Overview of Ceramics
Maryland Institute College of Art
The ceramics department provides an atmosphere that encourages you to develop self-motivation and conviction as an artist. MICA’s ceramics program is sculptural in emphasis and uses extensive resources housed in a dedicated, 5,000-square-foot facility. The curriculum offers a highly individualized and flexible course of study which encourages interchange with other major programs, experimentation, and varied points of view. Faculty set the pace for collaborative exploration through their own close working relationships with their colleagues in fiber and interdisciplinary sculpture, enriching the conceptual energy that characterizes ceramics at MICA.
Once you are familiar with the basic techniques of clay forming (handbuilding, casting, and throwing), the use of slips and glazes, and firing processes such as stoneware, low-fire, and Raku, the emphasis is on experimentation with the medium to achieve your own individual creative vision. Thematic courses which concentrate on special aspects of the ceramics medium—such as tile and mural imagery, Raku and saggar firing processes, majolica and glaze painting, and mold making and casting techniques— augment the core curriculum.
Rich exchanges of artistic theory and processes, cultural experiences, and ways of working have flourished in the department through a strong network of connections with artists throughout Eastern Europe, which has taken students to that region of the world to study and work. Renowned international ceramics artists have traveled to campus for residencies, during which they often forge profound connections with students in informal settings. Ongoing student and faculty exchanges with the Glasgow School of Art, one of the foremost schools of ceramics in Europe, further the international connections for our students. MICA has also mounted numerous major ceramics exhibitions of work from Sweden, Finland, Great Britain, Eastern Europe, Africa and Canada. Visiting artist residencies and the presence of students from other countries, as well as other majors, build upon the special energy of the close-knit community of artists who comprise ceramics at MICA.
Facilities
The ceramics facility consists of a large, open work area; separate areas for clay mixing, plaster casting, storage, and glaze preparation/application that are well ventilated and safely exhausted; a kiln room containing both a 50-cubic-foot and a 14-cubic-foot gas updraft kiln, an assortment of 15 electric kilns, from 20.1-cubicfoot oval to two small test glaze kilns; an outdoor enclosed Raku area. Wood firing opportunities are regularly scheduled at an off-campus facility. The department’s research room houses a slide collection of historic and contemporary work, a reference library, and a seminar area. MICA’s two large gas-powered kilns accommodate students who wish to work at a massive scale. To help students make the most of this resource, the department introduced a course, Size Matters, which focuses on the creation and assembly of modular, multi-component sculptural pieces.
Internships and Careers
Ceramics majors regularly intern locally—at such institutions as Baltimore Clayworks— and nationally—with prestigious placements at such sites as the Kohler industrial and ceramic factory and design center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where they keep an artist-in-residence on the factory floor. Alumni have gone on to open their own ceramic studios, and to work in other creative fields—for the clay animated series Robot Chicken and for video game maker Big Huge Games, for example.
Graduate School
MICA ceramics alumni are regularly accepted to top graduate schools such as Cranbrook Academy. Anthony Stellacio ’00 received a Fulbright to study in Lithuania and now writes and lectures on Lithuanian ceramics. He is a consultant to the Lithuanian Art Museum in Vilnius.