Amy Sanders, a second-year ceramics graduate student in the School of Art, Art History and Design, had a productive summer with the publication of an article in Ceramics Monthly and the completion of a residency at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan.
“I’ve barely begun to kind of reflect and process everything,” Sanders said.
Margaret Bohls, associate professor of art, said Sanders had an “outstanding” first year at Nebraska, producing two large bodies of new work, having a solo exhibition of her work in the MEDICI Gallery, and having been accepted to three national juried exhibitions in ceramics. Sanders has also been invited to participate in two invitational group exhibitions of ceramics in Indiana and Washington state. This summer added to those achievements.
Last semester, Sanders was awarded a Hixson-Lied Student Study Grant to participate in a six-week residency at the Shigaraki Cultural Park Ceramics Residency, an international residency program that is highly competitive, Bohls said. Sanders' work is now featured in the September print edition of Ceramics Monthly with a technical article about the creation of her pouring vessels.
“It does feel like an honor to contribute to the community in that way,” Sanders said. “It’s also surreal. This goal is something that I thought about as a young, first-year undergraduate student — maybe one day, you know? I’m sure I’ll look back and will be like, ‘Why did I write that?’ But it feels like something so special.”
From May 28 to Aug. 3, Sanders completed the residency at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, one of the leading pottery-producing areas in Japan. Among a rotational range of 10-12 artists, she was the only ceramist from the United States there this summer.
“It was amazing," Sanders said. "It’s so great to get such vastly different perspectives within one framework being ceramics, but everybody had their own really beautiful story and the way they approached their work, so being able to communicate with everyone and collaborate in more of a conversational way — just overall, Japan was a life-changing experience.”
Sanders made around 80 pieces during her residency and hopes to have an exhibit of that work next spring. While in Shigaraki, Sanders had the opportunity to work with the local clay and fire in an Anagama kiln, an ancient type of wood-fired pottery kiln created and designed in Japan. Sanders also visited multiple ancient kiln sites throughout the country.
The best part of the residency, though, was the people.
“The other artists were spectacular, and it was so exciting to engage with them,” Sanders said. “But also the staff. They were so helpful and kind. You’re given all the resources that you would need. The residency is built on this really beautiful hill where there’s a museum, where the residents stay in the studios. And then underneath, there’s this amazing research facility where you can bring in a piece of clay that you found, and they would scan it and dissect it and tell me what’s in it. That was the most rewarding part — to meet and learn about these people — and also just being in Japan.”
Born in Yueyang, Hunan, China and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Sanders holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics from West Virginia University in Morgantown. She also completed a year as a post-baccalaureate student at Montana State University in Bozeman. She has shown in exhibitions nationally and internationally. She was an artist-in-residence at the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, Florida and a Pentaculum Resident at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, before coming to Nebraska in 2024 for her Master of Fine Arts.
The faculty drew her to the School of Art, Art History and Design.
“Pete [Pinnell]'s technical knowledge was definitely a draw, and Margaret [Bohls] is, hands down, one of the best women in our field,” Sanders said. “It’s really nice to be in a place that supports potters. Some graduate students who are potters have to fight for the validity of pottery, in general, within academia. It’s nice that I can push my work and not have to keep defending pots, in general.”
She would like to do another residency next summer, but, for now, Sanders is eager to get back into the studio.
See more of Sanders’ work on Instagram at @amysandersceramics. Her article in Ceramics Monthly is available online.
