2018 Workshop

In a rare collaboration, this two-week workshop will give participants a hands-on opportunity to work with two of the ceramic field’s most dynamic sculptors. Beth Cavener, known for her visceral, emotionally charged animal figures, and Tip Toland, who creates intense narratives with the human figure, will team up to share their experiences as full-time studio artists.

Participants will get a glimpse of how one can tackle elements of gesture, expression, attitude and narrative while discussing the logistics of creating human and animal figures. Cavener and Toland will cover a range of practical technical information about working in clay as well as initiate discussions on how to communicate ideas and meaning visually. Cavener will demonstrate her unusual method of working with a solid mass of clay, often more than 2,000 pounds, after which she hollows each part of the sculpture down to the skin. Toland will show how she uses an armature to build her figures and will provide insight regarding human anatomy, articulating facial features and will talk about various cold-finish surface options. Students will work from their own ideas while creating alongside Cavener and Toland. Demonstrations, lectures and presentations will be given during the workshop to elaborate on a variety of topics. Students are encuraged to bring their own ideas and sketches.

Beth Cavener
The Question that Devours, 2012
stoneware, paint
64" x 35" x 25"

Tip Toland
Beauty Parlor, 2017
stoneware clay, paint
22 " x 22" x 16"

Beth Cavener is currently a full-time professional studio artist working in Helena, Montana. She received her BA in sculpture from Haverford College and her MFA from Ohio State University. She was awarded the
Artist Trust Fellowship in 2009, the Jean Griffith Foundation Fellowship in 2006, 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. Cavener has taught numerous workshops across the
country. She has exhibited nationally, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and internationally.

She is currently represented by Clark + DelVecchio in Santa Fe, New Mexico and created a professional studio space under the name Studio 740 in Helena, Montana.

Tip Toland’s work is included in prominent public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Yellowstone Art Museum, Montana; Archie Bray Foundation, Montana; Kohler Arts Center, Wisconsin and private collections worldwide. Toland has exhibited at the Bellevue Arts Museum, Washington; the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Kohler Arts Center, Wisconsin; and the Tacoma Art Museum, Washington. She has been the recipient of a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1986, a First Place Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant in 2004, an Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship in 2007, a Jean Griffith Fellowship Artist Award in 2009, the United States Artists Windgate Fellowship Award in 2014 and the Zanesville Prize Best of Show for Contemporary Ceramics in 2017.