The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art will host a free panel discussion and pottery demonstration on April 20 with artists from three exhibitions: “Coalescence: Exploring Contemporary Ceramics and Artist Communities,” “Threads That Bind: Elucidating Diverse Voices of Womanhood,” and “Long Way Home: C. Finley.” The public is invited to attend.
The panel discussion will begin at 10 a.m. in the Stauffacher Theatre. The pottery demonstration will begin at 1 p.m. in Stauffacher Building Room 40.
Artists Gina Pisto, Casey Whittier, Nicole Woodard, Debra Smith, and C. Finley will participate in the panel discussion in Stauffacher Theatre over their current exhibitions, artworks, and questions generated by the audience. SFCC’s Art History instructor Dr. Meghan McClellan will moderate the panel discussion. Artist Samuel Johnson of Coalescence will lead the pottery demonstration following the panel discussion.
Gina Pisto of Coalescence is originally from Columbus, Ohio, and is currently an artist-in-residence at Belger Crane Yard Studios in Kansas City. Pisto completed her Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) in Ceramics at Grand Valley State University and received her post-baccalaureate in Craft and Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018. Pisto completed her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Ceramics at Ohio University in 2022.
Casey Whittier of Coalescence received her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) and her MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Whittier currently teaches Ceramics and Social Practice at KCAI.
Nicole Woodard of Coalescence is an artist living in Kansas City. Woodard received her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Kansas in 2021 and is currently teaching Foundation and Ceramic courses at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.
Debra Smith of Threads That Bind was born in Kansas City and raised in Hannibal. Smith studied at the Italian Academy of Fashion and Design; Lorenzo de Medici in Florence before receiving her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute with a major in Fiber in 1993 and an Associate Degree in Applied Science from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2002. Smith resides in Kansas City where she continues to create art from vintage textiles.
C. Finley of “Long Way Home” received her BFA from the Pratt Institute New York and her MFA from California State University, Long Beach. As the creator of the 2014-21 “Every Woman Biennial,” she exhibited 1,200 female and non-binary artists in New York, Los Angeles, and London. Finley has shown internationally, and her work has been featured in “The New York Times,” “La Repubblica,” “Dazed,” “Fast Company,” “Women’s Wear Daily,” “LALA,” and more.
Samuel Johnson of Coalescence studied painting and ceramics at the University of Minnesota at Morris. In 2000, Johnson was invited as a guest of Denmark’s Design School to study Scandinavian ceramic design in Copenhagen. In 2005, Johnson earned graduate degrees in fine art from the University of Iowa. He is currently an Associate Professor of Art at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Central Minnesota.
Admission to the Daum Museum is free; hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call (660) 530-5888 or visit www.daummuseum.org
