Ellen Kleckner

Ellen Kleckner (she/her) is an artist and educator living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her artistic practice weaves together community engagement, material investigation, and collaboration. She studied Ceramics at the Appalachian Center for Craft (BFA) and Ohio University (MFA). Ellen is the Executive Director of the Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio, a non-profit community art center.

Ellen employs play and collusion paired with traditional practice to create new forms in collaborations with a community of makers. These forms investigate that which is commonplace through explorations of form and texture.  

Her work continually investigates connections. Connections between place, material, idea, legacy and community. Drawn from a familiar vocabulary of makers, she joins materials to create forms that provoke the agencies of their utility, calling into question which is commonplace or recognizable through explorations of form, composition and materials.

Ellen has exhibited nationally and internationally including shows at KVALITRA Gallery,  Arrowmont School of Craft, Baltimore Jewelry Center, Gilded Pear Gallery, Mezinarodni Muzeum Keramiky, and Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.  She has received numerous awards and grants to support her craft research, including support from the Iowa Arts Council and National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts.