event-type

: Talks + Conferences

Artist talking to student in the Northern Clay Center studios. Northern Clay Center

The Northern Clay Center Galleries are now open until 7 pm on Thursdays! To celebrate our extended hours, join us for an inspiring new series featuring artist talks, demonstrations, conversations, and more—all centered on the world of ceramics. Free and open to everyone.

Join us for a conversation with mother/ daughter duo, artist Alysha Hill and psychologist Dr. Belynda Tse on mindfulness, creativity, restoration, and gratitude.

Minneapolis,
MN
Talks + Conferences
Clay
Seth Rolland. Courtesy of the Artist

Presented on Zoom
Sunday, February 15, 2026
3:00 PM – 4:15 PM

Join NWDC Members and other craft lovers on Sunday, February 15 at 3 PM for our next NWDC Member Artist Talk presented on Zoom. This talk is open to the public.

“Furniture is interactive and we develop a bond as we eat, sit, play, sleep, work and live with it. When a table, chair, bed or desk leaves my workshop, I hope it becomes part of your life and history through generations of use.” – Seth Rolland

Virtual
Talks + Conferences Virtual
Mixed Media Wood
Wet felted flowers of different colors. American Swedish Institute

This delightful intro to wet felting lets students get their hands on wool, silk, warm water, and soap while blending colors and shaping petals.

Students will leave with some colorful wool flowers, perfect for pinning to a coat, bag, or hat.

Suitable for ages 16+, or 9-15 registered with an adult. This workshop welcomes students of all experience levels and is especially suited to beginners. $75 ($65 ASI member) + $35 materials fee payable to instructor.

Minneapolis,
MN
Talks + Conferences Workshops + Courses
Fiber
Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman, Jenev Studio, Los Angeles, 1954-1955. Photo by Milton Lipton, courtesy of the Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman Estate

Celebrate the legacy of Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman in an intimate conversation with their daughter, Laura Ackerman-Shaw, exploring their decades-long creative partnership, design approach, and lasting influence.

After the talk, stay for In Tandem by Katie Nartonis and Margaret Halkin, a 22-minute documentary on the Ackermans’ shared lives, careers, and their pivotal role in shaping California mid-century modernism.

This program is part of Material Curiosity by Design: Evelyn & Jerome Ackerman.

Los Angeles,
CA
Exhibitions + Shows Screenings Talks + Conferences
Clay Fiber Glass Metal Mixed Media Other Paper Wood

Join guest curator Jamie Kwan on a walk-through of Fired in Revolution: Ceramics from the People’s Republic of China. Kwan will talk about the exhibition, share details about the collection, and discuss how the concept for the show came to a realization.

Fired in Revolution explores how The Cultural Revolution was a period of social, cultural, and economic upheaval caused by radical government ideology. It not only affected politics, but also the daily lives of the Chinese people.

Pomona,
CA
Exhibitions + Shows Talks + Conferences
Clay Mixed Media
Elysia, Crispata, Anthozoa, Jess Hernandez. Jess Hernandez

Join us in celebrating the achievements of our 2024 – 25 Early Career Artist Grant Recipients.

Northern Clay Center administers several grant programs designed to support artists in the early stages of their careers through residencies, grants, and education.

This exhibition features the work of Jessica Hernandez, Hannah Kautto, and Anastasia Speer.

Minneapolis,
MN
Virtual
Exhibitions + Shows Talks + Conferences Virtual
Clay
Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, Cloved Oval, copper and brass. Courtesy of Sienna Patti

Mimlitsch-Gray explores craft as both subject and object, engaging the history and methods of metalsmithing to reinterpret utility and form. She received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and is an American Craft Council Fellow.

Little Rock,
AR
Exhibitions + Shows Talks + Conferences
Fiber Metal
Courtesy of Dieu Donné. Photographed by Murray Hall.

2024–25 Lab Grant Residency Artist Sam Moyer will discuss her experience working at Dieu Donné Paper Mill to develop her first series of handmade paper works.

In her series Soft Mods, she used alternating layers of translucent abaca and pigmented cotton, in shades of Payne’s grey. Working intuitively, Moyer manipulated paper pulp in a sculptural way, creating images that seem composed of light and shadow.

Virtual
Talks + Conferences Virtual
Paper
Paper Samples from University of Iowa Project. Courtesy of Dieu Donné

12:00 – 1:00 pm ET

This virtual artist talk will feature Timothy Barrett and Paul Wong discussing how they each developed archival, conservation-quality papers that were used to rebind or rehouse national treasures in our libraries and archives.

Moderated by Director of Artistic Projects & Master Collaborator Tatiana Ginsberg.

Virtual
Talks + Conferences Virtual
Paper
Erika Diamond, Eggshell Shirt - Business Casual, 2022, Eggshells stitched between two layers of tulle. Erika Diamond

Surface Tension brings together two makers whose creative paths emerge from distinct disciplines.

Erika Diamond is a textile-based artist working with Kevlar and eggshells to create wearable garments and Chelsea Lillo is an Anaplastologist who crafts custom prosthetic devices for patients who experience loss or alteration of facial or physical anatomy.

Diamond and Lillo’s works navigate the terrain of the human body—its identity, construction, safety, and movement within society.

Athens,
GA
Exhibitions + Shows Talks + Conferences
Fiber Mixed Media Other
Frances Torivio (Acoma Pueblo), Figures, ca. 1960s, clay, slip, turquoise, coral. Museum of International Folk Art, gift of the Girard Foundation Collection. Photo by Kate Macuen

I Am Clay is the first exhibition to focus on figurative pottery from Acoma Pueblo.

The community-curated show examines historic Puebloan precursors to figuration in clay, and considers how tourism during the early 20th century helped shape the development of this practice.

Over 120 objects will narrate the story of the Acoma women artists at the heart of this tradition.

I Am Clay travels to Haak’u Museum at Acoma Pueblo in February 2027.

Santa Fe,
NM
Exhibitions + Shows Talks + Conferences
Clay
Photo inside of the Lipscomb Art Gallery at the South Carolina State Museum. Courtesy of the South Carolina State Museum

This professionally juried-exhibition highlights South Carolina’s contemporary craft scene as part of the national Handwork 2026 initiative.

Featuring 10–12 artists working in fiber, ceramics, wood, and mixed media, the show emphasizes both heritage and innovation. Many of the works will be created specifically for this exhibition, underscoring the ongoing evolution of craft practices in the state.

Columbia,
SC
Celebrations + Gatherings Exhibitions + Shows Talks + Conferences
Clay Fiber Glass Metal Mixed Media Other Paper Wood
Re-Cycles of Dress: Costume Society of America’s 52nd Annual National Meeting and Symposium. Costume Society of America/Design by Nattakarn Kijrattanakarn

Costume Society of America’s 2026 symposium in Charlotte, NC will explore the cyclical nature of dress and textile history.

From ancient reuse driven by cost to today’s response to fast fashion waste, the practices of remake, recycle, and upcycle reflect enduring ingenuity. Rising interest in second-hand shopping and creative repurposing underscores a modern shift toward sustainability, reaffirming the historical and contemporary relevance of reuse, remake, and recycle in the clothing industry.

Charlotte,
NC
Talks + Conferences
Fiber
"River’s Edge" by Shannon Lucas Westrum (left); "Roses in a Broken Vase" by Christine Novotny (right). Photo credit: Christine Novotny

Textile Center is kicking off the year celebrating Minnesota artists with the 2025 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellowship Exhibition, featuring new work by the 2025 fellowship recipients Christine Novotny of Grand Marais, a weaver and dyer, and Shannon Lucas Westrum of Bemidji, a basketry and mixed media artist.

Artist talks and reception for the artists: March 19, 5 – 7 pm, 2026, at Textile Center.

Minneapolis,
MN
Virtual
Exhibitions + Shows Talks + Conferences Virtual
Fiber
John Paul Morabito | Our Lady of the Bathhouse. PSG

Begun in 2018 and completed in 2020, John Paul Morabito unveils their series of religious tapestries with a subtle but explicit intervention, cloaking 15th- and 16th-century Renaissance paintings of Madonna and Child in flamboyant colors of drag—a Queer allegory turning sacred to Camp.

Morabito remediates devotional paintings by artists such as DaVinci and Botticelli with accentuated day-glow colors and a stigmata presentation shimmering with gold beaded fringe.

Los Angeles,
CA
Virtual
Exhibitions + Shows Talks + Conferences Virtual
Mixed Media