Ceramics Residency Alumni - This years cohort.
Our ceramics residencies run from Oct thru May.
2026/2027
Roberto Salas
"His artworks reflect DNA layers of his history through iconography linked to indigenous cultural roots. Growing up in the southwest, traveling the world, Salas’ artwork shows us how our ancestral roots and artistic traditions inform our present life. The power and resilience of indigenous cultures are revealed through the iconography Salas utilizes in his daily practice as an artist and teacher”. Bonita Museum of Art
I am Indigenous from the Chihuahua desert area we call Aztlan, the in-between space known as the border division between Mexico and the USA. “Nepantla” often refers to being between two cultures, particularly one's original culture and the dominant one.
Rachel Dove is a ceramic artist and educator based in New York. Her work begins with a direct engagement with the landscape, which she approaches as an active collaborator through daily walks. She gathers inspiration from the intersection of infrastructure and landscape, with a focus on the unseen systems that shape our environments. Dove is particularly interested in how her experience as a resident on the Mendocino coastline and its community will influence her work.
Dove’s work fluctuates between functional forms and sculpture, bringing together wheel-thrown vessels and hand-built structures that are thoughtfully altered over time. Through the process of wood firing, the work develops rich surfaces and weathered textures, preserving the marks of the artist’s hand while welcoming the unpredictability of the kiln. Post-firing materials such as poured concrete forms elevate the vessels and invite the viewer to consider relationships between infrastructure, the landscape and the process of erosion.
Originally from the Midwest, Rachel holds a BFA from Columbus College of Art & Design and an MFA from the University of Tennessee. Rachel continued her studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology focusing on Textile/Surface Design. After years immersed in textiles, Rachel returned to clay, integrating those experiences into a ceramic practice. Her work has been exhibited regionally in both juried and invitational exhibitions and participated in residences at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Watershed Center for the Ceramics Arts, ME. She serves as an Adjunct Instructor and leads community textile and clay workshops throughout the region.
Rachel Dove
Kit Grindeland
Kit Grindeland (he/they) is a trans ceramicist from Providence, RI who has been working with clay since 2021. Previously, they spent a decade in the New England theatre industry both on and off stage, as well as in the classroom. He is a born and raised New Englander who recently finished a long term residency at The Steel Yard. His work has been featured in shows and galleries across Rhode Island, alongside being featured in regional shows through Small Favors, Strictly Functional, Warren Wilson College/Queer Atmosphere, and more.
Alongside studio practice, Kit has been teaching ceramics since 2023 and has taught at Amherst College, Anyhow Studios, The Steel Yard, and multiple elementary/middle schools across Rhode Island. When not in the studio, they can often be found working in early childhood education, occasionally making clown shows, or deep in nature.
Their work is rooted in being in dialogue with material - both clay in its most malleable form and with the fire that paints it. He primarily uses pit-firing and wood-firing to catch ephemeral chemical reactions on handbuilt swirling and shifting forms manifesting a fictional dystopia where civilization has industrialized clouds as a last resort in a dying world.
They are extremely grateful and excited for this opportunity - and can’t wait to start working.
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Alyson Brandes
Alyson Brandes (b. 1998, Pasadena, CA) is a Mexican-American artist using clay to explore identity through cultural preservation. In 2020 she received her BA in Art History from Chapman University and was awarded with a Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship at the American Museum of Ceramic Art. Her work was featured in Getty Magazine’s Spring 2024 edition, where she discussed her Mesoamerican influence and Mexican heritage.
Curatorial projects include Elemental Encounters, a two-person show of ceramics and textiles. She has shown in group shows with Maker House Santa Barbara, Arvia Projects, Wolford House and the Infinite School. Her modular sculpture, titled Chicano Pinto Union II, became part of the Chicano Park Museum’s permanent collection in late 2025.
Alyson has appreciated expanding her ceramic community through residency programs with Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts and Salmon Creek Farm, and was most recently a short-term resident at Cider Creek Collective. She currently manages the community ceramic program at Creative Arts Group in Sierra Madre, CA.