pursuit in clay, Heather did an apprenticeship in Cromarty, Scotland. Prior to Attending ECU, Heather worked as a studio potter and ceramics technician at Cape Fear Community College and UNCW while also teaching classes at Orange Street Pottery in Wilmington, NC.

(Raleigh)

Hunter cultivated a lifelong love of pottery as a childhood visitor of Neolia Cole Womack’s pottery shop in Sanford, NC. A graduate of UNC Chapel Hill in American Studies, he now leads cataloging and Local History efforts at the Lee County Libraries in Sanford. 

(Greenville)

Jim Tisnado has an MFA in ceramics from Ohio University, a BFA in ceramics from the University of Iowa, and a BA in Painting from California State University, Chico. He has also taught at Morehead State University, Indiana University, and the Herron School of Art. Tisnado is a potter and ceramic artist who uses clay and other media to create small installations and sculptures. His work employs repetition and multiples to explore objects in the world, the relationships between father and son, and human perceptions within the context of immigration.

(Randleman)

Joseph is a wood-firing potter and ceramic artist. He studied general art with an emphasis on ceramics at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. During a year abroad in Italy with the University of Georgia-Athens’ program for art students, Joseph committed himself to becoming a professional artist. He then studied at the University of Wolverhampton, England, and later became an apprentice for potter Mark Hewitt in Pittsboro, NC. Joseph owns and operates a pottery studio and shop in Randleman, NC.

(Durham)

Sarah Bryan is a folklorist and writer in Durham, North Carolina. She specializes in the cultural heritage of the American South, with particular focus on the Carolinas. She is the founding director of Whole South Heritage Works, and has directed several other nonprofit cultural organizations previously, including the North Carolina Folklife Institute. Sarah and potter and historian Hal Pugh are co-authors of a book chronicling the history of Southern folk pottery, forthcoming from UNC Press.