2023 NCECA Cultivating Community | https://nceca.net/2023-cultivating-community

2023 NCECA Emerging Artists | Austen Brantley, Heidi McKay Casto, Marissa Childers, Jing Huang, Deshun Peoples, and Kate Strachan
Join us for 2023 Cultivating Community week from September 25 to October 1, 2023. Cultivating Community includes new and recently developed programming highlighting dynamic presenters and topics. Cultivating Community will be a series of Instagram Live sessions and week-long on-demand video presentations at no cost, though donations are welcomed.

2023 NCECA Emerging Artists | Austen Brantley, Heidi McKay Casto, Marissa Childers, Jing Huang, Deshun Peoples, and Kate Strachan. These talented individuals represent the future of the ceramics field, offering fresh ideas and unique approaches to the medium. Whether you are an established artist seeking inspiration or simply a ceramics enthusiast looking to appreciate the power and beauty of the medium, our video presentations are sure to leave a lasting impact. Don't miss the chance to engage with these incredible artists and gain insight into their creative processes.

Austen Brantley is a self-taught African American sculptor from Detroit, Michigan. Encouraged by his ceramics teacher, he discovered his affinity for sculpture during his junior year of high school. After two years, Brantley’s work received statewide recognition. As a full-time artist, he has exhibited his work nationally in solo exhibitions and has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Gilda Award through the Kresge Arts Foundation in Detroit.

Heidi McKay Casto is a studio artist and faculty member at the University of Iowa. She earned her MFA and MA from The University of Iowa and her BFA in Ceramics from The Ohio State University. She has exhibited extensively, and was named a 2022 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist.

Marissa Childers was born and raised in Florence, Alabama. She earned her BFA from University of North Alabama and her MFA from the University of Oklahoma. She works as a part-time studio artist and teaches in the Oklahoma City area. Childers explores connection and femininity within domestic spaces.

Born in Guilin, China, Jing Huang is a ceramic artist currently living and working in Charlotte, North Carolina. She earned degrees from Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute (2012), Sheridan College (2015), and Alfred University (2020). Huang has lectured, curated exhibitions, conducted workshops, and exhibited extensively throughout the US, Canada, China, and the UK.

Deshun Peoples is a ceramic artist and designer from Chicago who explores empathy and agency through wheel-thrown, hand-built, and slip-cast ceramic objects. He earned his dual BA in Studio Art and Rhetoric from Bates College and his MFA in Ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

Kate Strachan is an interdisciplinary artist whose clay integrates various materials such as wax, wood, and fiber to form sculpture, manuscripts, installation, and video art. The doctrine of her Pennsylvania Dutch roots forms a basis in which layers of femininity, austerity, dark humor, and questioning are all orchestrated together.