Sculpting the Future
Goleta’s Clay Studio reaches beyond Southern California
Various 3D-printed ceramic objects. All by Lynda Weinman.
Written by Lorie Dewhirst Porter | Photographs by Bruce Heavin
“We’ve been really focused on local all this time. We can still serve our community, but we also believe it would be a really amazing experience to come from far away and be able to study here.”
For the past three years, the nonprofit Clay Studio in Goleta has been a local community hub for creatives who love the ceramic arts. The 24,000-square-foot facility boasts a state-of-the art ceramics studio, a 3D clay printer, potter’s wheels, kilns, and plenty of room to work. Current programming includes weekly classes, workshops, artist’s talks, and gallery exhibitions.
But there’s more. Clay Studio is getting ready for the future, with a new executive director and gallery coordinator, Matt Mitros. An artist in his own right, Mitros spent the past 16 years in academia, teaching ceramics at the university level. His decision to relocate to California from Illinois to lead Clay Studio was initiated and encouraged by philanthropist Lynda Weinman, who had attended a 3D clay-printing workshop taught by Mitros.
3D-printed ceramic vase. 3D-printed kinetic totem. All by Lynda Weinman.
Weinman, who cofounded the online learning platform Lynda.com, helped launch Clay Studio in 2020 and sensed from the start that it could become a global resource for creative exploration and design.
Meta flower vase with various glazes
3D-printed brick designed to deflect heat on the outside and retain heat on the inside. Created by M.I.T. students at Clay Studio.
“We’ve been really focused on local all this time,” Weinman says. “We can still serve our community, but we also believe it would be a really amazing experience to come from far away and be able to study here.”
To that end, Mitros plans to feature intensive workshops lasting several days, taught by renowned experts from all over the world and open to local as well as national and international participants. New equipment will be added—3D printers for clay and plastic—and the curriculum will be expanded to include emerging fabrication technologies.
“We want to be a place where we can say, ‘What do you want to do? We have a solution for you, and we welcome your ideas,’” says Mitros.
Cactus vase with various glazes and luster. 3D-printed weavzy object. All by Lynda Weinman.
In reality, some of this vision has already been happening in the Clay Studio’s warehouse-like space, where students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology have spent the past two summers working on-site. Their doctoral program, called Programmable Mud, resulted in fabrication of a brick that can deflect heat on the outside and retain heat on the inside, potentially a huge game changer for the global construction industry. “It could become the Central Coast Bauhaus,” Mitros concludes, referring to the Clay Studio, “with people sharing ideas.”
