Emily Free Wilson - Free Ceramics
Emily Free Wilson is an artist, potter and entrepreneur. She is the owner of Free Ceramics and Director of the Oregon Coast School of Art. She was born in Anchorage, Alaska and grew up in Roseburg, Oregon. In college, she received a running scholarship and a BFA in ceramics and sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After college Emily moved to Helena, Montana for an internship and worked with other galleries and museums until she acquired a position as Gallery Director at the Archie Bray Foundation, which she worked for over 10 years. In 2009, with her husband Matt Wilson and her brother Bobby Free, she started her pottery business Free Ceramics. In 2015 Emily left the Bray to work full time with her husband in their studio and art center. Emily and Matt had converted a funeral home into an art center, creating a space for the community to gather, concerts to be enjoyed and 9 multi-media artists to have private studios.
Emily has received grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Montana Arts Association and the Myrna Loy Art Center. She has given a TedX Talk in Helena, Montana. She has shared her work and story as a USA visiting artist at the Ceramics Ireland International Festival in Kilkenny, Ireland as well as at Saddleback College, Pottery Northwest and Jackson Art Association.