Sarah Coote

Sarah Coote is an educator and studio ceramist based in Vancouver.
Born in Salisbury, S. Rhodesia, she was raised in England, Australia, California and Ottawa. She studied at the Sheridan School of Crafts and Design, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA 1983), Kent State University and the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, where she earned her MFA.
She has taught at NSCAD, Emily Carr Institute and Rhode Island School of Design, and she was a Visiting Professor of Ceramics in Spain. She has taught full-time in Ceramics at Langara College in Vancouver for seventeen years.
Her work has appeared in exhibitions and publications across Canada, the US and the UK. Coote approaches functional pottery with the aim of giving “utility and beauty an equal role.” She uses a combination of throwing and hand-building techniques to reinterpret traditional forms, giving her work “the interior volumes and structural integrity” she believes are essential for good pottery.

Mary Daniel

Mary Daniel is a ceramic and mixed-media artist based in Vancouver, BC.
She has an extensive background in teaching and educational leadership as well as studio arts. She graduated with a double major in painting and ceramics from the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus, and she also holds an MA in Curriculum Studies and a Doctorate of Education from the University of British Columbia. In Regina, her primary mentor was Jack Sures, and she was a personal assistant to Marilyn Levine. Her emphasis on surface decoration reflects her background in both painting and ceramics. Mary taught for the Vancouver School of Art, in the Visual and Performing Arts Department of the University of British Columbia, and for the Vancouver School Board. Her work is represented in private and public collections across North America. In the spring of 2010, she undertook an invitational residency at the International Ceramic Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary. Mary has been a member of the Board since 2008. For more information, please see her website at www.marydaniel.ca.

Amy Gogarty

Amy Gogarty is an artist, educator and writer based in Vancouver.
She received her MFA (Painting) from the University of Calgary, and taught art history, theory and ceramics history in the Liberal Studies Department of the Alberta College of Art & Design for sixteen years prior to relocating to Vancouver in 2006. She has exhibited installations of her paintings and other media in numerous local and national exhibitions. She has published over 80 critical essays and reviews focused on contemporary art and craft practice and she has presented papers in national and international symposia addressing craft issues. In 2009, she was the invited artist/writer for the Medalta International Artist Residency in Medicine Hat, Alberta. She is the co-editor of two volumes of essays, Craft Perception and Practice vol. 3 and Utopic Impulses: Contemporary Ceramics Practice, both published by Ronsdale Press in Vancouver. She has been a Board member since 2008.

Tam Irving

Tam Irving is an educator and studio potter based in West Vancouver. He is a founding member and impetus behind the formation of the NWCF.
After obtaining a degree in Agriculture from the University of Scotland in Edinburgh and working as a chemist for Shell Canada, he became a production potter. He began to teach in ceramics at the Vancouver School of Art/Emily Carr University in 1973, retiring in 1996 to return to his own practice. As an artist, he is “interested in the beauty that can inhere in simple objects.” He has exhibited widely including in Thrown: Influences and Intentions of West Coast Ceramics at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at UBC in 2004, and the solo exhibition Transitions of a Still Life at the Burnaby Art Gallery in 2007. He has written for Contact Magazine and Studio Potter. His work is in the collections of The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull; the Gardiner Museum, Toronto; the Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo and the Surrey Art Gallery in Surrey.

Carol Mayer

Carol Mayer holds a PhD from the University of Leicester and is the founding president of the North West Ceramics Foundation. She heads the curatorial department of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, where she is responsible for an international collection of ceramics. In 1990, she curated the only permanent gallery devoted to European ceramics in western Canada. She has lectured extensively in Canada and abroad on issues relating to ceramics, museums and ethnography. Her reviews, catalogue essays and critical writings have been published widely, and she has organized and curated numerous exhibitions including Transitions of a Still Life: Ceramic Works by Tam Irving at the Burnaby Art Gallery in 2007. Carol has served on the Board of the Potters’ Guild and is an advocate for BC ceramics both nationally and internationally. She was awarded a Lifetime Membership of the Guild in 2005. For more information on Carol and on the new Multiversity Galleries at MOA, where 3000 ceramics from around the world are on view, please see the museum’s website at www.moa.ubc.ca.

Sally Michener

Sally Michener is an artist, educator and long-term Board member based in West Vancouver. She holds a MSW from Columbia University in New York City and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. She immigrated to Canada in 1973 and taught at the Vancouver School of Art/Emily Carr University for twenty-five years. Her studio practice consists primarily of ceramic sculpture and installation-based works, which have been exhibited across Canada as well as abroad in Japan, China, the USA, Mexico and Europe. About her work, the artist states “The human body and the column are basic subjects in my work. . . . I continue to be interested in formal, abstract composition, function and aesthetics.” Sally has received numerous Canada Council grants and awards and is a member of RCA. She has participated in ceramic residencies in Canada, Mexico and China. In 2007, she was one of ten Canadians invited to participate in a month-long residency and to create work for an international ceramic museum in Fuping, China, and, in 2009, she created a garden installation at the Burlington Art Centre in Ontario. For more information, please see the website of the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art and search under Michener: www.ccca.ca/.

Keith Rice-Jones

Keith Rice-Jones is an educator and studio potter based in Burnaby, BC. He holds an M Ed from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, with his degree culminating in an exhibition, Relationships, at the Burnaby Art Gallery. He teaches in the PDP Program at Simon Fraser University. Keith has travelled extensively to Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Britain, visiting potteries and ceramics-related sites. He participated in a major residency at Sturt Contemporary Craft Centre in New South Wales, Australia, in 2006. Keith has had seven exhibitions at the Gallery of BC Ceramics between 1992 and 2005, and he has exhibited in numerous other exhibitions including Hot Clay at the Surrey Art Gallery in 2004. His work is represented by the Gallery of BC Ceramics, Design Infusion in Santa Barbara and Sopa Fine Arts, in Kelowna. He has said of his work that it "reflects early design training, and, though much early work was concerned with ideas of ritual and referenced many diverse cultures, my current sculptural work is rooted in the Modernist tradition." Keith has been a member of the Board since 2003. For more information, please see his website at www.wildricestudio.com

Debra Sloan

Debra Sloan is a studio potter, sculptor and educator based in Vancouver. She attended the University of British Columbia and received her BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. In 2010, she will attend the International Ceramics Studio Residency at Kecskemet, Hungary. She has exhibited in six solo shows in Vancouver as well as in numerous juried and invitational local, provincial and national group shows. Her work is found in private and public collections and is represented by the Gallery of BC Ceramics, Crafthouse Gallery, Circle Craft Co-op Gallery and the YVR Craft Council of BC Gallery. She has researched the history of BC ceramics and collected chop marks for the Potters’ Guild of British Columbia. With Glenn Lewis and Phyllis Schwartz, she edited Seeking the Nuance, an examination of historic glazes used at the UBC Faculty of Education and Fine Arts in the 1960s and 70s. Debra has been a member of the NWCF Board since 2008, coordinating From Oven and Kiln, its major fundraising event, and researching material for the NWCF website. For more information, please see her website at www.debrasloan.com.

Cheryl Stapleton

Cheryl Stapleton is an artist, educator and pottery studio technician and manager based in Vancouver.
She holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She has managed the Roundhouse Pottery Studio since 1999 and the studio at West Point Grey since 2002. She has taught ceramics classes to both children and adults since 1996 at Kwantlen University, the Surrey Arts Centre, the Vancouver School Board, and at both the Roundhouse and West Point Grey Community Centres. Cheryl maintains her own studio in the Mergatroid Building located within the parameters of the Eastside Culture Crawl. In 2005 and 2006, she participated in the Terra cotta Residency in Santiago du Cuba, and she attended NCECA conferences in both Portland, OR and Phoenix, AZ. Cheryl volunteers with the Fraser Valley Potters Guild Association and the Canadian Clay Symposium, and she has been a member of the NWCF Board since 2008.

Ron Vallis

Ron Vallis works as a preparator at the Equinox Gallery in Vancouver. He recently returned to making pots on a regular basis with John Reeve and Martin Peters at the Dunbar Pottery. He is interested in “the simple domestic vessel as an expressive object within the discipline of the traditional tools of wheel and fire.” Ron graduated with honours from the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University) and studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts. Working as a professional potter 1975-1985, he exhibited at the Ping Gallery and the Gallery of BC Ceramics in Vancouver, and at the Exit Gallery and Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff. His work was included in the exhibition Thrown: Influences and Intentions of West Coast Ceramics at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at UBC in 2004. For many years he served on the Board or as President of the Potters’ Guild of BC and on the Board of the BC Highland Dance Association. Ron has been a member of the Board of the NWCF since 1997, serving as Vice-President from 1997 to 2000 and as President from 2001 until the present.

Jinny Whitehead

Jinny Whitehead is a studio potter working with wood-fire based in Vancouver. She has been a member of the NWCF Board since 2004 and is currently the Vice-President. She is also the President of the Potters’ Guild of BC.
A self-taught potter, Jinny has attended workshops and wood-fire conferences for many years. Her work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions including In the Palm of the Hand, a BC/Japan exchange exhibition in Tajimi, Japan; Ashes to Art at Crane Arts, in Philadelphia and By Hand at the Museum of Vancouver in 2010. Her work was published in 500 Cups and is available at the Gallery of BC Ceramics and at Motoko’s Original Art Fine Art Gallery in Pender Harbour. In speaking about her work, the artist says “Years of travelling and living in different countries have exposed me to an array of cultures. My creations fuse this awareness with a fascination for and love of natural forms--factors that inform the essential character of my work.” For more information, please see the artist’s website at www.jinnywhitehead.com.