Kansas City Art Institute

Cary Esser’s sculptures indulge the materiality of ceramics and draw on the history of architectural terra cotta, producing artworks ranging from single tiles to large-scale installations. She has served as chair of the Kansas City Art Institute ceramics department since 1996. During her 30-year career in the arts, Esser has also taught at the University of North Carolina, Duke University and Louisiana State University (LSU). She has been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, the International Ceramics Studio in Hungary, and other venues. Esser has recently exhibited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Northern Clay Center. She is featured in the March 2013 issue of Ceramics: Art and Perception and received the 2013 Kansas City Art Institute Distinguished Achievement Award. Esser and her KCAI students and colleagues were presented in Season Two of the PBS “Craft In America” television series, broadcast in 2009. She holds an M.F.A. degree from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and a B.F.A. degree from KCAI.

Contact: Cesser@kcai.edu

Paul Donnelly is a studio potter who uses slip cast and wheel-thrown techniques to create decorative yet functional pottery. His work navigates between architecture, nature and popular culture to reveal notions of history and fashion and their place in the domestic landscape. He received his B.F.A. degree from Edinboro University, Pennsylvania, and his M.F.A. from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Before receiving his master’s degree, he managed the ceramics department facilities at the University of Pennsylvania while also participating in the Artist in Residence Program at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Contact: Pdonnelly@kcai.edu

Casey Whittier received her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her work investigates the fine line between the need to preserve and the need to re-imagine, re-configure and re-contextualize the world around her. Utilizing a variety of forming methods, Whittier recreates elements from nature, unites the landscapes of her reality with the landscapes of daydreams, exploits the visceral qualities of clay, and ponders the power of shared experience. The physical impressions that come through rolling, tearing, squishing, dipping, pushing, pinching, molding, casting, and scratching become representations of touch, of thought, of time spent.

Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States. She is an advocate for community engagement through the arts and has been awarded an ArtsKC Inspiration Grant and Artist INC grant for her ongoing Palm Petals project. Her work can be found at www.caseywhittier.com.

Contact: Cwhittier@kcai.edu

Tom Binger earned a B.F.A. degree from the Kansas City Art Institute. In addition to the wide range of skill he employs in maintaining the ceramics facility, he specializes in consulting, problem solving, and fabrication for artists and designers. Binger teaches elective studio courses in the ceramics department, focusing on clay and glaze formulation and kiln theory.

Contact; Tbinger@kcai.edu

Rain Harris is a sculptor and installation artist who lives in Kansas City. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Rhode Island School of Design and her M.F.A. from Ohio University. She has participated in residencies at the Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, Maine, The Pottery Workshop, Jingdezhen, China, The International Ceramic Research Center, Guldageraard, Denmark, The Lh Project, Joseph, Ore., and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, Pa. Her work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions including ones at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Ferrin Gallery, and the Garth Clark Gallery. She had a three-person show at the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio and she has had solo shows at the Philadelphia International Airport, The Portland Craft Museum, The Duane Reed Gallery, and Sherry Leedy Contemporary. Rain has presented many lectures at colleges, museums and conferences. She has received many grants and fellowships including an American Craft Council Emerging Artist Grant, an Independence Foundation Fellowship, three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Special Opportunity Stipends, a Leeway Foundation Achievement Grant and two Window of Opportunity Grants. Her work is in private collections and over a dozen national and international museums.

Meredith Host was born and raised in Detroit, Mich.  She received her B.F.A. in Ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute in 2001 and her M.F.A. in Ceramics from The Ohio State University in 2008.   Meredith has spent time at numerous ceramic residencies including The School for American Crafts at RIT in Rochester, N.Y, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine, Dresdner Porzellan Manufactory in Dresden, Germany, and West Virginia University through The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China.  She was named one of the 2011 Emerging Artists for NCECA and Ceramics Monthly, and in 2016 was a Presenter at the Utilitarian Clay Symposium.  Currently, Meredith lives in Kansas City, Mo., teaches workshops around the country, and is a founding member of the Kansas City Urban Potters.