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Guest Judges

2024 Guest Judges:

Each year Clay It Up hosts two special guests to judge the live competition.  The role of the guest judge is to provide the construction prompts at the start of each competitive event and to award placements for the top submissions in the different categories.  In the past we have been grateful to partner with area ceramic artists, teachers and professors to judge our live competition.

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We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting Dr. Angela LaPorte and Chance Taylor as our guest judges for Clay It Up 2024!

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Dr. Angela LaPorte

Angela La Porte is a Professor and Director of Art Education at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Her research interests include topics of diversity and inclusion across social, generational, and cultural boundaries, focusing on understanding and reducing the implicit barriers that often segregate individuals and communities. She edited a book and contributed numerous scholarly papers to journals such as Studies in Art Education, The Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, The International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education, and Art Education among others. Her critical and socially conscious artwork has also been exhibited in national and local venues. Dr. LaPorte is a National Art Education Association (NAEA) Distinguished Fellow, treasurer for the NAEA Lifelong Learning interest group, NAEA’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Liaison for Arkansas, past President of the United States Society for Education Through Art, and has served as a working member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Arts in Education.

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Chance Taylor

Chance Taylor is a ceramicist and educator born in Fargo, North Dakota. He graduated with a BFA (2018) in ceramics from NDSU and received his MFA (2023) from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He is currently a resident artist and Studio Manager at Access Arts in Columbia, Mo where he teaches and maintains an active studio practice. Taylor’s work draws upon his fascination with an object’s purpose to facilitate culture and fulfill our psychological and practical needs through everyday use and ritual.  His most recent work is influenced by the Art Nouveau movement and is made to celebrate and elevate the every-day. 

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Website: chancetaylorceramics.com

Instagram: @chancetaylorceramics

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