2009 Visiting Artists and Workshop Instructors

Beth Cavener is a full-time professional studio artist. She received her BA in sculpture from Haverford College and her MFA from Ohio State University. She was awarded the Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council in 2005, and the American Craft Council’s Emerging Artist Fellowship in 2004.  She has also been an Artist-in-Residence at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT. She has exhibited nationally (at such institutions as the Smithsonian Museum) and internationally and has taught numerous workshops across the country.

Sam Chung received his BA in ceramics from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.  He pursued additional studies in ceramics at the University of Minnesota, and received his MFA from Arizona State University.  From 1998-2007, he taught ceramics at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, and in 2007, moved back to Tempe where he is assistant professor of ceramics at Arizona State University.   Sam has exhibited, lectured, and presented workshops both nationally and internationally. His works are included in the collections of the Everson Museum, Guldagergaard in Denmark, and Incheon World Ceramic Center in Korea.

Wayne Higby is a ceramic artist and educator.  Higby received his BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a professor and the Robert C. Turner Chair of Ceramic Art at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY.

His work is held in the permanent collections of art museums around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; as well as the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.  Higby is the recipient of both the Master of the Media and the Distinguished Educator awards from the James Renwick Alliance and the American Craft Museum (Museum of Arts and Design, New York) Visionary award. Higby is an Honorary Professor of Art at Shanghai University and the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute as well as a faculty member of the Central Academy ofFine Arts, Beijing.  Higby is a member of Honor of the United States National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), a Life Trustee of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and the Vice President of the International Academy of Ceramics, Geneva, Switzerland.  A major book on Wayne Higby’s work and his project “EarthCloud” ---the largest hand cut porcelain, architectural installation in the world---has recently been published by Arnoldsche, Stuttgart, Germany.

Sarah Jaeger has been a studio potter in Helena since she completed a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in 1987.  She received a BA in English literature from Harvard and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. In 1996 she was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Montana Arts Council and she was a United States Artists Target Fellow in 2006. In the spring of 2007 she was one of the artists profiled in the PBS documentary Craft in America. She has taught at Pomona College, the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has given workshops at many schools and art centers nationally.   Her work is in many public and private collections and, most important, in many kitchens throughout the country.

Don Reitz received his BS in Art Education from Kutztown State College in Kutztown, PA; his MFA from New York State School of Ceramics in Alfred, NY; and taught for 26 years at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Reitz is considered among the finest and most influential ceramic artists in the world, celebrated for his technical mastery, bold improvisational approach, and spirited teaching style. Reitz was selected as the Archie Bray Foundation’s 2005 Peter Voulkos Visiting Artist Fellow.

Tim Stepp is a Helena ceramic artist who explores his sense of expression through wood and atmospheric firing. Stepp is a full time geologist who received his BS in Geological Engineering from Montana Tech, his MS from Ohio State University in Geophysics and is a PhD Candidate at Ohio State University.

Tip Toland, a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Award and National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship recipient, received  her BFA in ceramics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MFA in ceramics from Montana State University. She has taught extensively nationally and locally at schools including Louisiana State University, University of Montana, Montana State University, University of Washington and Seward Park Clay Studio. She exhibits nationally and is represented by Nancy Margolis Gallery, NY and Pacini Lubel. Her work is in many prestigious collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rosalie Wynkoop is a studio artist in Bozeman, Montana. She and her husband, Josh DeWeese, both Montana natives, share a studio at their home. She received BA degrees in Art Education and English Literature from Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana and a BFA in Ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri. She spent 14 years living, teaching and working at Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana. She has specialized in low fire Majolica ceramics for nearly 20 years teaching numerous workshops and exhibiting extensively throughout the country.