Ann Arbor Potters Guild
The Potters Guild is a cooperative non-profit organization which has been a part of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the Original since 1960. The Potters Guild is located at the pavilion on N. University every day of the fair.
Exhibiting Potters Guild Artists
Christina Bergstedt
Christina’s art lives in the space between control and happenstance. There, intended works turn into things never imagined. Every day is full of new influences and ideas, and mistakes transform into best-selling works.
Stacey Buchanan
Stacey is fascinated by how everyday objects can reflect the complexity and beauty of the materials they are made from. Her work explores patterns, structures, and surface transformations, drawing from both natural formations and scientific processes. She creates functional pottery inspired by geometry, geology, and chemistry. All work is thrown or hand-built by the artist using white stoneware clay, and all texture is carved by hand. Work is fired in a cone 10 gas (reduction) kiln or cone 6 (oxidation) electric kiln.
Jim Castiglione
“From Earth to Art” is my slogan, making functional and non functional art work, fills the shelves at Jim’s Fire and Clay Pottery studio.
Jenn Gerrity
In and out, up and down, on and off, yes and no… what if. My work starts on the potter’s wheel, and then—play, gesture, color, line. Rearrangeable ceramic pieces are held together for the moment but always subject to change. Ribbon-like, looped forms create open spaces that hold fluidity, possibility, and room for something new and unexpected.
Margaret Kenaga
Margaret focuses on functional, wheel thrown pottery, with some forays into sculpture. Her carved work explores texture and repeating, changing patterns on forms that are comfortable in the hands.
John Leyland
Originally from western Pennsylvania, John has lived and worked in Ann Arbor, MI for the last 20 plus years. Originally teaching at Adrian College in 2001, he accepted the Ceramics Studio Coordinator position at The University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design in 2002 and work there until retirement in 2019. He has a BFA is from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania and MFA from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He also studied at The Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia during his undergraduate studies. John has taught at many of the ceramic art centers and guilds in the area as well as The College for Creative Studies in Detroit and WCC. His initial draw to clay was as a potter, and loves working on the wheel. He worked sculpturally during his time in graduate school and exhibits both Functional and Sculptural Clay works.
Alejandro Ortiz Ponce
My practice centers on sculpture and ceramics as a way of investigating origin, memory, and material truth. I was born in Colombia and studied Fine Arts with a focus on sculpture in Costa Rica, experiences that continue to shape how I understand form, process, and cultural identity. Working with clay allows me to engage directly with time, pressure, and transformation, where each piece records both intention and accident. Through this process, I question inherited symbols and visual narratives, using material as a space to reflect on history and the human condition.
Mistique Ott
Mistique Ott creates hand-built ceramics that explore the delicate balance between order and disorder, using clay as a vessel for containing chaotic thoughts and feelings. Her functional and sculptural work ranges from highly glazed pieces with tactile surfaces made from reclaimed stoneware fired in cone 10 reduction to minimally finished terra cotta. By embracing the uncertainty and physicality of the medium, she invites viewers to find their own resonance within her open-ended forms. A member of the Ann Arbor Potters Guild, Mistique focuses on the grounding power of the here and now to create pieces that are as much about feeling as they are about form.
Laura Rein
Rein creates functional pottery in a variety of forms. Her work explores the relationship between form, balance, and surface. She is especially drawn to larger pieces, often altered or fluted to introduce movement and softness to the form. Through layered glazing and thoughtful combinations of color—particularly in blues, aquas, and purples—she creates surfaces that enhance both the visual and tactile experience of each piece.
Jen Shepherd Moore
Jen approaches her art from the perspective of a lifelong student. She is dedicated to expanding her artistic vocabulary and strengthening her skills.
Mark White
Ceramic artist. Primarily functional pottery and Raku. Member Ann Arbor Potters Guild. I enjoy working cooperatively in a studio setting with other artists and students.
Jane White
My recent work has combined glass murrine, frits, and stringers to add focal points to thrown texture and rammed sawdust clay. In addition to this sculptural work, I have focused on mugs and enjoy loose, often uncentered forms. They are most successful when you see they are on the edge of collapse but maintain their function.
Matt Winchester
I create vessels with flowing forms and vibrant color, through soft curves and layered glazes my work transforms the vase into an expression of energy, rhythm and change.