Elaine Henry – 2020 Brinton 101

Elaine Olafson Henry is a ceramics artist, curator, writer, and local volunteer. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wyoming in 1992 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1995. She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts degree in English at the University of Wyoming where her thesis topic is “Comparative Rhetorical Analyses of Contemporary Fine Art Criticism and Contemporary Ceramics Criticism.”

Henry taught at Emporia State University in Kansas from 1996 through 2007 where she served as the Chair of the Department of Art from 2000 through 2007. During that time, the number of art majors increased from 90 to 175 and the department attained its first accreditation through the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

She served as the President of the International Ceramics Magazine Editors Association (ICMEA) 2014–2016 and the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) 2002–2004, where she served on the board for 10 years. She is currently a Fellow of NCECA and a Lifetime Member of ICMEA.

Henry is the former Editor and Publisher of the international ceramics journals Ceramics: Art & Perception and Ceramics TECHNICAL. As such, she increased the critical discourse in ceramics by working through professional writers and critics to procure articles and reviews.

She has curated and juried national and international exhibitions in Taiwan, Italy, Latvia, Germany, the US as well as others. Henry has lectured, demonstrated, and taken part in residencies in more than 10 countries, including Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Latvia, China, Taiwan, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, Hungary, Wales and the US. Her work is internationally published, exhibited and collected. Henry is an elected member of the International Academy of Ceramics, regularly providing her editing skills for their translated documents.