Mary Callahan Baumstark is a teacher, writer, critic, researcher, historian, and ceramicist with her MA in Contemporary Art, Design, and New Media Art Histories from OCAD University.

Born and raised in the mountains of Montana, Baumstark received her B.F.A. with an emphasis in Ceramics in 2013 from the University of Montana. Before continuing to the CADN masters program, she spent a year as an intern and assistant at the Clay Studio of Missoula. Mary’s master thesis, “Ceramic Craftivism: Activism and Resistance in Contemporary Clay,” focused on the intersections of ceramics, craftivism, and feminism in contemporary cultural production examining the efficacy of craftivism through performative and socially engaged ceramics. She is interested in contemporary craft history, the intersections between craft and new media, and the performative and communal exchanges that occur in craftivist projects.

In 2016, Mary completed her Masters work, moved back to Montana, and became the adjunct faculty member in art history at the University of Montana Western in Dillon, MT. You can look for her writing online at CFile, as well as on her own website, www.bonedrybodies.com. Future projects include the “Social Objects,” exhibition and text, a collaboration between c3 in Portland and the SECC at NCECA 2017, new publications, and a trip to Toronto to present at the Nouveau Reach conference about luxury and ceramics in May 2017.