Staff
Our Studio Managers
Meet the Ceramics department's studio managers, whose knowledge and expertise contribute to the daily operations and success of our world-class facilities.
Bowie Croisant
Assistant Director of Ceramics Facilities
Bowie Croisant investigates ideas relating to a tension between intent and intuition. This plays out through an examination of making, materials, and processes. Any individual action, form, or mark that occurs within the studio may be subjected to extraction and elevation.
Predispositions, material phenomena, and subconscious actions and moments (particularly those that may be commonly overlooked) within the studio are curated and aestheticized. The work is informed by a background in ceramics, and oscillates between sculpture and painting, raising questions about artistic/object production.
Croisant earned an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2014, and currently lives and works in Chicago, IL, where he is the assistant director of Ceramics Facilities and part-time lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Bowie’s work has been featured in numerous domestic exhibitions and several international exhibitions. Croisant’s work is held in many private collections as well as by the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.
Felix Horan
Ceramics Floating Manager
Felix Horan is a Chicago-based technician with a focus on digital ceramics, ceramic history, and material science. His practice is focused on direct pathing of ceramic 3D printers as well as digital modeling for mold making and slipcasting. He earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute and studied at Santa Monica Community College.
Ranch Ward
Instructional Resource and Facilities Manager of Ceramics
Rachel “Ranch” Ward is a ceramic artist based in Chicago, IL. Their work explores themes of the female body in all of its expressions. They often treat their ceramic vessels as canvases to illustrate bodies in perpetual motion, moving together. Aside from their personal practice and facility manager position, Ranch also works as a production potter, kiln technician, and instructor. They currently teach Advanced Throwing at Lillstreet Art Center. Ranch earned their BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020.
