Virgil Ortiz moves into a new era combining art, décor, fashion, video, and film. One of the most innovative potters of his time, Ortiz’s exquisite works have been exhibited in museum collections around the world including the Stedelijk Museum- Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands; Paris’s Foundation Cartier pour I’art Contemporain; the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian; the Virginia Museum of Fine Art; and the Denver Art Museum.

Ortiz, the youngest of six children, grew up in a creative environment in which storytelling, collecting clay, gathering wild plants, and producing figurative pottery was part of everyday life.His grandmother Laurencita Herrera and his mother, Seferina Ortiz, were both renowned Pueblo potters and part of an ongoing matrilineal heritage. “I didn’t even know it was art that was being produced while I was growing up,” he remembers. Ortiz keeps Cochiti pottery traditions alive but transforms them into a contemporary vision that embraces his Pueblo history and culture and merges it with apocalyptic themes, science fiction, and his own storytelling.

Molly Hatch began her career as a studio potter, infusing her tableware and home decor items with contemporary sensibilities and classical charm. Molly has formal education in drawing, painting, printmaking and ceramics from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, receiving her BFA in 2000. In 2008, after several ceramic residencies and apprenticeships in the United States and abroad, Hatch received her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Molly launched her first tableware collection from her home studio in 2010. Her signature blend of 18th century aesthetics with modern whimsy quickly garnered a loyal following, launching her brand into a wide range of lifestyle products for the home. Today, Molly Hatch collections can be found through the brands partnerships with multiple home goods companies, including Twig NY, Hester & Cook, Anthropologie, Garnet Hill, Crate & Kids, to name a few.

Cristina Córdova received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez and continued to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. In 2002 she entered a three year artists residency program at Penland School of Crafts where she later served on the board of trustees from 2006 to 2010.

Recognitions include a USA Artist Fellowship, an American Crafts Council Emerging Artist Grant, a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship, a Virginia Groot Foundation Recognition Grant and several International Association of Art Critics Awards. Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.), the Fuller Craft Museum, (MA), the Mint Museum of Craft and Design (NC), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico ( PR), the Everson Museum (NY) and the Mobile Museum (Al), among others. She currently lives and works at Penland.

William M. Carty is the John F. McMahon Professor and Chair of Ceramic Engineering at Alfred University. He received his BS and MS in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla, and his PhD in Materials Science from the University of Washington. He and his research group have, with the help of many graduate and undergraduate students, conducted research in all aspects of traditional ceramics (clay, bodies, and glazes) primarily in advanced microstructure evolution and materials behaviors. Bill has taken a special interest in the work and challenges facing artists who use ceramics as a primary medium. He has authored or co-authored over 80 papers and is a frequent contributor to NCECA. After almost 20 years of teaching ceramic science to artists, he is slowly understanding (and can speak eloquently, but perhaps ad nausea, about) the potential benefits of applying science to solve ceramic art creation problems.