We are fortunate to have two excellent jurors for the Festival this year. They will be reviewing the artist's booths and you will get to hear their decisions announced from the main stage. Good luck artists!

Harris Deller received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1973. He has been awarded gold medals in the Ceramic Competition in Mino, Japan, and in the Internazionale Della Ceramica D’Arte, Faenza, Italy. International exhibitions include Seoul, Helsinki, Paris, Germany, Warsaw, Lausanne, and Moscow. Solo exhibitions include the Garth Clark Gallery in Los Angeles, the Esther Saks Gallery in Chicago, and the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. Group exhibitions include the Everson Museum of Art, the International New Art Forms Exhibition in Chicago, and the Museum of Art and Design in New York.

Deller’s work is represented in collections including the Cranbrook Museum, the Everson Museum, the Philip Morris Corporation, the Shigaraki Museum, and the Museum of Art and Design in New York. He has received Artists Fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, Arts Midwest, a regional NEA, and a Fulbright Fellowship to Korea. Professor Deller was elected a Fellow to the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts in 1992.

Professor Deller received the NCECA Excellence in Teaching Award for his outstanding contributions to education in the field of ceramics. The presentation was made during the opening ceremonies of the annual NCECA Conference, March 19, 2008 in Pittsburgh, PA. He is also featured in an article written by Glen R. Brown, "Harris Deller: Made in China," in the January 2008 issue of Ceramics Monthly.
Additionally, his work, "Suppressed Teapot," was included in the exhibition and permanent collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. October 27, 2007-January 13, 2008, deYoung Museum, San Francisco. A catalog of the exhibition is available from the Museum Store.

J. Barry Motes is a Professor of Art and Head of the Art Department at Jefferson Community & Technical College in Louisville, Kentucky. He has participated nationally in more than 100 juried and group exhibitions including the Red Clay Survey at the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama, the LaGrange National at the LaGrange Museum of Art in Georgia, and is currently exhibiting in the Texas National at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Motes has won more than two-dozen awards for his art and teaching, including the Schrodt Award for Excellence at the 2011 Water Tower Regional, Best in Show at the 2010 Bluegrass Biennial, and three artist development grants plus an Al Smith Visual Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council. He has mounted 32 one or two-person shows, the most recent at Swanson Reed Contemporary Gallery in Louisville.

Motes received BA and MA degrees in art from Morehead State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in drawing/painting from the University of Tennessee –Knoxville. For more information, visit his website is www.jbmotesart.com.