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About the Competition | Schedule of Events | About the Juror | About the Invited Artist
About the Competition
The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts organizes an annual series of ceramic events with exhibitions, a symposium and workshops led by prominent artists.
The San Angelo North American Ceramic Competition, hosted every two years, is open to artists residing in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Clay or ceramic artworks, both functional and sculptural, are eligible for submission. Submissions must have been completed within the last two years.
In a small focus exhibit within the Competition exhibition, the museum features the work of one distinguished guest artist, who also conducts a day-long demonstration workshop the day after the exhibition opening.
In non-Competition years, the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts hosts the Ceramic Invitational Exhibition, featuring the work of established and emerging ceramic artists selected by the museum.
The San Angelo Ceramic Symposium, hosted by Angelo State University, is an annual event that is open to ASU students, faculty, and the public. It takes place the day of the exhibition opening and is organized in collaboration with the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts.
26th San Angelo North American Ceramic Competition
April 17 - June 21, 2026
Generously sponsored by John Williams, the San Angelo Endowment for Ceramic Events, and Texas Commission on the Arts
Ceramic Events Schedule
April 15 – Wednesday
Public Ceramic Workshop
Von Venhuizen and Steve Hilton
1 PM–4 PM
Angelo State University Ceramics Facility (Mayer Museum Building, Room 135)
2501 W. Ave. N.
Exhibition Opening
5:30 PM–8 PM
Mayer Museum (on the campus of Angelo State University, 2501 W. Ave. N.)
Community, an exhibition of works by Von Venhuizen and Steve Hilton; and the 1st Mayer National Juried Student Ceramic Competition, an intercollegiate exhibition of works by undergraduate and graduate students in ceramics.
Exhibits remain on display through September 19, 2026.
April 16 – Thursday
Chicken Farm Gallery and Studios Open
11 AM–6 PM
Home-Grown & Hand-Thrown: A Cluckin' Good Ceramics Roundup of San Angelo Artists
in the Gift Shop and Gallery, along with a special showing of Flock, San Angelo
Ceramic Workshop with Randy Brodnax
1 PM–6 PM
The Chicken Farm Art Center (continues Saturday)
$25 students / $35 regular admission
On Thursday, Randy Brodnax will lead participants in throwing thin-walled vessels on the wheel at The Chicken Farm Art Center. Saturday afternoon and evening, Randy will lead participants in raku firing from 3:00–6:00 p.m. and after dinner. Participants are encouraged to bring bisque work to glaze and fire, but bisque pots will also be available to purchase ($5 for registered workshop participants). It is free for non-participants to watch the raku firing on Saturday. Anyone not previously registered for the workshop can fire a pot for $15, while supplies last.
April 17 – Friday
Mayer Museum Open
10 AM–5 PM
Chicken Farm Gallery and Studios Open
11 AM–6 PM
Home-Grown & Hand-Thrown: A Cluckin' Good Ceramics Roundup of San Angelo Artists
in the Gift Shop and Gallery, along with a special showing of Flock, San Angelo
41st Annual Ceramic Symposium
1:30 PM–4:30 PM
Mayer Museum, Mayer Hall in honor and memory of Ferdinand and Jette Steiner Mayer
(on the campus of Angelo State University, 2501 W. Ave. N.)
Panelists: Linda Ganstrom, Marc Leuthold, Steve Hilton, Von Venhuizen
Reception during Symposium intermission
Shaping the Path: ASU Ceramics Student Show
Second floor of the Mayer Museum
Exhibition Opening
5:30 PM–8 PM
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts (1 Love Street)
26th San Angelo North American Ceramic Competition
Exhibition Openings on Oakes Street
5:30 PM–8 PM
- Coop Gallery (427 S. Oakes): Six Pack Ceramics, hosted by the Art Spirit Collective
- Studio Rio (423 S. Oakes): Concho Clay Studio Member Show
- Gallery Verde (417 S. Oakes): Juried Cup Show
April 18 – Saturday
All-Day Ceramic Workshop with Marc Leuthold
9 AM–3 PM
The Chicken Farm Art Center
$25 students / $45 regular admission
Invited Artist Marc Leuthold will conduct a day-long demonstration workshop, discussing and demonstrating his techniques, materials, and processes. There will be a break for lunch from 12 PM–1 PM.
Roots at the Silo within The Chicken Farm Art Center will have a taco bar lunch available for purchase for $12. You can also bring a sack lunch or patronize one of many other local restaurants.
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts Open
10 AM–4 PM
Oakes Street Galleries Open
10 AM–4 PM
Mayer Museum Open
10 AM–5 PM
Chicken Farm Gallery and Studios Open
11 AM–6 PM
Home-Grown & Hand-Thrown: A Cluckin' Good Ceramics Roundup of San Angelo Artists
in the Gift Shop and Gallery, along with a special showing of Flock, San Angelo
Randy Brodnax Workshop Continues
3 PM–6 PM
The Chicken Farm Art Center
Texas Barbecue Dinner
6 PM
$20 per person
The Chicken Farm Art Center, catered by Roots at the Silo
Raku Firing with Randy Brodnax
7 PM until firing is complete
The Chicken Farm Art Center
The public is invited to watch this portion of the Randy Brodnax workshop following the dinner. Anyone not previously registered for the workshop can fire a pot for $15.
April 19 – Sunday
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts Open
1 PM–4 PM
Gallery Walk-Talk with Horacio Casillas, Concho Clay Studio Manager
1 PM
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, begins in the second-floor gallery
Oakes Street Galleries Open
1 PM–4 PM
About the Juror
In her fifth decade as an artist, teacher and advocate for the arts, Linda Ganstrom seeks to balance local and international engagement with a treasured family life. She served as a juror for the Jingdezhen International Ceramic Art Biennial 2023 in Jingdezhen, China and was the 2025 juror for the Ninnescah Biennial Exhibition at the Vernon Filley Museum in Pratt, KS. As the Exhibitions Director for NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) from 2008–2014, Ganstrom worked with hundreds of venues and artists. She served on curatorial teams for Ecumene: Global Interface in American Ceramics during the International Academy of Ceramic General Session in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2012; Continental Divide Ceramics Exhibition and Earth Moves: Shifts in Ceramic Art and Design at the Arvada Center, Arvada, Colorado; and Global Positioning at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute Gallery, Jingdezhen, China. As an NCECA Collectors’ Tour Leader from 2018–2023, Ganstrom enjoyed creating connections between communities, collectors, artists, and art professionals to build a more vibrant ceramics culture through curating and facilitating ceramics exhibitions.
Earning three degrees from Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, Linda Ganstrom currently serves as their Professor of Art and Design teaching Ceramics, where she has hosted over 80 visiting artist workshops and mentored over 60 graduate students. She lives and works in Hays, Kansas and shares a studio with her husband, the ceramic artist, Sheldon Ganstrom. As an exhibiting artist she is currently showing in the 15th Annual Workhouse Clay International, in Lorton, District of Columbia and at the Leopold Gallery in Kansas City. Ganstrom’s work is included in over a dozen books and publications, and her article “Care Create” was recently published in the Studio Potter Magazine. She has exhibited in over 300 shows, including solo, invitational group and juried exhibitions, including the Meissen Porcelain Biennale, Meissen, Germany, in 2022 and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts’ Ceramic Competition six time since 2014, winning First Prize in 2018 and Best Figurative Sculpture in 2024.
About the Invited Artist
Marc Leuthold has been invited to exhibit and create art worldwide. Among many other venues, Leuthold’s artwork has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and PS1 MoMA, both in New York City. Leuthold has served as a Professor at the State University of New York, Princeton University, Parsons School of Design, and Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts.
Artist’s Statement:
The exhibited artwork encompasses artwork made all over the world, including during the Pandemic lockdowns in New York and Shanghai, both of which I experienced first-hand. Migrating my practice to four different continents (North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia) has given me an opportunity to adapt to and use unusual porcelains and clays from all over the world, including the jade-like Chinese Dehua porcelain. I have mounted some of these exotic clays in hand carved wooden bases that I designed—mirroring the 18th century European practice of mounting precious Chinese porcelains in elaborate Baroque-style ormolu bronzes.
My work is essentially abstract, and often, it is unnameable. Hints of feminine and masculine energies in my practice echo Nietzschean complementary Apollonian and Dionysian energies. The work issues from the tension between creative and destructive drives, and I see myself as, ultimately, a conduit for the flow of the universe. It is in this path that the artist must walk.
Click here to see the 2024 online gallery
Learn more about Past Ceramic Competitions here.
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