Margaret Bohls is an American potter and educator who makes hand-built pottery and vessels that she exhibits both locally and nationally. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1989, and her MFA from Louisiana State University in 1995. Bohls has been teaching ceramics at the college level for twenty-eight years. She is currently Associate Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She previously taught at the University of Minnesota from 1998 to 2011, and has taught as visiting faculty at Ohio University, Penn State University and NSCAD University in Halifax. She has given lectures at universities across the U.S. and has taught hands-on workshops at art centers such as Greenwich House Pottery in New York, Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen, Colorado and Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Bohls’ work has been shown in over 100 group and solo exhibitions since 1995 and is included in the permanent collections of the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), the Weisman Museum of Art, and in the Sonny and Gloria Kamm Teapot Foundation Collection. She has written articles for the Journal of the National Council for Education on Ceramic Arts and Pottery Making Illustrated, and her ceramic work has been featured in periodicals such as Ceramics Monthly and Studio Potter Magazine. Her teaching interests include clay and glaze formulation and the history of ceramics.

Rebecca Ickes Carra has been a self-employed artist for the last 13 years and now shares her photography knowledge and hard-earned business lessons with makers in order to see more independent artists build not only viable, but life-giving businesses. She hosts the Maker’s Playbook podcast, which discusses what it’s really like to make a living from the things we make and has taught over 200 makers photography skills specifically for ceramics. She has spoken about her experiences as an entrepreneur to classes at DePaul and Harvard Universities and firmly believes a supportive Community of colleagues is essential to surviving as a small business.

Rebecca lives with her husband, Francesco, who is a full-time potter and their 75-pound rescue pup, Hendrix on the original homelands of the Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee people where the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Aneeshinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Onida and Mohican nations remain present - also known as present day, Milwaukee, WI. When she’s not creating resources to simplify photography and business for makers, you can find her also at the potter’s wheel in their home studio or accidentally taking a nap on the couch when she is trying to finish a book.

For more information and free resources on how to take better photos, visit:

www.makersplaybook.com or follow @themakersplaybook on Instagram

Jessica Knapp has undergraduate degrees in English and ceramics from Kutztown University, as well as an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She also completed the Copyediting Certificate Program at the University of California San Diego Extension.

After moving at least once a year for about a decade for school, residencies, and jobs, she started work at Ceramics Monthly and Pottery Making Illustrated as assistant editor, and has since become associate editor, and most recently, editor.

When she’s not at the office, she can usually be found in her studio, a.k.a. her basement, making work, experimenting, and generally making a mess that she tries not to track around the rest of the house. Beyond studio work, she enjoys working in her garden, attempting to make home improvements, hiking (there are hills in Ohio, honest there are), and traveling.

Dr. Gerar Edizel, professor of Art History at Alfred University will address the topic of Cultural Appropriation with the Cohorts on October 30th. Here are some of his thoughts on which he’ll expand during the lecture:

“The topic of cultural appropriation is very complex and vexing. The topic of cultural appropriation in art is even more so, since artists are expected to access the widest spectrum of cultural material and freely use it to make art. The issue must not be confused with the entirely different category of plagiarism and copyright infringement that involves the rights of individual authorship. The ownership of culture is diffuse and difficult to delineate. Cultures are not monolithic and engage in exchanges as they interact. The history of art is replete with enriching innovations that resulted from what can be considered cultural appropriations. In our times, however, the dominant and globalizing reach of capitalism has exacerbated power differentials and, as a result, heightened sensitivities toward protecting identity-defining cultural symbols and artifacts from exploitation through commodification. I believe that at the foundation of this protectionism lies the belief that certain things are sacred and should not be subject to spirit-destroying misuse and degradation. The question would be whether there are limits to what comes under the purview of the notion of artistic freedom that artists hail as sacred as well. “ -Gerar Edizel

Peter Pinnell earned a BA degree studying music at Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri, a BFA in art at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University (Alfred, NY) and an MFA in Art from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

For the first 12 years of his career Pinnell made his living as a studio potter. During this time, he taught part-time at the Kansas City Art Institute and at Johnson County Community College in Kansas. In 1995 he joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. In the ensuing years, he and his colleagues built a nationally recognized ceramics program: US News & World Report ranks the UNL graduate ceramics program as the 9th best in the country. In addition to his teaching, he exhibits widely, and his artwork is found in notable collections, including the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Sheldon Art Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska.

From 2008 to 2014, he held the honorary college title of Hixson-Lied Professor of Ceramics, in recognition of his exhibition record. Pinnell’s record as a teacher extends beyond the university. During the course of career, he has taught professional workshops at Anderson Ranch, Arrowmont, Penland, the Archie Bray Foundation, over 20 colleges and universities, and at numerous community art centers.

At the University of Nebraska, Pinnell served as chair of the Department of Art & Art History from 2011 to 2016. During that time, he led the department through the reaccreditation process, spearheaded the creation of an expanded design program, created a new department digital lab and oversaw the creation of two new undergraduate programs. He has also been active in art accreditation, serving on several occasions as a site visitor for the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

Pinnell enjoys researching the history, technology and aesthetics of ceramics, which informs both his creative work as well as his teaching. He has spoken on these topics at a number of major ceramics conferences, including NCECA and Utilitarian Clay. Over the last 25 years, his writing and his work have appeared in Ceramics Monthly, Studio Potter, Clay Times and Ceramics Art & Perception.