Ackland Events

TOUR: A Closer Look at “Radical Clay”
2025-08-28 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-08-27 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-08-24 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-08-23 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-08-22 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-08-17 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-08-10 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-08-08 13:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) and 7 more dates | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at small handful of artworks in Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view at the Museum. This is a free event; no registration required.

Artist Conversation: Radical Ceramicists in North Carolina
2025-08-27 18:00 - 19:30
This program is now FULL. To be added to our WAITLIST, please email acklandRSVP@unc.edu.

Join us for a lively artist conversation exploring themes of experimentation, materiality, and process in the work of North Carolina-based ceramic artists Jessica Dupuis (UNC-Pembroke; MFA ’10), Hitomi Shibata (Studio Touya, Seagrove, NC), and Isys Hennigar (BFA ’17) in the context of the innovative works by contemporary Japanese women artists on view in Radical Clay. The conversation will be moderated by the Ackland’s Head of Interpretive Resources Lillian Rodriguez, part of the Museum’s Education and Interpretation Team.

Space is limited; please register for a free ticket below!

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About Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan

Radical Clay celebrates thirty-six contemporary ceramic artists — all women — represented by works selected from the private collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz. All have explored the technical and conceptual possibilities of clay. The works in this exhibition are inventive and expressive, at times mysterious or even shocking. The artists who created them are among the most technically accomplished contemporary ceramists. Some began their careers several decades ago while others started more recently — and over the past fifty years they have, each in her distinctive way, produced sculpture that pushes the physical limits of the medium. More about Radical Clay: https://ackland.org/exhibition/radical-clay-contemporary-women-artists-from-japan/.

About the Artists

Jessica Dupuis received her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her BFA with a concentration in ceramics and print media from Alfred University. Dupuis exhibits her work regionally and nationally. She has been a resident artist at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and Women’s Studio Workshop as well as a recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award and an Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artists Grant from the Durham Arts Council. She is an Associate Professor of Art – Ceramics & A.D. Gallery Director at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. More about Dupuis: https://www.jessicadupuis.com/.

Isys Hennigar‘s work explores myth and narrative surrounding the body and the natural world. Referencing agricultural practice, mythology, and medicine, the work considers systems of sustenance and healing, cultural and ecological legacies of land cultivation, and dualities of the body. In dialogue with clay’s metaphorical relationship to the body, as well as with histories of metal adornment and objects of protection, her work invokes real and reimagined ecological encounters that underscore transformation and hybridity as tools of renewal. Hennigar received her BFA from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and her MFA from the University of Georgia. Exhibitions of her work include Signature Contemporary Craft (Atlanta, GA), Sow & Tailor Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), The American Museum of Ceramics (Pomona, CA), and the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, NC). She is currently in residence as the 2025 Brightwork Fellow at Anchorlight in Raleigh, NC. More about Hennigar: https://www.isyshennigar.com/.

Hitomi Shibata creates ceramic works from natural clays, using wood firing in her process, giving them a sustainable energy and life. Shibata started learning ceramic art in Okayama, Japan as a college student, and after graduation moved to Shigaraki which is one of the oldest Japanese pottery towns. She lived and established her skill and knowledge as a professional potter in Shigaraki. Shibata received a scholarship by Rotary International to come to the USA to learn American ceramics in 2001. Now living in Seagrove, North Carolina, which is the most active pottery communities in USA, she enjoys making pots in her studio. Shibata does wood firings with her husband, Takuro Shibata by their Anagama plus chamber kiln that they built in 2009. More about Shibata: https://www.studiotouya.com/hitomi-shibata.

TOUR: A Closer Look at Radical Clay
2025-08-16 13:00 - 13:30

TOUR: A Closer Look at the Collection
2025-08-15 13:00 - 13:30
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at a handful of artworks. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at, and new perspectives on, works on view at the Museum. This is a free event; no registration required.

TOUR: A Closer Look at the Collection
2025-08-09 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-08-03 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-08-02 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-07-20 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-07-19 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-07-18 13:00 - 13:30
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at a small handful of artworks. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view at the Museum. This is a free event; no registration required.

Drawing in the Galleries
2025-08-09 10:00 - 12:00, 2025-07-12 10:00 - 12:00
Join us for our popular Drawing in the Galleries program this month during Studio Saturday! Amanda Hughes leads participants in a creative exploration of a particular object in the Ackland’s collection. Participants all draw from one object using their own gallery-safe materials (paper/notebooks and dry media like crayons and pencils), then discuss what they’ve noticed through the process of drawing. All levels are welcome.

2nd Friday ArtWalk: Opening Reception for “Jen Clay: Soft Night, Watching”
2025-08-08 17:00 - 21:00
Join the Ackland in celebrating the newest installation in our ART& space, Jen Clay: Soft Night, Watching, on view from August 8, 2025, through July 12, 2026.
Soft Night, Watching, is an interactive quilted installation that invites viewers to experience an evening forest scene filled with uncanny forms and figures. Artist Jen Clay (American, born 1985) utilizes the tactile properties of her hand-dyed cotton, satin, velvet, and polyester minky fabric to create art that welcomes physical handling. Into these textiles, she constructs flaps that hide ambiguous phrases like “You’ll always be mine,” and “It will never be like this again” – statements that can seem optimistic or menacing. Clay combines the soft textures, the text, and the not-quite-familiar forms to inspire both comfort and unease.
Clay uses the strangeness of an archetypal forest as a metaphor for the sense of unfamiliarity and disorientation that can accompany mental health experiences such as hallucinations. She writes, “I aim to confront and understand fear and anxiety, both for myself and others. My work allows individuals to touch, hear, and immerse themselves in a safe space to experience uncertainty.”
During the 2nd Friday ArtWalk, we will be celebrating with drinks and snacks. Clay will be onsite to talk with attendees, as well as make some informal remarks and answer the crowd’s questions about her artwork around 7PM.
Join us for an evening honoring Jen Clay and welcoming the installation to our community.
RSVP is required. Each person RSVPing may claim a drink ticket (non-alcoholic or alcoholic); ID will be checked at the bar.

Art Adventures (Afternoon Session)
2025-07-12 13:00 - 14:30
This event is SOLD OUT.

In this art-inspired, hands-on art-making class for six- to nine-year-olds, participants will create their own artwork inspired by the art in the Ackland’s collection.
Space is limited; registration required. Free for Ackland Members at the Household Level and above; $5 per child for all others.

Art Adventures (Morning Session)
2025-07-12 10:30 - 12:00

2nd Friday ArtWalk: Create Your Own "Radical" Clay Sculpture
2025-07-11 17:30 - 21:00
Spend a summer evening creating your own “radical” clay sculpture during this month’s 2nd Friday ArtWalk inspired by the Ackland’s new exhibition Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan.
Relax on the Ackland’s front Terrace during this drop-in experimental clay workshop led by local ceramic artist Betsy Vaden. The event is free, all ages, and all materials will be provided. The Museum will be open until 9 p.m. to see the exhibition and more.
