Robin Williams-Turnage

Robin Williams Turnage (Resilience Will Triumph) has been invited to participate in an artist residency from June 15-30, 2024 in Ghana, led by Ghanaian Master Potters and Winnie Owens-Heart, a cultural researcher and ceramic artist with an expertise in global clay traditions. The two week residency will take place at a pottery village in Ghana called Kuli, where ancient pottery techniques are practiced by older women who have no heirs to pass them on to. With changes in cultural practices that have resulted in women of younger generations moving to major cities for economic opportunity, Robin wants to learn these techniques and share them with her communities upon her return, so they are not lost forever. 

The WOO Grant will cover airfare to Ghana.

Robin Williams-Turnage is a potter, specializing in traditional Nigerian and Ghanaian pottery techniques. Currently, wood firing ceramics is the missing link in her technical abilities as a ceramic artist. Robin has been awarded the Bill May Scholarship, which will cover half the cost of tuition to attend a class in wood fire ceramics at the Arrowmont School of Art in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a two week residency, running from October 21-November 4, 2023. This opportunity will allow Robin to expand her artistic and technical scope in clay, as well as broaden her approach to social change, cultural preservation, and community healing.

The WOO Grant will help cover the remaining tuition and the cost of supplies, as well as travel to Gatlinburg for the course.

Robin Williams-Turnage (ACG '11) will attend the National Conference of Educators and Ceramic Artists (NCECA), which provides professional support to ceramic artists from all over the world. In response to the lack of diversity at NCECA, Robin will document and archive the work of Potters of Color attending NCECA through a podcast.

This grant will support Robin in upgrading her current technical equipment to record, produce, and host the podcast in time for the annual NCECA conference in March 2021.

Robin will facilitate a silkscreen and ceramics arts program for co-victims of domestic homicide in the Philadelphia area. Her program goals are to foster support toward people who have suffered from any form of domestic violence by allowing them access to a program that seeks to support them directly and in a creative way. Robin will help each individual participant recognize how their art processes and continued contribution to society is important to their personal healing and to the healing of those around them. Each participant will get to choose between silk screening on fabric or ceramics. Participants will produce handmade art objects that will later be exhibited to show their talents in their personal redemptive processes.