During the sophomore year, students are introduced to clay making, glaze formulation, throwing, hand-building, slip-casting, kiln loading, and firing.
As juniors, students strengthen technical and conceptual skills by selecting from diverse offerings, ranging from utilitarian pottery to sculpture and the making of ceramic tile.
In the senior year, students work one-on-one with a faculty advisor within an assigned personal studio space to develop a major body of work. Courses in raw materials and kiln building hold particular interest. The raw materials course introduces the origins and properties of clay and glaze materials. The kiln-building course centers around building a working kiln. Extensive indoor and outdoor kiln facilities, backed by the expertise of an artist-master technician, support both faculty and students. There is also access to large, separate studio areas for throwing, hand-building, and plaster mold work, as well as a completely stocked undergraduate glaze room and labs for clay and glaze formulation. In addition, the program features a comprehensive material supply facility, managed by a ceramic artist-technician.
Support facilities enhancing the ceramic art program include Scholes Library, which contains America’s most extensive holdings on ceramic art, and The Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, whose study collection affords hands-on appreciation of both contemporary and historical pieces.