Engaging children with artists who look like them, have similar experiences, and come from similar backgrounds is a great source of inspiration and empowerment. By reflecting their own identities, experiences and motivations (mirrors) and also providing insight into the identities, experiences and motivations of others (windows) can move students toward more nuanced perceptions of the world around them (sliding glass doors).* Discover new BIPOC artists to add to your curriculum.
*Source: By Rudine Sims Bishop, The Ohio State University. "Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors"
Ceramics
Artists have many layered identities and art educators need to present them as such.
Representing diverse artists in your curriculum is only part of an Anti-Bias, Anti-Racist curriculum. It needs to be more than a symbolic effort and art educators need to take into account intersectionality when introducing these artists to students. How do aspects of an artists’ social and political identities (ex. gender, sex, race, class, sexuality, religion, ability, physical appearance, etc.) intersect within their work?
In addition, we recognize that race is socially constructed and it is impossible to put humans in clearly defined categories by race. Racial identity is deeply personal, and artists within any given subgroup define themselves differently. Race, ethnicity, and nationality are all factors artist's individually consider as their personal identity. However, as mentioned previously that is not all that there is to their identity. We know that artists have many layered identities and art educators need to do the research to present them as such.
For the purpose of accessibility, we have attempted to organize artists into 8 subgroups: Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Middle Eastern/North African, Multiracial/Multiethnic, Pacific Islander/SE Asian, and South Asian. Our goal is to use present artists based on how each artist defines themselves in relation to their work. These groupings are not perfect, as humans are not meant to be divided into boxes. We hope this resource can help art educators identify who is missing from their curriculum in order to create a curriculum more representative of the incredible diversity among students and artists today.
A-B
Adam Chau
Asian American
Ayumi Horie
Japanese American (Asian)
Anita Fields
Osage and Muscogee (Indigenous)
April Felipe
American (Latinx)
Arthur Gonzalez
American (Latinx)
Akio Takamori
Japanese-American
(East Asian)
C-D
Christina Erives
Mexican Heritage (Latinx)
Christina Neston
Japanese American (Asian)
Courtney M. Leonard Shinnecock (Indigenous)
Diego Romero
Cochiti Pueblo (Indigenous)
E-F-G
Eun-Ha Paek
Korean (Asian)
Eva Kwong
Chinese American
Gerald A. Brown
American
George Rodriguez
Mexican American
H-I
Habiba El-Sayed
Canadian
Hannah Shaban
Lebanese American
J
Juana Valdes
Cuban (Latinx)
Judith Francisca Baca
American Chicana (Latinx)
Joann Quiñones
(Black, Puerto Rican)
K
Kevin Snipes
American (Black)
Kimmy Cantrell
American (Black)
Kukuli Velarde
Peruvian (Latinx)
L
Ling Chun
Chinese (Asian)
Lourdes Jiménez Mexican American (Latinx)
Luis Avalos Jr.
Linda Nguyen Lopez
American, Vietnamese & Mexican descent
M
Magdalene Odundo
Kenyan, British (Black)
Magdolene Dykstra
Egyptian-Canadian (Middle Eastern)
Malcolm Mobutu Smith
American (Black)
Maria Martinez
Tewa heritage of the San Ildefonso Pueblo (Indigenous)
Marcos Grigorian
Armenian-Iranian (Middle Eastern)
Maya Vivas
Morel Doucet
Haitian American
Monica Garza
Mexican and Korean (multiethnic)
N-O-P
Natalia Arbelaez
Colombian American (Latinx)
Nathan Murray
American (Black)
Paul Andrew Wandless
American (Black)
Paul Briggs
American (Black)
Q-R
Raven Halfmoon Caddo Nation (Indigenous)
Rob Kolhouse
American (Multiracial)
Roberto Lugo
Puerto Rican (Latinx)
Rose B. Simpson
Santa Clara Pueblo (Indigenous)
Roxanne Swentzell
Santa Clara Tewa (Indigenous)
Reniel Del Rosario
Filipino American (South East Asian)
S
Salvador Jiménez-Flores
Mexican (Latinx)
Sharon Norwood
Canadian, Jamaican, American (Black)
Sharif Bey
American
Soe Yu Nwe
Burmese (South East Asian)
Stephen Carter American (Black)
T-U-V
Taili Wu
Taiwanese (South East Asian)
Tera Stockdale
Japanese American (Asian)
Tiffany Thomas
American (Black)
Virgil Ortiz
Cochiti Pueblo (Indigenous)
W-X-Y-Z
Woody De Othello American (Black)
Zipporah Camille Thompson
American (Black)
Discover More
@black_ceramicists
The Color Network: Spotlighting People of Color in the Ceramic Arts
The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts
Asian: a native or inhabitant of Asia, or a person of Asian descent.
BIPOC: Black, Indigenous and People of Color.
Black: of or relating to any of various population groups having dark pigmentation of the skin or ancestry originating in Africa.
Ethnicity: a group of people who identify with one another with similarities such as history, culture, language, ancestry, etc.
Indigenous: ethnic groups who are the original or earliest known inhabitants of an area, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied or colonized the area more recently.
LatinX: a person of Latin origin or descent.
Middle Eastern: a person of Middle Eastern origin or descent.
Multiethnic: of two or more ethnicities.
Multiracial: of two or more races.
Nationality: the status of belonging to a particular nation.
North African: Peoples with origins based in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Western Sahara belonging to a particular nation.
Pacific Islander, or Pasifika, are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. It is a geographic and ethnic/racial term to describe the inhabitants and diaspora of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania. It is not used to describe non-indigenous inhabitants of the Pacific islands.
Person of color: a person who is not white or of European parentage.
Race: a group of people who share cultural elements such as language, history, etc.
South Asian: a person of origin or descent from Southern Asia.
South East Asian: a person of origin or descent from the South Eastern part of Asia