Featured Artists ASPN 2026

Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, May 4, 2026 at 10 am MT

The Advanced Student Project Network (ASPN) is a unique residency specifically designed to provide undergraduate artists in a BA or BFA ceramics program with an opportunity to explore new ideas or directions in their work within a group of like-minded, motivated peers and alongside an established artist mentor. Universities and Colleges from across the US are invited to nominate one advanced (Junior or Senior) student from their program. The student nominees are then juried by a committee comprised of RLCC staff and one invited juror, who will also attend the residency as a Visiting Artist and mentor. Of these nominees, only five students are chosen to attend the residency in May/June annually.

Our 2026 Mentor will be Holly Hanessian, a studio artist and educator that works at the fringe edge of craft and social practice. Participating ASPN residents TBD.

click here to learn more about our ASPN program

Clay as Place

Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, May 4, 2026 at 10 am MT

Clay as Place coincides with one of RLCC’s favorite programs, our ASPN residency. Guest Curated by our ASPN Mentor Holly Hanessian, this exhibition will feature artists who make work related to a sense of place, and who explore ideas about their geographic environment as an intentional response to the transient nature of clay. Included will be pottery and artifacts from projects where ceramics is a primary material. This exhibition will be on view during the ASPN residency, and Holly will use it as a teaching tool with our ASPN artists.

Participating artists include Osa Atoe, Bandana Pottery, Casey Beck, Amy Edler, Holly Hanessian, Yolanda Rawlings, Kristen Taylor, Casey Whittier and Rena Detrixhe, and more…

Holly Hanessian is an educator, scholar and studio artist creating artworks that inhabit the overlapping worlds of craft, design and contemporary art through creating socially engaged and installation artwork. She has taught, lectured and exhibited projects internationally and in the United States investigating contemporary ideas on social policies including the environment, social injustices as well as the importance of our haptic senses.

Holly recently retired as Professor of Art at Florida State University where she was the area head of ceramics. She has also served as President of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, a member of Socially Engaged Craft Collective, ArtAxis, and AccessCeramics.

Porcelain Glow

Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, March 16, 2026 at 10 am MT

Porcelain has long been revered for its beauty and its purity. It is both strong, and delicate, it is a challenge to work with, has its own set of rules, and needs lots of attention in all stages of making and firing. Work including in this exhibition, Porcelain Glow, will featured a variety of techniques resulting in porcelain that is translucent, opaque, thrown, cast, pinched, printed, painted, colored, or carved. The common reward for this difficult material is the inner glow that porcelain provides.

Participating artists include Peter Beasecker, Sam Chung, Kyle Guymon, Bryan Hopkins, Heesoo Lee, Fallon Navarro, Pete Pinnell, Sean Forest Roberts, Stepanka Summer, Sandra Torres, and Mallory Wetherell.

Featured Artist Pete Scherzer

Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, March 16, 2026 at 10 am MT

Pete Scherzer grew up in Ohio and Montana. He studied ceramics at the Cleveland Institute of art and Alfred University. He was resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation from 1999 until 2001, and was resident artist at Watson Arts Centre in Canberra, Australia in 2018. He has worked at Princeton University, Alfred University, Peters Valley Craft Center, Cleveland Institute of Art, and Northern Clay Center. He was a lecturer in the Ceramics department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 2014 until 2019, when he began working as Facilities Coordinator at Red Lodge Clay Center. His work has been shown in numerous galleries across the United States.

I remember taking field trips to ceramic factories as a student. I enjoyed seeing these places; they were big, elaborate operations doing what seemed impossible. It demonstrated that industry will always be the winner when it comes to productivity, efficiency, and engineering. Visiting these factories made it clear that I am making work for completely different reasons. I tried to articulate this for a long time before realizing Yanagi, in The Unknown Craftsman, had thoroughly covered the topic, in a way that helped me see pottery as relevant, instead of an anachronism. The question “why make pots today?” became an issue to explore, and still remains an important issue to me today. In contrast to industrial dinnerware, I was once able to handle a Sultanabad bowl from the thirteenth century. The piece was broken, exposing the cross section. I was surprised to see the clay body looked like a mixture of sand and gravel. People had created something beautiful out of clay I would have considered unusable. It showed me that I may be inefficient compared to a machine, but I am capable of many other things. Individuals, unlike factories, can indulge in developing creative, eccentric ideas. Pottery has a passive, practical role, but at the same time it is decorative and full of content and associations. This creates a very interesting contradiction. I have always loved exploring historical pottery, architectural ornament, ceramic materials, and processes. Attempting to make sense of the jumble of ideas and influences in my head and applying them to objects as commonplace as pottery is what keeps me motivated in my studio.
-Pete Scherzer

Featured Artist Megan Jorgenson

Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, February 3, 2025 at 10 am MT

Former long term resident Megan Jorgenson resides in Kimball, MN, where she and her husband JD Jorgenson operate Maine Prairie Studio, a ceramics studio, teaching space and gallery. She received an MFA in Ceramics from Utah State University in 2012. Since then, she has been an Artist in Residence at the Red Lodge Clay Center, North Dakota State University and Northern Clay Center. From 2023 – 2014 she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Marlboro College in Vermont, and from 2016 – 2024, she was an art instructor at Saint Cloud Technical and Community College, Minneapolis Community and Technical College and Inver Hills Community College. She is currently focused on teaching and working at Maine Prairie Studio.

Megan’s functional and sculptural work has exhibited in galleries nationwide and been featured in Ceramics Monthly. She has taught workshops focused on printing on clay at numerous locations: Grand Marais Art Colony, Studio 550 in Manchester NH, North Dakota State University, Peninsula School of Arts and Appalachian Center for Craft. She received a McKnight Individual Artist Award in 2016 from the Central Minnesota Arts Board, and multiple awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board including a 2017 Artist Initiative Grant and a 2025 Creative Individuals Grant.

Staff Picks

Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, February 3, 2025 at 10 am MT

Group-curated by all current RLCC Staff and Long Term Residents, Staff Picks will feature a selection work from our sales collection. Included will be some of our favorite pieces available, in hopes that by spotlighting this work, we can find the work happy homes with you!

This exhibition is “cash and carry”, which means work will leave the gallery as it is sold, and will be continuously changing throughout the month.

Featured Artist Jesse Baggett: Ornaments of Desire

Featured work posted online: Monday, November 10, 2025 at 10 am MT

For our Holiday Featured Artist spot, Jesse will created a series of one of a kind, hand-made ornaments. Perfect for your tree, or to decorate your home all year round.

Jesse Baggett is currently pursuing an MFA in ceramic art at West Virginia University. Originally from the Texas-Oklahoma region, she earned her BFA from Midwestern State University in 2014. Between degrees, she worked as a mechanical drafter and a high school art teacher. She was a collaborating artist on the National Endowment for the Arts ceramic mural Better Together, 2023, located in Wichita Falls, TX. Her sculptural work brings to life a cast of southwestern animal characters and builds narratives that explore friendship, connection, and shared experience.

My work takes place in a fictional world inspired by the vast landscapes of the Southwest and Great Plains. It’s inhabited by animals native to the region—jackrabbits, raccoons, roadrunners, antelope, and bison—who serve as characters in stories about friendship, play, and grand adventures. These scenes reflect my own desire for community and the joy of shared experience. While I tend to be logical and structured in many aspects of life, this imagined world allows me to let go of those boundaries. It’s a place where I can be playful and imaginative, building a version of reality that feels freer, lighter, and more connected.

I create ceramic sculptures with a focus on playfulness, both in process and appearance. There’s a deep sense of joy in making the work, and I hope that feeling carries through to the viewer. I use a dark clay body that pairs well with the technique of sgraffito, allowing me to carve freely into the surface and sketch my animal characters into their imagined world.

My work is not about rendering reality but about creating a space where the boundaries of logic and fantasy blur. In doing so, I hope my viewers will feel the same sense of wonder and enchantment that drives me to make the work.
-Jesse Baggett

Holiday Exhibition 2025: Objects of Desire

Exhibition posted online: Monday, November 10, 2025 at 10 am MT

Objects of Desire, our 2025 Holiday exhibition features some of the finest utilitarian ceramic artwork being made today. It will offer some hot pots, along with our warm wishes for the holiday season.

This show is “cash and carry”- a perfect addition to our gallery offerings for your holiday shopping. If you plan to ship your purchases, please shop before December 16th for best chances for arrival before the holidays.

Featuring work by Doug Casebeer, Victoria Christen, Pattie Chalmers, Mike Gesiakowski, Matt Hiller, Adam Jennett, Stacy Larson, Yesha Panchel, Gillian Parke, Chance Taylor, and Stephanie Wilhelm

Montana Made

Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, October 6, 2025 at 10 am MT

The exhibition Montana Made will feature artwork created by Montana based artists, in Montana studios, and will include utilitarian pottery, vessels, and small sculptural work. We all know that there is some amazing clay work coming out of Montana, and this exhibition is a way for an all-star team of artists to showcase some of Montana’s best.

Participating artists include Jake Brodsky, Lane Chapman, Adam Field, Rebecca Harvey, Ken Kohoutek, Courtney Murphy, Marcia Selsor, and Cheri Thornton.

Featured Artist Kelly Stevenson

Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, October 6, 2025 at 10 am MT

As a fifth-generation Montanan, Kelly Stevenson has deep roots that greatly influence the artwork she creates. She finds inspiration in nature and collaborates with the earth to provide the means. Like Montana’s dynamic spring weather, her work can change drastically from one project to the next: at times the act of creating reflects harsh winds and snow; at other times, it’s animated by the scent of fresh spring flowers moving through the breeze.

Stevenson has a BFA from Montana State University and an MFA from Georgia State University. After three years of teaching ceramics as an Assistant Professor at Berry College in Georgia, she returned to her beloved Montana roots as an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena. Kelly has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally, has works included in private and public collections, and is featured in a handful of prominent publications. In 2021, Kelly and her mother—ceramic artist Marie Stevenson—opened Teslow Art Center in Livingston, MT.