Artshack Brooklyn is a non-profit community ceramics studio. We provide classes, workshops, after school, and memberships for all ages and abilities. Our community programs—such as Scholarships, Community Day, Keepsake Gallery, the Artist Residency program, and free & subsidized classes for Bed Stuy youth and seniors—rely on your support!
See our annual report here
Artshack was originally started by McKendree Key in 2008 as a very small, artist run program offering art classes in her Brooklyn backyard. In 2016, Artshack became a registered 501c-3 non profit organization focusing on ceramics and moved to Bedford Avenue, in Brooklyn. In 2022, Keepsake Gallery was established within Artshack, showcasing works by kids, members of Artshack's community programs and artists in residence.
We are thrilled to announce the launch of Artshack Brooklyn’s Advisory Committee. This new group of artists, educators, and community leaders will bring their expertise and passion to help shape our future and strengthen the impact of our work.
I’ve watched Artshack grow into a vital community space over the years, with my daughter participating in their programs. As a former board member of an independent Montessori school, I focused on increasing access and fostering inclusivity, reflecting my passion for child-centered learning and growth. In my work as a Commercial Real Estate Advisor and Strategic Planner, I help property owners and operators make the most of their spaces. I’m excited to support Artshack’s mission and be part of its continued success.
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Caleb Miller is an Artist and Educator. Brooklyn born, and always having strong family connections to New York City, Miller lived in a few different states as a child before his family settled in Oberlin, Ohio. This exposure helped him to understand the diversity of Black communities. There are infinite ways to be African American and Miller’s work explores the Black experience. Inspired by others' work and stories, Caleb works in many mediums: Ceramics, Photography, Woodworking, Video, and Audio production. He works in different materials because diverse experiences deserve to be expressed in distinct ways. His work encourages conversations about race and promotes new narratives about Blackness in America. The work is made to confront and process racism, both small micro aggressions and larger institutional issues. After graduating from Oberlin College with a B.A. in Visual Arts with a concentration in African American Studies in 2003, Caleb returned to Brooklyn, earned a M.S. Degree in Education from Hunter College, and began teaching and creating art. During the last 20 years Miller has taught in a number of Brooklyn based organizations sharing the joy of self expression through art with children and adults. Caleb currently resides in the East Flatbush with his wife, two daughters, mother, and dog. He has most recently been working on a series in ceramics.
Chris is a studio artist and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1975, and his MFA from Alfred University in 1977. Chris lives and works in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Chris is an American ceramicist and a co-founder of Watershed Center for Ceramic Artsin Maine. Gustin models his work on the human form, which is shown through the shape, color, and size of the pieces. Chris and his wife Nancy have hosted Artshack's woodfire class for the past 3 years and have been supporters of Artshack for even longer. Gustin’s work is published extensively and is represented in numerous public and private collections in this country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Currier Museum of Art, the Crocker Museum of Art, the American Museum of Ceramic Art, and the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art. Internationally, Gustin’s work is in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the World Ceramic Exposition Foundation in Icheon, Korea, the Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taipai, the Museo de Azulejo in Lisbon, and the Shiwan Treasure Pottery Museum in PR, China. With over fifty solo exhibitions, he has exhibited, lectured, and taught workshops in the United States, Caribbean, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He has received two National Endowment for the Arts Artist Fellowships, and four Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowships. He is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and was elected to the American Craft Council College of Fellows in 2016. He was awarded the Masters of the Medium award from the Renwick Alliance in 2017.
Dave Kim is a Korean-American artist based in New York. Kim’s practice is research-based. Through extensive study and labor-intensive apprenticeships under master potters, Kim has mastered the key visual elements—form, surface, color, and material— that define traditional Korean ceramics. He has a specialized focus on the techniques of Sang-gam (inlay), Baek-ja (porcelain-ware), and Bun-cheong (stamps). These techniques were originally developed during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897) and were used to create functional wares for a variety of contexts that ranged from mundane household affairs to ancestral ritual practices to royal ceremonies. Prioritizing refined subtly over ornate embellishments, they signify the distinctive aesthetic philosophy of that time– simplicity as an embodiment of natural and unpretentious beauty. Dave Kim (b. 1985) received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and BA from San Francisco State University. Dave was awarded artist residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Sculpture Space, Dongguk University, Pioneer Works, Shigaraki Cultural Park, and Catwalk Institute. He was also awarded the Andrew & Barbara Choi Family Grant from the AHL Foundation and artist session at Recess Art. His work has been exhibited at venues including: Cantor Art Center, Stanford University; HUB-Robeson Gallery, Penn State University; Museum of Art and Design, NY; Christie’s Inc., NY; Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY; Artist Alliance, NY; Rhode Island College, RI; Kavi Gupta Gallery, IL; the Fashion Institute of Technology, NY; Spring Break Art Show, NY & LA; Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., RISD Museum, RI; American Museum of Ceramic Art, Mills College Art Museum, CA. Dave is currently teaching at Bennington College and Brooklyn College. He is also the director at DOCLAY NYC.
Erica Davis is a Brooklyn school principal at PS 261 who leads with creativity, equity, and a deep commitment to community. Throughout her 25+ years working in public schools, she nurtures both children and adults through learning that is joyful, inclusive, and reflective of many voices. With a lifelong passion for art and music, Erica recently became a student at Artshack, where working with clay is source of inspiration. She brings the same spirit of curiosity and care to her leadership as she does to her art.
Jason Shure is an amateur potter, an Artshack member, and his teen daughter was long-time Artshack summer camper. His recent career work has been in managing non-profit organizations, with particular interest and expertise in mission-driven organizations that earn their income from the general public. He lives in Bed-Stuy, around the corner from the twin Artshack studios. He throws big pots and has a pet tortoise.
Jenny Omabegho is a ceramicist, weaver and Mom living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been shown in galleries including Momenta Art, On Stellar Rays, Postmasters Gallery, Rush Arts Gallery, Frederieke Taylor Gallery, Aljira, Root Division and Visual Arts Gallery. She has been a Director at Richard Salomon Family Foundation for 20 years where she focuses on art & social justice grant making. Jenny serves on the board of Metropolis Ensemble, a music and performance arts nonprofit, as well as serves as a volunteer teaching artist for Intertwine Arts, a nonprofit teaching free-form weaving to people with disabilities or chronic illness.
Kendra Heisler is a Disability Arts Therapist from Brooklyn who works with individuals and groups in day habilitation centers, schools, residencies, and retirement communities across New York City. She is the Executive Director of DreamStreet NYC, a nonprofit performing arts company for adults with developmental disabilities, and collaborates with organizations and artists locally and internationally to expand access to the arts and build more inclusive community landscapes. She has served on the Board for the Downtown Brooklyn Artists Alliance and the Board Advisory Committee for Friends of Karen.
Lena Davis is a longtime Bed-Stuy resident, Artshack instructor, and part of the members’ community since its earliest days. She brings to the Advisory Committee an informed perspective shaped by her deep connection to Artshack. Lena is also an Adjunct Professor at FIT, a mother, and draws on a 25-year career in fashion design.
Marina Garcia-Vasquez is a cultural strategist and communications director. She is a Bedstuy resident and mom of a son who takes great pride in the ceramic pieces he makes at Art Shack summer camp and after-school programming. Dedicated to making the art world a more equitable space, Marina founded Mex and the City, a creative collective devoted to promoting contemporary Mexican identity through art and design. In recent years, Marina’s writing has been devoted to telling impactful stories with Latinx artists. In 2024, she was a resident artist at Pocoapoco, using her time to write about Latina performance artists. She is currently an independent journalist working on Alma Memorial through a residency at New Inc. and publishing an arts and design Substack titled Willflower.
McKendree Key founded Artshack in 2008, and turned Artshack into a nonprofit in 2016. McKendree is a professional artist with over 20 years of teaching experience. She is a native New Yorker and taught art with Studio in a School for 8 years. She has taught workshops at Socrates Sculpture Park , P.S.1, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. She taught art education at Pratt Institute for 3 years. She holds an MFA from Hunter College and a BFA from Colorado College. She studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Scultpure, and has exhibited her work at P.S.1, The Sculpture Center, CUE Art Foundation, The Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, Socrates Sculpture Park, and The Brooklyn Museum, among other venues. In 2023, McKendree founded Keepsake Gallery, a space within Artshack where she leads and exhibits collaborative art projects with community members and kids. photo: Michael Dajour
Alva Calymayor, a visual artist from Mexico City now based in both New York and Mexico City, explores social issues, perceptions of safety, and patterns of mass consumption through her art. Her interdisciplinary approach emphasizes process-driven learning and play, reflecting her role as both an artist and the founder of Art Experimentos. Previously, Alva ran the artist-run space Eyelevel BQE, which was highlighted in Exit Art's "Alternative Histories," curated by Herb Tam - celebrating pioneering alternative art venues in New York. Her work has been featured in notable exhibitions such as Astral America, Chaos/Control, and Harvest the Night, and she has exhibited in both the U.S. and Mexico, including at Casa Maauad in Mexico City and the Spring Break Art Show in New York. Alva’s contributions extend to her role as a mentor in NYFA's Program Mentorship for Immigrants and her involvement in the Bronx Artists in the Marketplace program. Recognized for her non-commercial approach to art, she co-founded Eyelevel BQE in 2008 and has been acknowledged in publications like Interview Magazine and MIT Press. Her innovative printmaking earned her a grant from the Stephen Sprouse Scholarship Fund.
Angeli Rasbury is a self-taught visual, ceramics and textiles artist, award-winning writer, educator and lawyer. Angeli primarily works to evolve conversations about being a Black girl and woman in this world and unsung Black women sheroes. Her journalism has looked at girls in juvenile detention, formerly incarcerated mothers' struggle to reclaim children, and policies behind homelessness and gentrification. Angeli loves providing opportunities for youth to create ceramics, visual art, and poetry; dancing; traveling; and riding her bike.
Anna is a ceramic artist and teacher based out of Brooklyn. Though her first love was photography, once she first touched clay she knew it was something she’d be doing for the rest of her life. Anna has been a working member at Artshack for the last 3 years and is extremely excited to have the chance to help foster this amazing community. Choosing to work mainly with darker clay bodies, she loves to use finishing techniques that celebrate natural, unpredictable textures. She has learned that it’s important to get out of your own way, experiment and allow yourself to love each unexpected outcome. Anna has found so much fulfillment in connecting with community through clay and is excited to continue to share that joy with you all!
McKendree Key founded Artshack in 2008, and turned Artshack into a nonprofit in 2016. McKendree is a professional artist with over 20 years of teaching experience. She is a native New Yorker and taught art with Studio in a School for 8 years. She has taught workshops at Socrates Sculpture Park , P.S.1, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. She taught art education at Pratt Institute for 3 years. She holds an MFA from Hunter College and a BFA from Colorado College. She studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Scultpure, and has exhibited her work at P.S.1, The Sculpture Center, CUE Art Foundation, The Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, Socrates Sculpture Park, and The Brooklyn Museum, among other venues. In 2023, McKendree founded Keepsake Gallery, a space within Artshack where she leads and exhibits collaborative art projects with community members and kids. photo: Michael Dajour
Olivia Bartlett is a Brooklyn based ceramic artist & painter originally from the UK. Her work focuses on the aesthetics, actions, and morality inherent in lived experiences. Drawing inspiration from Abstract Expressionism and the 1960s Funk movement. She has a MA in Ceramics from Cardiff School of Art, and her BFA from Falmouth University in Cornwall, UK.
Alayna Wiley is a ceramicist and an art educator with a passion for cultivating self knowledge through creative expression. As a Teaching Artist for The Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as the Museum of Arts and Design, she identifies artistic concepts within the galleries and translates them into approaches for artmaking in the studio. In her own design practice Alayna focuses on the material languages of clay, paper, textiles, metals, and stone for her collection, ANIMATE OBJECTS. She welcomes you to center yourself as you center the clay!
Caleb Miller is an Artist and Educator. Brooklyn born, and always having strong family connections to New York City, Miller lived in a few different states as a child before his family settled in Oberlin, Ohio. This exposure helped him to understand the diversity of Black communities. There are infinite ways to be African American and Miller’s work explores the Black experience. Inspired by others' work and stories, Caleb works in many mediums: Ceramics, Photography, Woodworking, Video, and Audio production. He works in different materials because diverse experiences deserve to be expressed in distinct ways. His work encourages conversations about race and promotes new narratives about Blackness in America. The work is made to confront and process racism, both small micro aggressions and larger institutional issues. After graduating from Oberlin College with a B.A. in Visual Arts with a concentration in African American Studies in 2003, Caleb returned to Brooklyn, earned a M.S. Degree in Education from Hunter College, and began teaching and creating art. During the last 20 years Miller has taught in a number of Brooklyn based organizations sharing the joy of self expression through art with children and adults. Caleb currently resides in the East Flatbush with his wife, two daughters, mother, and dog. He has most recently been working on a series in ceramics.
Camila Ruiz is a ceramics artist from Montevideo, Uruguay. She obtained her PhD in biochemistry. Camila’s background in chemistry is extremely valuable for creating new glazes for members and students, ensuring the safety of these glazes, and keeping track of Artshack’s stock supply of materials. The glaze making process requires an extensive knowledge of the materials used and the chemistry behind the reactions that occur during the kiln firing process. She is a valuable ceramics instructor that teaches beginner and intermediate students in wheel and hand building. Come take a class with her! You will not regret it.
Carlos Lara is a Mexican born artist currently based in New York City. He is co-founder of the artist-duo SANGREE which he has worked on actively since 2009. During this time he has explored different kinds of media like concrete, paper and stone, mostly oriented towards sculpture. His ceramic work within the collective is influenced by mesoamerican symbolism and observe on the incidence of this cultural heritage in contemporary world. His work has been exhibited in different institutions in Mexico such as Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Museo Tamayo and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Querétaro; and also some institutions in the U.S. like The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Black Cube Nomadic Museum in Denver, and TUFTS University in Medford, among other commercial art galleries in Mexico and abroad. @sangree_oficial @charlara
Cody was a very creative child, and as an adult that creativity and passion for making things has manifested in many ways. Cody has a BS in Product/Graphic Design from North Carolina State College of Design, and currently works as a successful hairstylist here in Brooklyn. Three years ago, Cody became an Artshack student and then went on to become one of our teachers. When not in the salon with his clients, Cody can be found at the studio working on whatever projects he dreams up for himself that week. Cody loves sharing his ceramic knowledge and experience with students in a very casual and approachable way.
Ivan has been a ceramic instructor for the Artshack Brooklyn mission for six years. Ivan has practiced the clay medium on a professional level in shared communities in New York City and Boston, MA. He engages our adult populations with beginner to intermediate classes. He engages our clay healing mission with mostly functional pottery wheel instruction, and some hand-building projects, and events. It is also extremely gratifying for him to be able to engage his mentoring and youth development skills. When leading our partnership with the adolescent population from the Bedford Academy High School. The partnership allows Ivan to introduce and teach the clay medium for 9-12 graders for the neighboring community. When he is not sharing his gift instructing the ceramic arts. Ivan is honing his craft at his studio creating collections of small batch functional pottery. Inspired by his love for nature and sea landscapes . Which is featured on his website and at retail pop-up shops and gallery sales. For small business artisans in Brooklyn and throughout the New York City area.
Lam Thuy Vo has been part of Artshack since 2021 and loves teaching people pottery. She started by being a student at Artshack. She became a working member, teaching classes to mentally disabled adults and assisting with date night before starting to teach 5- and 8-week classes. She is a reporter and data journalism professor most days when she’s not playing with clay
Lena Davis is a longtime Bed-Stuy resident, Artshack instructor, and part of the members’ community since its earliest days. She brings to the Advisory Committee an informed perspective shaped by her deep connection to Artshack. Lena is also an Adjunct Professor at FIT, a mother, and draws on a 25-year career in fashion design.
Octavio is a ceramics artist from Montevideo, Uruguay. As a young boy he was able to get a hand feel of clay while experimenting with different techniques such as Raku, wood firing, Wabi Sabi and others. He started experimenting a bit more with wheel throwing as a young adult and now he has become an instructor for those fresh inquirers of wheel technique needing a methodization structure on how to conquer the unruly wheel. He tries to keep the class fun and dynamic and really delve into the rationalization of how our body and wheel communicate with each other. Come take a class with him! You won't regret it.
Alayna Wiley is a ceramicist and an art educator with a passion for cultivating self knowledge through creative expression. As a Teaching Artist for The Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as the Museum of Arts and Design, she identifies artistic concepts within the galleries and translates them into approaches for artmaking in the studio. In her own design practice Alayna focuses on the material languages of clay, paper, textiles, metals, and stone for her collection, ANIMATE OBJECTS. She welcomes you to center yourself as you center the clay!
Alina Patrick is a photographer, ceramicist, and arts educator living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Alina is a 2023 Risograph Print and Publication Resident at the Penumbra Foundation where she published her first book of photography and poetry in October, 2023. She is also a 2023 Artist in Residence with the Little x Little artist residency program where she collaborated with dancer/choreographer Ameeya Singh to produce a dance adaptation of her book, How to grow una flor en el desierto. Alina's work focuses on land, memory, and intergenerational stories which she explores through a variety of mediums from clay to poetry. Photo credit Shina Peng.
Alva Calymayor, a visual artist from Mexico City now based in both New York and Mexico City, explores social issues, perceptions of safety, and patterns of mass consumption through her art. Her interdisciplinary approach emphasizes process-driven learning and play, reflecting her role as both an artist and the founder of Art Experimentos. Previously, Alva ran the artist-run space Eyelevel BQE, which was highlighted in Exit Art's "Alternative Histories," curated by Herb Tam - celebrating pioneering alternative art venues in New York. Her work has been featured in notable exhibitions such as Astral America, Chaos/Control, and Harvest the Night, and she has exhibited in both the U.S. and Mexico, including at Casa Maauad in Mexico City and the Spring Break Art Show in New York. Alva’s contributions extend to her role as a mentor in NYFA's Program Mentorship for Immigrants and her involvement in the Bronx Artists in the Marketplace program. Recognized for her non-commercial approach to art, she co-founded Eyelevel BQE in 2008 and has been acknowledged in publications like Interview Magazine and MIT Press. Her innovative printmaking earned her a grant from the Stephen Sprouse Scholarship Fund.
Angeli Rasbury is a self-taught visual, ceramics and textiles artist, award-winning writer, educator and lawyer. Angeli primarily works to evolve conversations about being a Black girl and woman in this world and unsung Black women sheroes. Her journalism has looked at girls in juvenile detention, formerly incarcerated mothers' struggle to reclaim children, and policies behind homelessness and gentrification. Angeli loves providing opportunities for youth to create ceramics, visual art, and poetry; dancing; traveling; and riding her bike.
Dana Barnes is a native to South Jamaica, Queens, New York, and a recent masters graduate from Parsons the New School. She is an artist and designer who focuses on enhancing community interaction, particularly in marginalized communities, aiming to provide mental, physical, and emotional relief through craft and design. Working with various mediums such as textile art, painting, ceramics, collaging, floral design, and more, she is deeply interested in the intersection of psychology and the built environment and is driven by a desire to cultivate healthy relationships among individuals, their communities, and their surroundings.
Jess Stocker is an artist based in Brooklyn, whose multifaceted work spans analog photography, ceramics, and performance. By intertwining these mediums, she delves into rich themes of cosmology, mythology, and personal narrative. As an educator, Jess is actively involved in youth programming at Artshack, where she shares her passion for creativity and encourages the next generation of artists. Currently, she is pursuing a graduate degree in therapy at Pratt Institute, which informs her artistic practice and deepens her exploration of the human experience. When she’s not in the studio, Jess brings her energy to the stage as an improv performer.
Whitney's artistic practice combines clay with meditation, yoga, and sound healing, resulting in highly functional, colorful, and playful ceramic pieces. She specializes in handbuilding, a technique that involves shaping clay using methods like pinching, coiling, and slab building, which allows for a wide range of forms and structures. She has been one of our afterschool teachers at Artshack for two years, and we are thrilled that she will be joining us as a summer camp instructor! With a background in early childhood education, Whitney’s teaching approach is play-based, integrating mindfulness and creativity.
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