Alison Alten cofounded Middle Kingdom to broaden appreciation for porcelain traditions from East and West and to invite a fresh look at an ancient craft. Middle Kingdom works have been collected by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, MD, and are sold around the world. Alison comes to the MACC conference to share knowledge from her experiences as an entrepreneur. Her formal training was in East Asian Studies at both the College of William and Mary and at Harvard University, but all of her advice for fellow creatives comes from the unaccredited School of Hard Knocks.

Megan Angolia is a figurative artist based outside of Richmond, Virginia. Angolia alternates between painting and sculpture, crafting richly detailed portraits that celebrate the minutiae of the human form, often with a playful sense of humor. Angoliaʼs work is exhibited nationally, with recent work at the William King Museum of Art and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a recipient of the 2021/22 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship and a recent Artist-in-Residence at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico. When not in the studio or at her day job, Angolia can be found uprooting invasive plants while grumbling about her neighbors' monoculture lawns.

Maja Bality is a Richmond, Virginia based handbuilder creating whimsical, nature-inspired art that blends sculpture and function. With a BFA from VCU, she has worked as a ceramicist for almost 30 years with pieces in both public and private collections. Her passion for clay grows out of a love of problem-solving: she draws on any combination of techniques--coils, slabs, pinch pots, and molds—along with both purchased and handmade tools, to bring her vision to life. It’s the satisfaction of working through those challenges that keeps her hooked on ceramics and always pushing to improve.

Sonja Bierschenk is a self taught photographer who specializes in product photography and wedding photography. She collaborates with local artists to capture their handmade work authentically and with their marketing in mind. Her ability to understand an artist's vision and creative process enable her to work with artists who utilize different mediums such as clay, glass, and fabrics. Sonja is excited to share her knowledge of product photography and to teach artists how to photograph their artwork using light and composition. She is a Richmond based artist and has been working as a photographer since 2022. Her website is sonjabierschenkphotography.com and she welcomes business from artists seeking marketing photos of their artwork.

Having taught for twenty one years in both public an private schools, and when her daughter graduated from college, Randy Bill decided to open a clay studio. Why? Because she wanted to learn from others with more experience and from students of all levels. Randy wanted to be in a community of makers. She was 3 months shy of turning 60 when the doors to CityClay opened in 2011. CityClay now averages 15 to 17 teachers a season with an average of 200 students per season.

Andrew Clark is a ceramic artist and teacher from Jackson, Tennessee. His functional pottery draws inspiration from engineering, architecture, and formalist abstraction. In addition to his studio practice, Andrew teaches at East Mitchell Clay and serves as gallery manager at Companion Gallery.

With southern roots and a global vision, Carren Clarke uses clay to celebrate culture and create community. By incorporating history and symbols from a myriad of cultures in Africa and the Diaspora, Carren puts a contemporary twist on the oldest craft in the world.

Her faces, bodies, and vessels transcend form, texture, and emotion to take people on the journey of awakening, overcoming, and self-love.

Robin Corradino is a ceramic artist originally from the West Coast, now living and working in Richmond, VA. Her work draws on fresh mountain mornings, the color palettes tied to memorable moments, and the snacks shared along the trail, shaping those tidbits of whimsy and joy into cups, bowls, and other everyday forms. Her pieces are sold wholesale to boutiques and retailers across the country, as well as online and at a handful of local in-person events

Alexis Courtney has been working with clay since 2006 when she took her first wheel throwing class in college. Most of her learning has taken place in small studios, surrounded by artists and makers of all levels. She believes clay has the power to build community, calm the mind, and ground the maker in the present moment. After many years working as a professional photographer Alexis switched gears and co-founded HandThrown in 2018, where she continues to learn, teach, and find community.

Julie Elkins is a multi-disciplined artist who seamlessly blends her passions for ceramics, puppetry, filmmaking, and teaching. As an educator, Julie finds immense joy in sharing her craft with others. Her ceramic sculptures are a testament to her deep exploration of themes such as grief, human connection, and environmental stewardship. Julie's work is inspired by the haunting beauty and intangible mystery of her surroundings, and she delves into the intricate entanglements of history and the physical residue of time's passing. Through her art, Julie invites us to contemplate the complexities of the world around us and to find beauty in the most unexpected places.

Julie Elkins received a BFA in Craft and Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002. She first gained recognition for her porcelain sculptures exhibited at SOFA Chicago in 2003. From there, her work made its way into permanent collections of The Mint Museum of Craft and Design, The Fuller Craft Museum, and the Kamn Teapot Foundation. She was a professor of ceramics and sculpture at Virginia State University, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Studio School. She leads many creative workshops in the community, and was the Sculptor in Residence at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with the Rodin exhibition in 2016. In 2020 Julie Elkins was recognized for her film making and received the honor of a commission through Heather Henson's Handmade Puppets Dreams Quarantine Film Commissions to produce her first short film "Playing Opossum". The film premiered at Bonnarroo in 2022 at the House of Yes’s Night Owl Cinema. Julie is represented by the Eric Schindler Gallery in Richmond, VA. She continues to create sculpture, music videos, and film, and engage with her community through art.

Trey Foster is a potter and high school ceramics teacher in southwest Virginia. He has a passion for teaching and sharing his knowledge both in the classroom and on social media. Recently he has been designing a line of pottery tools and exploring the world of clay entrepreneurship.

Cat Gambel is a visual artist and scholar from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her primary work centers around the swamp as a site of resistance and unbecoming, with a focus on queer futures and speculative worldmaking. In 2017, she received an M.A. in Art & Process from Crawford College of Art & Design in Cork, Ireland. From 2021-2023, she served as the director of The Art Gallery (TAG) at the University of West Florida. She is currently a PhD student at Duke University in the Department of Art, Art History, & Visual Studies. For the past eight years, Cat has led free or sliding-scale community pit fires across the American South.

Justin Quaid Grubb is from Bloomington, IN. He earned his BFA in Ceramics from the Herron School of Art and Design at Indiana University Indianapolis in 2019, and in 2021 he earned an MFA in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design. From 2021-23 Grubb worked as Ceramics Faculty and Lab Coordinator at the University of West Florida. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Stetson University in DeLand, FL. Since relocating to Florida in 2021, Grubb has exhibited across the South from Dothan, AL to Tampa, FL, with solo exhibitions at Good Children Gallery in New Orleans, LA and TAG (The Art Gallery) at the University of West Florida in Pensacola.

Zoë has been working with clay since 2013. After graduating from Fletcher High School she attended FSCJ on a full ceramics scholarship, continuing to expand her skills and working as a studio assistant on campus. After graduating college she moved to Orlando and started her ceramics career, teaching hand building & wheel throwing to K-5 students for 3 years. Now she resides in Atlantic Beach with her husband, two dogs & two cats. Zoë is the manager and educator at Jacksonville Pottery Studio and an educational contractor for AMACO. She specializes in international workshops on mid-range cone 5/6 glazes. Check out what she’s currently up to on Instagram @thepotteryprincess

Alyssa Hayes, LPC, ATR-BC® is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Board-Certified Registered Art Therapist. She uses a wide variety of sculptural media in her clinical practice and has also been a clay artist since 2010. She holds a Master of Science from Eastern Virginia Medical School and serves as Chief Operating Officer at The Center for Creative Healing. In addition to her clinical work and leadership, Alyssa has provided clinical supervision to upcoming art therapists and is currently working on systems that focus on cross functional operations, accountability, and team alignment.

Julie Hregdovic is the Technical Director at Standard Clay Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has over forty years of industry expertise. A 1986 graduate of Edinboro University in northeastern Pennsylvania, Hregdovic earned her B.F.A. in Ceramics and began work as a potter. She took on a part-time position at Standard, which quickly grew into full-time employment.

Her experience includes the testing of clays and glazes, technical customer support, and quality control. Over her tenure, she has developed many clay bodies and glazes, which are part of Standard’s offerings. Her excellent knowledge of product and production makes her an essential resource for both customers and staff at Standard. She has worked personally with many potters, listening to their needs, researching solutions, and guiding them to products that meet their specifications.

Originally from Philadelphia, Heidi Kreitchet has been actively wood-firing ceramics out west for the past 30 years. Kreitchet received her BFA in ceramics from Northern Arizona University. From 2004 to 2006, Kreitchet was fortunate to assist renowned ceramic artist, Don Reitz, in Clarkdale, Arizona. She completed an MFA at Utah State University under the guidance of John Neely and Dan Murphy. In 2011, Kreitchet was asked by David Armstrong, Founder of the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) to establish AMOCA Ceramics Studio in Pomona, CA. From 2011 to 2021, Kreitchet and her talented team had passionately built a thriving and energetic ceramics studio in Southern California. During this time she also established R x R Gallery located at The Pomona Packing Plant. Kreitchet is now based in Appomattox, Virginia where she is the Executive Director of Cub Creek Foundation in it’s 25th year of a residency program.

D.D.’s story is a tale as old as time: a chronic overachieving, unmedicated ADHD woman nearing perimenopause picks up pottery again after leaving it behind at 18, and falls back in love with it immediately. Within two years she owns the place she found by googling “pottery classes Fredericksburg”, because why not? It’s a trope so old it could be a Lifetime movie right? Ok maybe no one does this, but she never let a lack of precedent slow her down. Since buying the business she’s tripled the revenue, guided it through a pandemic where she never stopped paying a single employee the entire time, and for over a decade she has kept every studio and classroom filled with artists and students consistently. Thirteen years has gone by like a sweaty stressed out blur, but one  she wouldn’t change for the world.

Katie Maloney is a studio artist based in Southeast Virginia where she creates wheel thrown and hand-built animal vessels and sculptures. During high school, Katie spent three years as an assistant to potter Elizabeth Krome. She later received her B.A in ceramics at Guilford College and has participated in artist-in-residence programs, including STARworks Ceramics. Katie has taught workshops at various institutions including Peters Valley School of Craft, and exhibited work nationally at galleries and fine art shows such as the Smithsonian Craft Show and Pottery on the Hill.

Theresa Musengo is a ceramic and glass artist living in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her BS in Art with a concentration in sculpture from Towson University in 2009. She has managed Clayworks Supplies, a ceramic supply store in Baltimore, for over 15 years by day and works in her home pottery studio and local hot shop blowing glass by night. Theresa sells her work at local craft shows, teaches glass blowing workshops, and hosts kiln workshops. She enjoys working with the ceramic community, offering support and knowledge to teachers and educators, professionals, and newcomers to the clay world.

Theresa creates whimsical pieces, functional and sculptural, inspired by nature. Her glass work ranges from a simple functional cup, to an elaborate sculpted fish. All created by starting with a hot blob of molten glass and shaped with air, gravity, and an assortment of metal and wooden tools. Her ceramic work is a mix of slab built, wheel thrown, and coiled methods. The clay is fired in mostly cone 6 electric kilns, but some in a higher temperature wood fired kiln. She enjoys making functional pottery with sculptural elements, so people can enjoy a handmade object with a purpose. Theresa is a firm believer in creating things you love, and using the creative process as a therapeutic outlet.

Ros O’Brien is an artist and studio potter who makes nature-inspired pottery in Harrisonburg, VA. She is primarily a handbuilder, working with textured slabs or coils, although she enjoys blurring the lines between both. Ros is the owner of Friendly City Clay & Art Center in Harrisonburg, where she teaches beginner and advanced handbuilding. She loves to see people connect over clay, as well as learn about themselves and explore their own creativity. Ros is endlessly curious, and can't see herself ever getting tired of learning new things. She has studied a diverse range of ceramic techniques with artists and potters around the globe, including Gail Kendall, Lauren Karle, Bill Griffith, and Ellen Shankin, and she was in the 2020 cohort of Naomi Clement’s Finding Your Voice Mentorship Program. In addition to her regular teaching, she also teaches yearly weeklong clay workshops at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina.

Gina Pisto (she/her) is an artist currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. She completed her Masters of Fine Arts in Ceramics at Ohio University in 2022 and has exhibited her work nationally in various group and solo exhibitions. She has been awarded recognition from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and the Michigan Ceramic Art Association (MCAA). Pisto most recently exhibited her work in BLACK OUT BLACK, in Kansas City, MO, Off the Cob, in Kansas City, MO, and Alchemy & Artistry, in Frankfort, MI. Pisto is an adjunct professor of ceramics at Metropolitan Community College-Longview in Lee’s Summit, MO. In 2022, she completed a two-year residency at Belger Crane Yard Studios, where she now maintains a studio and periodically teaches community classes. Pisto’s work explores the transportive potential of objects as they relate to notions of memory and collecting.

Kourtenay Plummer is a ceramic artist from Central Virginia. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art with a concentration in ceramics (2013) and a Master of Arts in Elementary Education (2014), both from William & Mary. After teaching elementary and middle school art for seven years, she returned to making ceramic art full time. Since leaving the classroom, Plummer has continued to expand her practice through multiple artist residencies and teaches at various pottery studios throughout the Richmond area. She is also the co-owner of SP Gallery, a community pottery studio and art gallery in Amelia County, Virginia.

Elizabeth Schlatter is a ceramic artist, certified personal trainer, curator, and educator whose practice explores how creativity, movement, and body awareness support vibrant lives over time. Based in Richmond, Virginia, she works across the arts and wellness fields—training clients, making ceramics, teaching workshops, and developing resources that help people sustain creative and active lives. Her interest in body mechanics and creative practice led her to create The Aligned Potter, a free online resource dedicated to ergonomics, injury prevention, and sustainable movement practices for pottery makers.

Mike Sievers is currently the Chief Sales Officer for Skutt Ceramic Products. In his 33 years at Skutt, he has seen them grow from a small company into the largest electric kiln manufacture in the world serving Potters in over 30 countries. He has also worked with noted artists Steven Hill, Robin Hopper and Tom Turner to produce a series of films showcasing their innovative techniques and transition from atmospheric to electric kiln firing.

Emily Wicks, a ceramic artist since 2009, produces both installation and functional works. Her artistic practice highlights the inherent qualities of clay and fiber, examining themes of the body and impermanence. After initially teaching at institutions such as VCUarts and the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Wicks now directs her educational endeavors toward HandThrown, the Richmond based community ceramics studio she co-founded in 2018.

Jennifer Whilden is a Counselor in Residence and Art Therapist in Residence with three decades of experience as a professional production potter. She holds a BS with a studio concentration in Ceramics and has owned and operated a community clay studio in Richmond, Virginia, for the past six years—teaching, mentoring, and launching independent potters into full-time careers. Throughout her graduate studies at Southwestern College, Jennifer has focused her research on the therapeutic application of kiln-fired clay, specifically leveraging wheel-throwing as a distinct modality for creative healing.

For Holly Zajur, the body and mind are deeply integrated into how we make art. Working with clay since 2008, Holly is a Richmond-based artist, international retreat leader, and Master’s candidate in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at William & Mary whose work centers on creative wellness. She spent years at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond developing a unique class merging yoga, mindfulness, and wheel throwing. Today, her practice focuses on the raku firing process alongside creative wellness—pairing mindfulness directly with body placement, posture, and the creative process itself. At MACC, Holly shares practical ways to tune into your physical habits and adjust your studio setup so you can stay comfortable and centered while creating.

Lisa Zolandz is a full-time studio potter based in Manassas, VA. Coming to ceramics with a background in the sciences, she naturally found her passion in glaze chemistry. For the past decade she has been working with crystalline glazes and more recently with iridescent in-glaze lusters. She exhibits at fine art festivals throughout the country and spends countless hours testing and developing glazes.