Born from our 20th anniversary celebration, our Clay Conversations Speaker Series continues as an ongoing celebration of ceramic arts excellence. We bring innovative ceramic artists and tradition-bearers directly to our community for intimate conversations that reveal the stories, techniques, and insights behind a lifetime of working with clay.

These are rare opportunities to learn from artists whose work has shaped the ceramic world. From multigenerational pottery families to contemporary innovators, our speakers share not just their techniques, but the wisdom that comes from decades of dedication to their craft.

Each carefully curated evening offers something you can't find in books or videos: direct access to master-level knowledge in an intimate, community-focused setting where real learning happens.

Join us for experiences that change how you see, understand, and work with clay.

  • Simon Levin

    On Friday, September 18, 6:30 - 8:00pm Clayworks is as part of our Clay Conversations Series, Simon Levin will join us to share a workable method to find your own voice.

    Simon Levin has spent over three decades in clay, ever since an elective ceramics course reshaped the direction of his life in 1990. Today he's a full-time studio potter recognized for his expertise in wood firing, an MFA graduate of the University of Iowa, and a 2013 Senior Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan.

    Based in Pawnee, Illinois, Simon has built a career around teaching as much as making. Since 2004, his apprenticeship program has trained 27 potters, and he hosts a video series on the Ceramics Arts Network exploring process and craft. He's the founder of Cohorts.Art, a mentorship program for makers, and formerly served as Director at Large for the National Council for Education of the Ceramic Arts (NCECA).

    In his talk, Simon will dig into the elemental forces that shape his work: fire, earth, wind, and water, forces every potter and every person shares. He'll trace how clay moves through daily life, from the cups we drink from to the objects we keep in our homes, and how a few simple, unadorned marks can turn a familiar material into something that feels entirely new.

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  • Sunshine Cobb

    On Friday, May 15, 6:30-8:00pm as part of our Clay Conversations Series, Helena-based potter and author Sunshine Cobb will join us as our next thoughtful exploration of the creative practice.

    As a a full-time studio potter, touring artist, and author who has spent over twenty years making functional work that explores memory, nostalgia, and the objects we keep close, Sunshine brings a distinctive voice to our series.

    Sunshine is considered an important contemporary functional potter in both academic and commercial circles, with work featured in exhibitions throughout the country. She has also authored two books on hand building with Voyager Press: “Mastering Hand Building” and “A Beginners Guide to Hand Building”.

    Sunshine’s lecture "Why Do We Make?" promises to illuminate something all artists question: why we create, and how we keep going when life makes it hard. Drawing on her own journey through transitions in studio work and in life, she'll explore the hurdles artists face and how creativity can sustain us even in difficult times.

  • Ben Owen III

    Master potter Ben Owen III will share 40 years of clay mastery and family tradition.

    Friday, September 12, 2025

    6:30-8pm - Clayworks Classroom #2

  • Pete Pinnell

    Join ceramics professor Pete Pinnell as he explores how drinking vessels transform our most mundane moments into opportunities for art, meaning, and beauty.

    Friday, October 24, 6:30-8pm - Clayworks Classroom #2

    $10 per person

    Clayworks is thrilled to announce the next speaker in our Clay Conversations Series: Professor Pete Pinnell will join us on Friday, October 24, 6:30-8:00pm for a fascinating exploration titled "Drinking and Thinking."

    Pete brings a unique perspective to our series - a master potter who spent 12 years making his living at the wheel before becoming Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His work has been exhibited internationally across the U.S., Netherlands, South Africa, Japan, China, New Zealand, and Australia, with more than 120 exhibitions since 1995 alone.

    Pete's talk promises to reveal the surprising artistic potential hidden within one of life's most ordinary acts - drinking. From religious ceremonies to social rituals, from ancient vessels to modern aesthetics, he'll illuminate how pottery has long been concerned with finding art in the mundane.