June 20 – August 9, 2025
Main Gallery & Galusha Gallery
Free Public Reception and Summer Open House Saturday, July 11 from 1 – 4 pm
Virtual 3D Tour on view July 9
NCC’s annual Eight McKnight Artists exhibition provides the unique opportunity to view works by the 2025 recipients of the McKnight Fellowship for Ceramic Artists, Elizabeth Coleman (Minneapolis, MN) and Peter Jadoonath (Shafer, MN), as well as the 2024 recipients of the McKnight Residency for Ceramic Artists: Birdie Boone (Meadowview, VA), Uriel Caspi (Tilburg, Netherlands), Suze Lindsay (Bakersville, NC), Sana Musasama (New York, NY), Dorothea Nold (Berlin, Germany), and KyoungHwa Oh (Grand Junction, CO).
The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation, advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. Established in 1953, the McKnight Foundation is deeply committed to advancing climate solutions in the Midwest; building an equitable and inclusive Minnesota; and supporting the arts and culture in Minnesota, neuroscience, and global food systems.
About the Artists
McKnight Residency for Ceramic Artists, NCC Main Gallery
Birdie Boone is a ceramic artist and educator. Born in West Virginia, Birdie grew up in southwestern Virginia and in the city of San Francisco (CA). As an aspiring artist, she followed her heart to all quarters of the US for ceramics-related opportunities. Boone acknowledges her life experiences as the subject matter that drives her creative practice. Her work is subtle, sense-full, and expressive, made for daily use and contemplation. Boone holds an AB in Studio Art from the College of William & Mary in Virginia (1994) and an MFA in Artisanry/Ceramics from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth (2005). Teaching experience includes introduction to advanced level college courses in ceramics and 3-d art media, community courses, and workshops at craft school venues across the US. Residency experiences include a long-term artist residency at the Archie Bray Foundation, MT (2007-2009); a one semester West Virginia University visiting faculty residency at The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China (2017); and a 3 month McKnight Residency at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis MN (2025). Birdie currently lives in Meadowview, VA where she maintains a full-time studio practice.
Uriel Caspi’s artworks propose an interplay between the revival of ancient crafts and contemporary art studio practice. Visually inspired by archeological remnants from the Middle East and the aesthetics of future design, installations of large-scale ceramic sculptures operate as platforms for artistic interaction between the artist and the viewer. Antiquarian connotations from the artist’s local surroundings as well as objects from the domicile are transformed into clay, in a process of experimental study that occasionally combines both ancient techniques and digital fabrication.
From early childhood, Caspi has been fascinated with clay. He earned a BFA in Ceramics from the Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem (2018), and an MFA from Alfred University, New York (2021). Since graduating, he has exhibited works and installations in museums, galleries, art fairs and venues across the world: the Armory Show with Yossi Milo Gallery, NYC; Sculpture Space, NY; Faenza International Ceramics Museum, Italy; Collect Art Fair 2025, London; Salon C-14, Paris; Westerwald Ceramics Museum, Germany; Musée de Carouge, Geneva; Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv; Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei; and Musee Tomo, Tokyo.
Caspi has worked internationally as an academic fellow and artist-in-residence, including the Archie BrayFoundation (Montana), Yingge Ceramics Museum (Taiwan), EKWC (Netherlands), Cercco–HEAD Genève (Switzerland), Höchster Porzellan Manufaktur (Germany), Northern Clay Center (Minnesota), and others. His honors include the Hecht Award for Emerging Artist (2019), the Artis Grant (2023), and the McKnight fellowship (2024). Born in Haifa, Israel, Caspi is currently based in Tilburg, the Netherlands.
Suze Lindsay‘s formal ceramic studies started with a 2 year CORE fellowship at Penland School of Craft, followed by earning an MFA at Louisiana State University. She then returned to Penland School of Craft as a long term artist in residence. After completing this 3 years in residence, her goals focused on creating life as a full time studio potter, setting up her studio in Penland’s rich craft community with her husband, and fellow potter, Kent McLaughlin under the name Fork Mountain Pottery.
As a former Montessori teacher, she thrives as a workshop presenter. She has taught at numerous art centers and universities including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Craft, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts- Canada, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute- China, Curaumilla Art Center- Chile, University of Nebraska/Lincoln, Tulane University, and Ohio University. She has been a presenter at the Utilitarian Clay Conference in Tennessee, the Alabama Clay Conference, North Country Studio Conference in Vermont, Fusion-Ontario Clay and Glass Association Conference in Toronto, and CONTAF, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Her awards include Best of Show in the First Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National, and Emerging Artist at the 2000 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Art conference, as a demonstrating artist for 2021 National Council on Education for Ceramic Art conference and a McKnight Residency at the Northern Clay Center in 2025.
Her work is in the permanent collections of George E Ohr Museum in Biloxi MS; Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX; Islip Art Museum, NY; Kennedy Museum of American Art, Athens OH; Greenwich House Pottery, NY; Lancaster Museum of Art, East Petersburg, PA; Rocky Mount Arts Center, Raleigh, NC, and the North Carolina Potter Center, Seagrove, NC, and with numerous private collectors.
Solo exhibitions include exhibitions at Manchester Craftsman’s Guild in Pittsburgh PA, North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove NC, Roswell Art Center in Atlanta, GA, 18 Hands Gallery in Houston TX, and AKAR Gallery in Iowa City.
Sana Musasama is a New York–based ceramic artist and humanitarian. She earned her BA from City College of New York in 1973 and her MFA from Alfred University in 1988. She has been recognized by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) for both her teaching and her humanitarian work with victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia and the United States. She received the 2018 Outstanding Achievement Award, the 2022 Life Honorary Membership Award, and in 2024 became the first recipient of the NCECA Innovator Award. She was also selected as the closing speaker for NCECA 2025. In 2024, she was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant for her Topsy Turvy Doll series. Earlier in her career, she received the ACLU of Michigan Art Prize 7 and Art Prize 8 Awards (2015, 2016), the Anonymous Was a Woman Award (2002), and was featured in the 2001 Florence Biennial. Since 2015, she has coordinated the Apron Project, a sustainable entrepreneurial project for girls and young women reintegrated into society after being forced into sex trafficking. Sana’s work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Shangyu Celadon Modern International Ceramic Art Center (China), The Colored Girl Museum (PA), the New-York Historical Society, the Mint Museum (NC), the Museum of Art and Design, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Hood Museum of Art (NH), The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Bluffton University (OH), Township10, and The Archie Bray Foundation. In 2025, Sana will be featured in a solo exhibition at Eric Firestone Gallery in Manhattan, and in 2026, she will participate in a residency at the European Ceramic Center (EKWC).
Dorothea Nold deals in her sculptural and installation works with the transformation of social, physical and urban spaces and their connection and interrelation to architectural forms. It is often the experiences arising during her travels and sojourns in different countries and various socio-cultural contexts, which serve as the primary catalyst for specific working methods, a resolute response to materials, and both formal and contentual references. In 2008, Dorothea Nold experienced a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in China. In her artistic practice, she has since consciously worked with unstable components, such as materials whose properties contradict their use.
Dorothea Nold graduated from the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris in 2009, is doing an PhD at the HfbK Hamburg and has received numerous grants, including a working grant from the Stiftung Kunstfonds (2020), a catalogue grant from the Senate of Berlin (2020) and a PhD grant from Cusanuswerk e.V. (2013-2016). She has been invited to residencies in China, Mali, Armenia and Switzerland, among others. Her work is shown internationally.
KyoungHwa Oh was born in Seoul, Korea, where she spent her childhood and naturally developed a connection to traditional Korean ceramics (Koryo Celadon). Oh studied fashion design in Korea and worked as a designer for five years before coming to the United States to gain more design experience. While in the United States, she became interested in working with clay and changed her plans to study ceramics. She went on to earn a BFA from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, followed by an MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) in Illinois.
Oh is a Professor of Art at Colorado Mesa University. After earning her MFA, Oh served as a Visiting Resident Artist at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, from 2009 to 2011. She joined the Colorado Mesa University Department in 2011 and is a ceramics-based studio artist who teaches both ceramics and foundation courses in the Art and Design Department. Oh has been included in numerous juried and invitational exhibitions throughout the United States, China, Turkey, and Canada. The ICMEA (International Ceramic Magazine Educators Association) recognized her as an emerging artist in 2010. Oh also received the Ceramic Monthly Emerging Artist Award in 2012, was named one of three NC Pottery Conference Demonstrating Artists in 2022 and received the McKnight Artist Award in 2024 from the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN.
McKnight Fellowship for Ceramic Artists, Galusha Gallery
Elizabeth Coleman is a sculptor who lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her narrative work explores how fragments of fairytales, myth, and popular culture, specifically advertising, allow her to tell coded stories of gender and sexuality. Elizabeth received an MFA from Ohio State University and a BFA in ceramics and glass from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has also studied at Penland School of Craft, Pilchuck Glass School, and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. Elizabeth has been a resident artist at the Vermont Studio Center and the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét, Hungary. She has received a 2010 Jerome Foundation Ceramic Artist Project Grant and a fiscal year 2017 Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board (MSAB). In 2021 and 2022, she received Creative Support for Individuals Grants from the MSAB. In 2025, she received a Flexible Support grant as well as an Arts Impact for Individuals grant from the Metro Regional Arts Council of Minnesota.
Peter Jadoonath is a Minneapolis-based ceramic artist whose career is marked by a deep commitment to the regional pottery community and a prolific exhibition record. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Bemidji State University in 1998, laying the foundation for a practice that spans functional pottery, sculpture, and arts education. Over the past two decades, his work has been featured in numerous prestigious venues, including the Northern Clay Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Notable recent exhibitions include “Earth and Water” at the Phipps Center for the Arts and “The Fantastical Worlds of Kim Simonsson” at the Swedish Institute.
Jadoonath’s professional contributions extend beyond the studio into significant leadership and pedagogical roles. He has served as a faculty member at the Northern Clay Center since 2005 and has taught at the Eagan Art House and the White Bear Center for the Arts. His expertise is frequently sought for workshops and juries; he has served as a juror for the Jerome Fellowship and the Highland Arts Festival and was a member of the 2018 NCECA planning committee.
The quality of Jadoonath’s craftsmanship is reflected in the accolades he has received, such as the Jerome Grant, the Red Wing Ceramics Fellowship, and a Cultural Community Partnership Grant. His work is held in several permanent collections, including the Tweed Art Museum and the Margaret Harlow Ceramic Collection. He is currently represented by galleries such as Schaller Gallery and The Grand Hand, and he remains an active participant in regional traditions like the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour.
Virtual Tour
Virtual 3D Tour on view July 9