Artist Samantha Purze is from Michiana Shores, IN. She received a BFA in Ceramics from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and completed a two-year Ceramics Post Baccalaureate Program at Indiana University Southeast. Sam began her professional career in 2016 when she kickstarted a community ceramics studio for The Dunes Art Foundation called “The Clay Cabin” and worked as their studio manager, technician, and instructor for 4 years. She has been teaching ceramics classes and co-managing the ceramics studio for the Art Barn School of Art in Porter, Indiana since 2019 and is now also a ceramics instructor at the Roti Roti Art Center of Buchanan, Michigan.

As of this year Sam has exhibited her own work in sixteen US states and maintains permanent gallery representation at at Graci Gallery in Marquette, MI, Wildfire Ceramics Studio in Missoula, MT, New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art in Edwardsville, IN, The Art Barn School of Art in Porter, IN, and Riverside Pottery Studio in Cape Girardeau, MO. She is passionate about providing artistic opportunities to her community through non-profit art organizations and many of her work experiences depict her involvement in such. Sam’s professional objective is to educate, popularize, and demonstrate the ceramic arts while developing her own work through continued studio practice.