Art Alumna Opens Pottery Studio

Audrey Jaccard ’08 is realizing her dreams of becoming a successful artist. She has a BFA in Studio Art from Converse, a degree she took very seriously as a student and one she had high aspirations of achieving. “Converse taught me to strive for what I want and to work hard to get there,” says Jaccard. Her hard work is paying off. Jaccard’s passion for working with ceramics and art has led her to open her own pottery studio in Knoxville, TN. Her converted, basement garage space furnishes studio art equipment, such as a slop sink, a slab roller, working tables, cabinets, and an extruder. Jaccard says she never would have learned how to run a studio or teach pottery lessons if it had not been for Professor David Zacharias, who Jaccard credits as her mentor. At Converse, she also enjoyed working with Professor Andrew Blanchard, who taught her to be a note-taker while being a visionary, which is important to Jaccard. She isn’t losing sight of her future goals. “One day I want to open a fully functioning art studio and gallery equipped with all the big machines, like kilns, wheels, and print making presses,” she says. “I want to reach out to emerging artists and people who want to learn pottery, printmaking, canvas building, and other artistic elements.”