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Connecting the world through clay

The Bray offers short and long-term artist residencies, state-of-the-art ceramic studios, fellowships and artist stipends, a full curriculum of continuing education classes, a visiting artist program, and a robust gallery and exhibitions program featuring world-class ceramic art.

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Exiting Fellows Exhibition

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Diversity and Inclusion at The Bray

The Bray exists to promote excellence and enhance commitment and investment in the ceramic arts while actively working towards increased inclusion, representation, belonging and equity in the ceramics community. See our Strategic Plan to learn more.

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The Bray exists to promote excellence and enhance commitment and investment in the ceramic arts.

Faye Hadfield, Summer Resident Faye Hadfield (b.1 Faye Hadfield, Summer Resident

Faye Hadfield (b.1996) is a ceramic artist from the north east of England, whose work explores emotion, while blending Rococo aesthetics with crude hand-built textures to create material dichotomies between surface and decoration. In Faye’s work, memories of the British countryside resurface as motifs through gestures in the foliaged decoration, giving homage to the bucolic landscape of England where she grew up. 

Faye completed her BFA in Ceramics at Bath Spa University (Bath, UK), and the Kunst University (Linz, Austria), 2018. Faye holds an MFA in ceramics from The University of Iowa (Iowa, USA), 2026. Faye has exhibited her artwork internationally and nationally at: Collect (London), Le Delta (Belgium), Soho Review (London), Ceramic Art Fair (Paris), Culture Object (New York), HAGD Gallery & Galerie Worlfsen (Denmark), Nomad ST Moritz (Switzerland), Side Gallery (Spain), and annually at Paris Art & Design, in Paris and London. Faye has received international and national research grants to expand her research in ceramics and Rococo Ornamentation. Hadfield has been awarded residencies at Ceramica Suro (Guadalajara, Mexico), The Clay Shed (Bristol, UK) and CRICA exchange residency (Nebraska Lincoln, USA).

#archiebrayfoundation #ceramicart
Alma Berrow, Summer Resident "I’m really excited Alma Berrow, Summer Resident

"I’m really excited to spend time at The Bray working at a larger scale and pushing my practice into something more immersive and architectural.

My work often explores femininity, folklore, and the communing through ceramics. I’m interested in how objects can hold narrative and feeling, and how they sit between function and form, light and dark, playing with the adult and child in us all. 

During the residency, I’m hoping to experiment more freely with scale, build more ambitious forms, and explore how these pieces can exist in space in a more physical, enveloping way." - Alma Berrow

Alma Berrow (b. 1992, Dorset, UK) is a British ceramic artist creating intricate trompe l’oeil sculptures that reimagine the still life through a contemporary lens. Her work playfully occupies the space between adult and child, humour and unease, often depicting food, tablescapes and domestic scenes that feel both familiar and subtly disquieting.

Berrow began working with ceramics during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Dorset, developing a self-taught practice rooted in slow, highly detailed making.

Her work has been presented in a number of solo and group exhibitions, including three solo exhibitions with Lamb Gallery in London, as well as presentations with Sotheby’s and Timothy Taylor. She recently presented her first US solo exhibition, What Slips Beneath the Sugar, with Megan Mulrooney in Los Angeles, and has undertaken an international residency in Guadalajara with Cerámica Suro.

Her practice is increasingly expanding into larger, installation-based works that explore themes of community, ritual and shared experience.
David Vuong, Summer Resident David Vuong is an in David Vuong, Summer Resident

David Vuong is an interdisciplinary artist who creates sculptures incorporating ceramic, glass, wood, and metal. He is fascinated by how memory constructs the human and connects with his experiences of societal displacement. Through an interest in material and form, he explores the language of vessels for the human and how processes of bodily preservation appear in cultural narratives. He graduated from Alfred University with a BFA and completed a post-bacc in ceramics at Temple University. He is a recipient of the 2025 Haystack artist grant initiative and a former resident at Watershed and Wheaton Arts. He is also a multi-recipient artist grant awardee for material and glaze research. David currently resides in Providence, RI, continuing his sculptural practice as a long-term resident at The #cerámicartSteelyard.

#archiebrayfoundation #ceramicart
Abbey Peters, Summer Resident Abbey Peters is cur Abbey Peters, Summer Resident

Abbey Peters is currently based in Denver, CO, and serves as the Phipps Visiting Professor of Ceramics at the University of Denver. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Iowa and a BFA from the University of Arkansas. Her work has been exhibited in over forty group exhibitions across the US and Canada, in addition to recent solo shows at Berea College and UIHC Project Art. Peters has received international research grants supporting projects on reproductive care, seed preservation, and beekeeping in London, UK. She has held technician and teaching roles at Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Snowmass Village, CO), Lillstreet Art Center (Chicago, IL) and Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA). Peters has been awarded residencies at laRex l’Atelier (St. Raphael, France), the inaugural CIRCA Exchange (Boulder, CO), Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), and the Archie Bray Foundation (Helena, MT).

#archiebrayfoundation #ceramicart
Stop by and see us at the NCECA Resource Hall—Tabl Stop by and see us at the NCECA Resource Hall—Table 93! 🎉 

We’re here Wednesday & Thursday from 9–5 and Friday from 9–4:30. 

Come connect, say hello, and explore what we’ve been working on—we’d love to meet you!
 
Don't forget to sign up for our giveaway while you're at the booth!
John Shea, Summer Resident John Shea (b. 1989) wo John Shea, Summer Resident

John Shea (b. 1989) works with clay to examine the way objects form relationships and exist in the world. Incorporating geometric and organic forms, his work highlights the constructed boundaries between individual objects and the ways we differentiate between objects and ourselves, seeking to reveal the hidden structures of our world. 

Shea holds a Master of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally through prominent galleries, including HostlerBurrows and HB381 in New York and Los Angeles, Officine Saffi in Milan, and Carwan Gallery in Athens. Additionally, his work has been featured in art fairs such as Design Miami, TEFAF, Collect, and Frieze New York. His most recent solo exhibition, full volume, opened in January 2025 at the Walton Art Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

 Shea currently serves as Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Arkansas–Little Rock, where he has taught since 2021.

#archiebrayfoundation #ceramicart
Chelsea McMaster, Summer Resident Chelsea McMaste Chelsea McMaster, Summer Resident

Chelsea McMaster is a ceramic artist who primarily works with coil-building, sculptural techniques, and traditional finishes. Her work transcribes unwritten and forgotten narratives that bridge history, craft, and storytelling through the ceramic medium. She completed her BA in Art at Millersville University (PA) and an MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University (NY). In 2023, she was awarded the NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship and the American Ceramic Circle Research grant. She is a Fulbright Scholar and a National Geographic Explorer whose focus is on the preservation, education, and expansion of Afro-Caribbean pottery practices. Her research-based practice centers on matriarchal craft legacies and preserving oral culture and traditions through object-making.

#archiebrayfoundation #ceramicart
The Bray is so excited to begin announcing our inc The Bray is so excited to begin announcing our incoming residents of 2026!

Nanxi Jin, Summer Resident

Nanxi Jin (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist working with clay as a site of fragmentation and reconstruction. Born in Jingdezhen, China, the historical center of porcelain production, and now based in Chicago. Her practice examines how ceramic materials carry cultural memory across geographies. 

Her work begins with broken forms: shards, discarded vessels, and glaze residues. Rather than restoring these elements, she reassembles them into structures that hover between function and collapse. Through processes such as slip casting, handbuilding, and modular construction, she destabilizes traditional ceramic hierarchies of refinement and perfection, foregrounding the overlooked waste, excess, and residue.

Nanxi received her BFA from Alfred University and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including NYCxDesign (New York), Woman Made Gallery (Chicago), SOIL (Seattle), Ceramic Art Avenue Gallery (Jingdezhen), and Paris Design Week (Paris). She has been awarded residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation, Ox-Bow School of Art, Vermont Studio Center, and Anderson Ranch. Her work is included in the Guangdong Shiwan Ceramic Museum's collection in China.

#archeibrayfoundation #ceramicart
We are so proud of our current resident, Tommy Lom We are so proud of our current resident, Tommy Lomeli, who has been named a 2026 NCECA Emerging Artist! 🎉✨

Tommy's work is a beautiful testament to the power of ceramics as a vehicle for culture, identity, and storytelling — and this recognition is so well deserved.

If you're attending NCECA this year, don't miss his Emerging Artist presentation on Saturday, March 28, from 9:00–10:45 AM. If you'll be at NCECA this year, go show all those artists some support!

@lomelitommy #archiebrayfoundation #nceca2026 #emergingartists
From resident at the Archie Bray Foundation to Eme From resident at the Archie Bray Foundation to Emerging Artist at NCECA 2026 — Maxwell Henderson's journey in ceramics is one worth celebrating! 

His work dives into identity, liminality, and collective resistance, all through bold black-glazed vessels that take on a life of their own in the kiln. We can't wait to see what's next for him. Congratulations, Maxwell! 

Learn about each photo with the descriptions below:
1. Max in the AMOCA gallery during the resident exhibition Compulsion. Photo by Andrew Castañeda @andrew.r.castaneda 
2. An example of my perforated vessels. This double vessel was featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly.
3. A glaze bowl made by slumping glaze over a kiln-washed mold.
4. Color test tiles made at the Archie Bray Foundation. They have been an essential tool in developing color schemes for Max's work.
5. Another view related to those Bray color tests.
6. The last piece Max made at the Bray during his summer residency there, based on colors from those test tiles.
7. Another piece made using the test tiles he developed at The Bray.
8. A piece from a separate body of work using commercial tiles and a glaze he developed in graduate school. This work is also in ABF’s permanent collection.
9. A photo of a tile left behind on the grounds at the Bray.

@mh_pottery
This year at NCECA, 3 of the Emerging Artists have This year at NCECA, 3 of the Emerging Artists have spent time at The Bray! Irén Tété was a resident in 2021. Check out her bio, and see what she's up to while at NCECA!

Irén Tété (Sofia, Bulgaria / San Diego, CA) is a sculptor whose practice centers on ceramic, architecture, and language. Her work merges industrial-infrastructural and human-organic vocabularies, questioning boundaries of belief, structure, language, and belonging. Recent solo exhibitions include Sarasota Art Center (FL), Union University (TN), Galleri Urbane (Dallas, TX), and Gallery 371 (Calgary). Her sculptures have been exhibited internationally, including triennials in Poland, biennials in Italy and Latvia, and shows at Kouri + Corrao (Santa Fe), Dallas Art Fair, and Untitled Art Miami Beach. Tété has participated in residencies at Wassaic Project (NY), Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (NE), Hambidge Center (GA), Archie Bray Foundation (MT), and Zentrum für Keramik (Berlin). She is currently an Assistant Professor and Program Head of Ceramics at San Diego State University.

@iren.tete
Hello everyone, Eliza Weber here getting ready for Hello everyone, Eliza Weber here getting ready for my 15th NCECA conference! As members of the NCECA Green Task Force, Chanda Zea and I co-organized an exhibition, Materials: Volumetric Reduction. This exhibition features artists that have reduced their environmental impact by creating work from materials that would otherwise be thrown away.

See the show in Room 414 A/B at the Huntington Place Convention Center, with a reception Wednesday, March 25th from 4-5:30 PM.

Much of my work involves using found objects often deemed waste. After several attempts at using the waste clay of a community studio, my much shrunken in size Flower Brick is coated with a white waste clay turned slip. Scraffito drawings mimic a pattern from a wallpaper sample book with attached paper pulp made from the annual waste samples themselves. For the past six months I’ve saved my glaze waste water to create 4 new colors. 

Also find the GTF in the Project Space exploring creative new ways to source materials locally as a response to increasingly limited, costly, and disappearing non-renewable resources in ceramics. 
@_elizaweber 
@chandazea 
@nceca
Hi everyone! Marian Draper here. I am so excited t Hi everyone! Marian Draper here. I am so excited to be heading to NCECA this year! A little about me... I am a first-year resident at The Bray. My work primarily focuses on utilitarian wares adorned with lush floral motifs inspired by wildflowers and the Arts and Crafts Movement. When I am not in the studio, you can find me outside exploring and climbing rocks :) 

There is much to look forward to at NCECA. I am most excited to catch up with old friends and to be a part of @silica_sluts pop-up on Wednesday, March 25th, from 4-9  at Stadt Garten. Similarly, I am excited to learn from the various lectures and to explore the expo hall's vast selection of pots and tools. I'll also be spending some time at the Archie Bray table. I hope to see you there!

@mariandraperceramics #NCECA2026 #ArchieBrayFoundation
Lexus Giles’ work reflects her identity as a Black Lexus Giles’ work reflects her identity as a Black woman raised in the South, engaging deeply with the Black Diaspora. As a multimedia artist specializing in ceramics, she explores how history manifests in our present lives. Lexus addresses themes of structure, erasure, and the systems affecting her community while celebrating Blackness. She sees herself as a record-keeper, using materials like clay, wood, and found objects in connection to the land and its people that occupy the land. Her artistic process involves hand-building and mold-pressing techniques, emphasizing the human touch and the multi-functionality of objects. Through carving and mark-making, she evokes the complexities of Black identity, the legacies of Atlantic trans/slavery, and African origins, creating a dialogue between past, present, and future.

👩‍🎨: @lexus.giles 
📸: @skyehatten @visithelenamontana
Kim Tucker’s figures are outsiders caught in momen Kim Tucker’s figures are outsiders caught in moments of vulnerability, and her works are influenced by Beatrice Wood, Viola Frey, cave paintings, and vintage figurines. She creates portraits of humans feeling weird, happy, lost, joyful, and sometimes uncomfortable. Often with a female subject at the center, she uses figuration as a gestural means of expression to dig deeper into the psyche.

@loudmouthghosts
Meet Beth Lo — ceramist, educator, musician, and M Meet Beth Lo — ceramist, educator, musician, and Montana Potter Laureate.

Beth earned her MFA from the University of Montana and went on to take her place as Professor of Ceramics — shaping generations of artists in her own right.

Her work explores identity, family, and the beautiful tension between cultures, rendered in vibrant high-fire porcelain. She's served on the Archie Bray Foundation's board, juried fellowships, and shown up year after year at the Brickyard Bash — both as an artist and as a musician with the Big Sky Mudflaps.

@bethloceramics
Before her work was in major museums, ceramic scul Before her work was in major museums, ceramic sculptor Patti Warashina spent time working at The Bray here in Helena.

She first came to the Archie Bray Foundation in 1973, joining a community of artists experimenting with what clay could be. Known for her expressive figures and sharp sense of humor, Warashina used ceramics to tell stories about human behavior, culture, and the absurdities of everyday life.

Her connection to The Bray didn’t end there—she returned for later residencies and eventually served on the Bray’s Board of Directors, helping support future generations of ceramic artists.

From the studio kilns in Helena to museum collections around the world, Warashina’s work continues to show how clay can be both playful and profound.
Sana Musasama first came to The Bray in the 80s an Sana Musasama first came to The Bray in the 80s and was recently one of our Visiting Artists in 2024. She describes herself as a clay artist, humanitarian, and global trotter. 🌎

Her work centers on the lives of other women who were, and are still, her mentors. She intends to bring awareness to the human condition beyond the comfort zones that we may or may not live within. 

Sana, along with 8 other women, created the Apron Project in Cambodia, which is a sustainable, entrepreneurial project that aids girls and young women reintegrated back into society after being forced into the commercial sex industry, by creating one-of-a-kind aprons to sell. 

In recent years, she has decided to focus on work that simultaneously contains social commentary and is heart-warming. We are proud to be part of Sana's journey and love to see her thrive and support women all around the world. 🩷

@sanamusasama
Carol Roorbach left The Bray stronger than she fou Carol Roorbach left The Bray stronger than she found it. As Resident Director from 1989 to 1992, she created a permanent endowment, improved storage and documentation of the extensive permanent collection, and established an on-site gallery featuring artwork left behind by resident artists. Under her leadership, professionalism across the foundation grew — leaving a more stable and organized institution for the artists who came after her.
Lillian Boschen served as the first official Resid Lillian Boschen served as the first official Resident Director of The Bray from 1951 to 1952. She had met Frances Senska while both served in the U.S. Navy — and studied ceramics alongside Peter Voulkos. When Peter and Rudy Autio left for grad school, she was recommended for the role.

She made the most of it. As recounted in Rudy Autio's biography, Lillian set up a slip casting operation, threw pots, and developed The Bray's first plan of operation essentially from scratch. After her time as Resident Director, she went on to open her own pottery studio in Virginia City, Montana.
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