Northern Clay Center

Meet Grace Edwards, the recipient of Northern Clay Center’s 2026 Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award!

Grace Edwards (she/her) explores the inherent sweetness of life through her bodily lived experience and imaginative use of ceramic materials. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Arkansas, and a BFA in Ceramics and BA in Dance from the University of Iowa. In 2026 she was awarded a Graduate Student Fellowship from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), and in 2025 she received the Sturgis International Fellowship, which allowed her to conduct material and pastry research in France, Sweden, Denmark, and China. Her work has been exhibited nationally throughout the US, and internationally in Jingdezhen, China.

The Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award (WMAA), founded in 2014, provides an opportunity for students and emerging artists to continue their ceramic research and education for a period of up to twelve consecutive months within the grant year, further expanding their professional development.

This award is made possible through the support of generous individual and institutional donors in honor of Warren MacKenzie’s legacy of ceramic education, both traditional and non-traditional.

Keep an eye out this week to learn about the rest of our 2026 ECAR and Award Recipients!

Check out our July Featured Artists, with new work available from all artists on our website and in person!

This month’s featured artists: Tom Jaszczak tom jaszczak , Ernest Miller Ernest Miller Ceramics , Lisa Orr Lisa Orr , Brent Pafford Brent Pafford , Colleen Riley Colleen Riley