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The Ceramics Studio at Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media: Audra Clayton: Studio Arts Manager

April 06, 2025

The Ceramics Studio at Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media:

Audra Clayton: Studio Arts Manager

“Ceramics is a thriving art-making community here,” says Studio Arts Manager Audra Clayton of the Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media in the city’s Shadyside neighborhood. For over three quarters of a decade, this renowned institution has been synonymous with art in Pittsburgh, offering instruction, encouragement, and support to novices and professionals in a wide range of media. What began in the 1940s as the Arts and Craft Center and re-imaged in the 1980s to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts is now the Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media in the 21^st century, embracing new technologies along with the old. One of many programs at PCA&M, the Ceramics Studio has been a stalwart occupant of the basement workspaces and a staunch component of the institution through its many transitions.

Clayton, a ceramicist, came to PCA&M over ten years ago as an intern in the Ceramics Studio and worked her way through positions as an instructor, technician, and studio coordinator before being appointed Studio Arts Manager in 2023. She studied Arts Education and Making at Pennsylvania State University, focusing on programs in community spaces and finds PCA&M to be a perfect fit for her interests.

Clayton oversees the ceramics internship program that marked her beginnings at the center. “Making my own work and facilitating the work of others is my goal,” she explains. PCA&M’s Ceramics Studio offers five internship positions, employs seven instructors, and supports an Artist-in-Residence each year. Clayton guides the interns, working with them to clarify monthly goals that include their artistic projects and tasks that help with the operation of the studio. Clayton likes to solidify these objectives on worksheets. “You can’t beat paper and pencil!” she exclaims. Though she says her goal is “to try to take care of everybody all the time,” she adds that the studio takes care of her. “We have a caring community,” she explains. “Young people graduate from college with an art degree, they need an internship, they come here, and they start to build confidence not only in their work but in the friendships that begin to develop.” A reciprocal relationship of sharing and learning defines the community that this year includes interns from North Carolina, Montana and Baltimore, as well as the Pittsburgh area.

The Ceramics Studio offers an array of classes throughout the academic year and joins with PCA&M artists in a very popular children’s day camp in the summer. Currently, there are six multi-week ceramics classes in session, with at least eight special subject workshops on the calendar. Clayton describes the curriculum in two categories: Come Make a Thing and Come Learn How to Make Things. She describes a large uptick in students over the last few years. With the pandemic radically changing the work model, the work-at-home trend leaves a void in human contact. Clayton says, “We have seen an interesting shift in our students. I think people are looking for a replacement for their co-workers. They need a consistent, enjoyable place to ‘hang-out’ with others. Like co-workers, classmates aren’t necessarily good friends – though they can become that – but they fulfill a need for social interaction that the pandemic took away.”

With the class schedule full and productive, Clayton is seeing a growth in the studios Membership Program. As students or other potters become more dedicated, they begin to look for a supportive place to work. With a waiting list of over a year, The Membership Program helps 60 artists, with a space to work, kiln use, and studio time.

With all this activity in clay, Clayton finds inspiration for her own work. “I am a functional potter,” she says, “but I have added using throwing techniques to create sculptural works to my practice.” She uses the soda kiln at the center and is grateful to be invited to join firings at a dear friend’s wood kiln outside of the city. She occasionally teaches one of the studio classes. She recently was a resident at New Harmony Clay Project. She is a presenter at this year’s NCECA conference in Salt Lake City with her paper, Saying Yes to Community Projects. “I am eager,” she says, “to encourage others to do what we are accomplishing here.”

Clayton has joined the Board of a new non-profit, ClayPittsburgh, that aims to support artists through education, exhibitions, and retail opportunities. The group has an exhibition through March 31, entitled Neighbors, in conjunction with Ceramics Take Over Wheeling and has another in the works for this summer. Anything But a Mug will debut June 15 at Standard Clay’s ClayPlace@Standard in Carnegie outside of Pittsburgh.

Clayton is excited about all the upcoming goings-on at the center. The Spring Market launches on the front lawn on May 3, with many PCA&M artists selling a large variety of works in many media in booths. The PCA&M Ceramics interns will have a shared tent to display and sell their work. The annual Summer Art Camps Program will flood the campus with children ranging in age from six to eighteen, followed by the end-of-summer Yart Sale and the end-of-year Winter Market. This caretaker of interns, instructors, residents, students, and artists has indeed found the home where making, facilitating, and building community abound.