Meet our 2021 - 2022 Artists-in-Residence!
Every August for the last 23 years, the Clay Art Center community has eagerly welcomed the incoming Artists-in-Residence. This year is no exception, and we are excited for you to learn more about them. Please join us in welcoming two new artists-in-residence, Annabelle Broyles and Anny Chen and our returning artist-in-residence Maria Spiess (Rittenberg Artist-in-Residence) along with returning Westchester Community Fellow, Breana Hendricks. They will be teaching classes this year and will be a great addition to the Clay Art Center family! Stay Tuned for more information about our residents slide night, scheduled for November, where our residents will discuss their artistic process.
Annabelle “Able” Broyles holds a BFA from the University of Georgia - Lamar Dodd School of Art. Able has spent the last three years in New Orleans, LA working as an auto mechanic. They completed their Post Baccalaureate studies at Tulane University in 2020. Able has exhibited works in solo and group exhibitions in Louisiana, Georgia and Italy. They will be teaching Introduction to Wheel Throwing, Beginners & Beyond: Sunday Annex, Sculptural Ceramics and Maker Night.
Anny Chen holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and has studied at the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. She currently works as a studio tech at BKLYN CLAY. Her wheel thrown and handbuilt stools are influenced by traditional Chinese ceramic craft practices, the history of functional pottery and the domestic setting. Through her work, Anny questions what it means to belong to a family, a community, or a place. She was born in New York, New York, and raised in Nowata, Oklahoma interspersed with visits back to her ancestral home in Fuzhou, China. She will be teaching, Pottery for Beginners: Saturday, Beginners & Beyond: Thursday, Throwing Bigger and Maker Night.
Maria Spiess holds a BFA from BGSU in Bowling Green, OH and a MFA from Syracuse University. Prior to coming to Clay Art Center Maria completed various Artist-In-Residence programs including Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild in Woodstock, NY, VACI program in Chautauqua, NY, Taos Clay in Taos, NM, Lux Center for the Arts in Lincoln, NE, and Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry, India. She will be teaching Beginners & Beyond: Sunday, Beginners & Beyond: Monday, Beginners & Beyond: Tuesday, Handbuilt Functional Pottery, and Thrown Ornaments.
Breana Hendricks is Clay Art Center’s Westchester Community Foundation’s Young Artist Fellow. She received her BFA from the State University of New York at New Paltz, NY. Before coming to Port Chester she taught ceramics at Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY and has taught at Don Bosco Community Center for grades 3 - 5 and Port Chester Recreation. She has been with Clay Art Center since 2019 as a Community Arts Assistant and Westchester Community Fellow. She will be teaching Intermediate Handbuilding, Printmaking with Photo Lithography and Terra Sigillata and Sgraffito.
Clay Art Center’s Residency Program
For over 60 years, artists have been advancing their careers at Clay Art Center. This year marks the 23rd anniversary of Clay Art Center’s nationally recognized artist-in-residence program, started in 1998 by Director Emeritus Reena Kashyap. Thanks to the incredible generosity of our donors, the past 23 years have seen over 50 young artists get the chance to launch their careers and find their voices.
Our Residency program, which commences each year in September, is uniquely designed for emerging artists who need time and space to develop their voices. Residents gain invaluable experience working in a community environment, teaching classes, sharing their technical knowledge and expertise, and managing many jobs around the studio. Through a competitive process, these artists come to Port Chester from across the country and are now thriving in their careers around the globe. Learn More.