Stacey Holloway received her MFA from the University of Minnesota in 2009, her BFA from Herron School of Art and Design/IUPUI in 2006, and has been living and working in
Birmingham, Alabama since 2013. She currently serves as the Associate Professor of Sculpture
at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In addition to teaching, Holloway is an active
national mixed media artist, sculptor, and fabricator that works within a variety of media including drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, and interactivity. Through the exploration of storytelling and ethology, she creates work that communicate a universal societal connectivity. Holloway has received distinguished awards such as the 2021 Visual Arts Fellowship through
the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the 2017 SECAC Artist’s Fellowship, and the 2010
Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship through the Central Indiana Community Foundation
in Indianapolis.

Stacey Rathert is an artist originally from the “way outs” of Kansas, also known as the small farming community of Lancaster. Rathert received her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Science in Education in 2011 from Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas. She then made an epic U-Haul voyage to the south to receive her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Mississippi, Oxford, in 2015. Currently, Rathert is an Instructional Associate Professor at the University of Mississippi in Sculpture. Working in a variety of scales, Rathert creates artwork that tells exaggerated and embellished stories centered on themes of personal and place identity as well as her upbringing on a farm. She uses recognizable imagery to illustrate her narratives, elevating the mundane through alteration. The dualities of rural life contribute to the conceptual development of her work, and visual characteristics of the Midwestern landscape and architecture are apparent in the aesthetic features. Relating to the performance of exhaustive storytelling, she is most drawn to materials that require meticulous methods to transform, such as cast metals and forged steel. In addition, the materials she uses relate to childhood pastimes, including fabricated steel, reclaimed wood, dirt, and fabrics.

Outside of her academic and artistic endeavors Rathert enjoys a good, medium rare KC Strip with a side of carbs, butter, and garlic, quilting, adding to her collection of over 100 antique irons, sourdough, hikes with her cattle dog Mabel, yoga, escapes to the farm, restoring antiques, taking the long way home, and moving heavy stuff, over and over again.

Virginia Elliott is a sculptor, weaver, and mold maker, whose process-driven practice primarily centers around handwoven textiles and cast iron. She received her BFA from the University of Cincinnati and has worked with a number of production studios, art non-profit programs, and sculpture parks in the south and midwest including Rookwood Pottery, Josephine Sculpture Park, Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum, and Mid-south Sculpture Alliance. In 2021 Elliott completed a Visiting Artist Residency at Sloss Furnaces, where she now serves as the Metal Arts Director.

Cecelia Moseley is a multidisciplinary artist from Meridian, Mississippi, whose work explores language through material and form. She earned her BFA in Sculpture from the University of Mississippi in 2020 and her MFA from Louisiana State University in 2024. Now based in Birmingham, AL, she creates dynamic installations that examine language, perception, and cognitive experience. Over the past five years, Moseley’s public installations and permanent sculptures have been featured across the region in Meridian, Oxford, Cleveland, and Hattiesburg, MS; Rosemary Beach, FL; Alpharetta and Macon, GA; and Decatur, IN. She works with a diverse range of materials—including metal, acrylic, paper, ceramics, styrofoam, light, and vinyl—using them to visually articulate the nuances of language and understanding.

Gary is an interdisciplinary artist who has spent most of his life in and around Philadelphia, PA. His artistic journey began at Delaware County Community College and blossomed further at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). He was first introduced to the foundry while attending PAFA, and since then, casting and moldmaking has become a cornerstone of his artistic and professional practice. Upon graduating, he worked as a craftsperson and foundry worker. Gary dedicated five years to Stratton Sculpture Studios, a fine art bronze foundry. He has successfully completed commissions, both independently and
collaboratively, in various mediums as a former member of the artist collective, Philadelphia Traction Company. From 2023-2025, he held the position of Foundry Apprentice at the
Metal Museum in Memphis, TN. All the while he has maintained his personal artistic practice, participating in multiple shows and workshops. Currently, he is based in Philadelphia and is focusing on broadening skillsets, deepening expertise, and expanding community. In the spring of 2026, Gary will return to the Metal Museum, assuming the role of Foundry Manager.

Emma Quintana is the Digital Fabrication Coordinator and Professor at the University of Tampa. She holds an MFA in Sculpture from Penn State University and an MEd from Portland State University in Higher Art Education, researching equity within traditional 3D and Digital Art Studio environments. Quintana’s studio and pedagogy combines critical and professional practice, collaborative social engagement, and transdisciplinary exploration. She recently contributed to Materials and Processes: Turning Points; Pedagogies in Studio Art Education, which was published through the Columbia University Press. Quintana worked as an ornamental iron worker before attending grad school and she often combines digital and traditional making. Her immersive sculptural interactive AI installation was recently included in the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale and demonstrates her fascination with space, material, and technology, 

Gabrielle Egnater (she/her) is an artist and educator working in Grand Rapids, MI. She has exhibited at venues including the University of Albany, HTW Berlin University of Applied Sciences, and Spertus Institute. Gabrielle received her BFA in Sculpture and Visual Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA in the Sculpture Dimensional Studies Program at Alfred University. Her previous positions include Instructor of Record at Alfred University and Lecturer at California State University San Marcos. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in Sculpture and 3D Foundations at Grand Valley State University. 

Jackie Fischer born & raised on Long Island challenges the conventional idea of "The American Dream" through her diverse range of sculptures & installations. Her work manifests itself in the form of playful & whimsical sculptures featuring tongue-in-cheek dark humor. Fischer received her BFA from Alfred University in 2018 where she studied ceramics, foundry, and psychology. Presently located in the Catskills,  Fischer works full-time as a Sales Manager & Marketing Director for a ceramic equipment manufacturer. After hours she teaches ceramic sculpture part-time at two non-profits in the Hudson Valley. Fischer has held a handful of artist residencies including Salem Art Works, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Chesterwood, Berkshire Art Center & soon Women's Studio Workshop. While she doesn't currently have access to a foundry she recently picked up silversmithing & started casting silver in her home studio.

Originally from San Diego, California, Kayle Hatfield is a Minneapolis-based sculptor. She earned a BFA and a BA in psychology from Alfred University in 2024. She is currently working as a program assistant at NE Sculpture | Gallery Factory and a gallery installer at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Outside of work, she is an emerging mixed media artist who works primarily in cast metal and ceramics. Kayle’s work explores the idea of play inside the gallery space, inviting her viewers to engage with her work tactilely and playfully. She hopes to pursue her MFA in the future to push the limits of her current practice. 

Sam Horowitz is a futurist, mad scientist, and Assistant Professor at Rowan University. Horowitz has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the US, and earned degrees from Alfred University (MFA, ‘20) and Bard College (BA, ‘10). Horowitz has held a number of artist residencies, including stays at Salem Art Works (NY), on Governors Island (NYC),  and at Sloss Furnaces (AL), where he also served as Union Shop Steward. He has been teaching for RISD’s Continuing Education Department since 2023.

Within Horowitz’s work, concepts of geology, state change, and philosophy merge to question perspective and identity. In order to allow intrinsic and native qualities of a given material to surface within a piece, he employs aleatoric and iterative processes. Through alchemical translation and community action, he presents possible futures, connects current trends, and fabricates past histories. These refractions are intended to provoke change, and to assist in broadening our perspectives.

Misa Yo was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. She is a current BFA student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago focusing on sculpture with an anticipated graduation date of May 2025. Yo is an interdisciplinary artist who mainly works in cast iron and bronze, ceramics, and fibers, as well as glass, metal, neon, and fashion. She pushes the boundaries of materiality and creates interactive installations that make people smile. Yo sees the beauty in how time and audience experience completes the artwork as a whole. She plans to pursue an MFA to further explore the connection art can make in different communities and collaborate
with different industries and age groups. She participated in several group exhibitions throughout the past few years and had her first solo exhibition in 2019 Soho Art Education
Center in Taipei. Her most recent solo exhibition is at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago this November. Outside of the studio, she enjoys skiing, electric unicycling, and trapeze. Misa loves the foundry family and is excited to take on the role of Co-Deputy Director of Exhibitions for NCCCIAP 2025.

Leticia R. Bajuyo is a sculptor and Associate Professor of Sculpture at the University of Oklahoma School of Visual Arts in Norman. She earned a BFA from the University of Notre Dame and an MFA from the University of Tennessee. Her studio practice includes cast iron, steel fabrication, drawing on salvaged wood, and large-scale installation, with frequent use of reclaimed CDs and DVDs and other industrial and architectural materials.

Recent projects and exhibitions (2025) include the ArtNow biennial at Oklahoma Contemporary (Oklahoma City), an installation at Spectrum Theater (Grand Rapids, Michigan), an installation at the Muscarelle Museum of Art (Williamsburg, Virginia), and a permanent public commission in Fort Worth, Texas. Her work spans intimate sculptural objects through immersive environments and public artworks.

Bajuyo’s professional service includes board leadership and committee work that supports artists and arts organizations. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Mid-South Sculpture Alliance and Inclusion in Art in Oklahoma, and she is Chair of the Visual Arts discipline for YoungArts based in Miami, Florida. She is also involved in collaborative and community-based initiatives including 24 Hours of Wonder (co-founder), Project Vortex, and Land Report Collective. 

Michał Staszczak (born 1979) – a graduate of sculpture at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław (Poland). Diploma in 2005 in the studio of prof. Leon Podsiadły, an annex from a small sculptural form in the studio of prof. Jacek Dworski. Since 2006, he has been employed at his alma mater, where he currently runs a foundry studio. In 2019, he obtained the title of associate professor. In 2016-2020, head of the Department of Sculpting Techniques at the Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. From 2020-2025, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation and Promotion of the Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. Founder and co-organizer of the Festival of High Temperatures. He conducts workshops and foundry demonstrations, builds outdoor furnaces for melting bronze, aluminum and cast iron. He creates assemblage sculptures, bas-reliefs and installations which are cast from metal. In the creative process, he also uses 3D design and printing technology. He takes part in numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad.

Mary Beck Rodee was born and raised just north of Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated with a BFA from Kennesaw State University in 2021 with a sculpture concentration, focusing mainly on foundry, metal work, and ceramics. After completing her degree, she went on to work for several local artists. She currently works as the Studio Coordinator at her alma mater.

website: https://www.andrewfernandez.com/

Kelly Wilton is a sculptor born and raised in Tempe, Arizona where she received her BFA at Arizona State University.  Exploring the ideas of inferred memory through objects and their relation to the idea of home, Wilton creates multi-layered installations using cast metal, found objects, plastics, kinetic work, video and sound.  She has shown in numerous galleries nationally and internationally, including Phoenix, Rochester, Brooklyn, London, Latvia, Scotland, and China. Wilton received her Master of Fine Arts degree at Rochester Institute of Technology and is currently an Instructional Support Specialist and Adjunct Faculty for the School of Fine Arts and American Crafts.  Her dedication to foundry and iron casting continues as she is now the Foundry Professor at RIT and has brought her own students to their first NCCCIAP conference in 2025, a conference she’s been regularly attending and participating in since 2015.

Holly Kelly earned her M.F.A. from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2019 and her B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art in 2013. She is the Woodshop Coordinator for the Art, Film, and Visual Studies Department at Harvard University. Kelly has worked multiple creative jobs, including bronze foundry, artist studio assistant, artist office assistant, studio manager, fabricator, and art installer. All of it has influenced her studio practice and research. Her artwork explores ordinary and mundane objects and space. She transforms, documents, and presents these everyday things from a different or altered perspective. Kelly has shown work across the United States and received recognition from the International Sculpture Center and Mid-South Sculpture Alliance.

Selené Huff is a visual artist based in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada (Treaty 6 and 7 Territory: the ancestral home of the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy), Tsuut'ina, Stoney Nakoda, Cree, Saulteaux, and Métis peoples). Huff’s sculptures transform industrial detritus into abstract forms that evoke the female body and embodied experience. A former aerospace welder, Huff holds a Journeyperson’s ticket in welding from NAIT (2016) and earned her MFA in Sculpture from the University of Alberta in 2020. Drawing on her technical background and artistic training, Huff’s creative research explores the
intersections of industrial labor, material memory, and the physical form. Utilizing salvaged steel
sourced from Albertan scrap yards, she employs forging, casting and fabrication techniques to produce biomorphic sculptures that interrogate assumptions around strength, femininity, and materiality. Her work challenges the boundaries between body and object, creating tactile, abstract forms that reflect the resilience and complexity of lived experience.
Huff currently serves as a Sculpture Instructor and Visual Arts Technician at Red Deer Polytechnic and has previously taught sculpture courses at both Red Deer Polytechnic and the University of Alberta. She has exhibited her work across Alberta and in the United States. She has contributed to public art projects as a technician and assistant in both Canada and the UK.

Dave Matson was introduced to the art of casting metals at Sloss Furnaces while earning a BA from UAB around the turn of the millennium. He happily remains a student of the process to this day. He has also worked in the architectural metal restoration and preservation industry, working on many high-profile landmarks around the country. This led to him being invited to participate as a guest lecturer at Columbia University. His love of the community atmosphere and the spirit of collaboration has had a tremendous impact on his dedication to the medium. “I love to see what other artists are working on and I am always amazed at the new ideas people want to bring into the world. Being an artist is often exploring the relationship with yourself but it does not have to be a solitary pursuit. I find it very fulfilling to witness the development of creatives. We lift each other up, it gives me hope.” 

Claire Brunet is a sculptor and Associate Professor in the Sculpture/Installation program at OCAD University. She also supervises students in the Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design (IAMD) and Digital Futures (DF) graduate programs. Brunet holds a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the Special Individualized Program (SIP) at Concordia University in Montreal. Her research explores expanded spatial boundaries and the influence of a 3D digital and technological context on the artist’s creative process in sculpture practice. Brunet’s sculpture projects propose temporal forces that highlight the opposing values at work in hypermodern society—a 3D digital and technological spatial approach as a mode of production, and a critical discourse on living species and their relationship to their environment.

AWXEL ( She / They ) is a Trans Fem non-binary Latinx Transdisciplinary sculptor, educator, organizer, and performance artist. She often works with themes of family ancestry, Latinx diaspora, ceremonial aesthetics, knowledge de-centralization, gender expression, and Queerness. In their performative work, AWXEL moonlights as a Drag Performer under the guise of ‘AMOR KERIDA’. As one of the few drag artists consistently performing in Stilts, they host a show called RUN X HYDE, showcasing local Punk/Hardcore bands, and alternative drag artists such as themselves. While currently based and working in Chicago, AWXEL grew up in Queens (NYC) and came to this country when they were 7 years old. In Iron, AWXEL specializes in multi-deca-parted, directly carved Sand Molds. Their research intently makes space for play by ‘shattering’/further carving floating cores and improvising self- gating systems in order to make a place for the welcomed unexpected gifts of the ‘miscast’. AWXEL has been the recipient of REMET’s Shaping the Future Award in Foundry in conjunction with receiving their BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has also been awarded the St. Gaudens Medal for Draftsmanship in NYC. Having exhibited and done multiple residencies in places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, Boyds Station and the Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum.

Christyn Overstake is a multi-disciplinary artist. They work primarily in metal foundry and fabrication processes, producing an evolving series of experimental, conceptual objects. Overstake also works in installation, digital media, and printmaking, and has an ongoing collaboration with their spouse exploring biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. Their background as a certified welder/fabricator in manufacturing informs their material and process decisions, as well as their conceptual and philosophical frameworks. Their work explores themes related to work, labor, place and impermanence, nature and ecology, and the impacts of labor on the biosphere. They received a BFA in sculpture from Northern Arizona
University, and MFA in sculpture from Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi. They are currently Assistant Professor of Art at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, and they serve on the Board of Directors of the Mid-South Sculpture Alliance. Their work has been shown and collected in galleries, museums, and public sculpture walks across the United States and internationally.

Brighton McCormick is a sculptor, arts educator, and community organizer based in South Minneapolis, MN. Their interdisciplinary practice spans sculpture, installation, community-engaged projects, and public art primarily utilizing metalworking and reinterpreted found objects. Furniture, everyday household items, and “transitional” technologies such as out-dated telephones, trace how American life trains people to communicate, consume, and remember. Through casting, rebuilding, or recontextualizing, McCormick turns the domestic and familiar into a study of how identity is assembled in plain sight through family stories, media noise, and societal norms. The work appears like an afterimage or a strange recurring dream, familiar enough to feel personal, but unstable enough to prompt questions of what we inherited, what we were sold, and what we learned to call normal. McCormick holds a BFA from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Washington. They are currently an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Hamline University and teach metal arts at the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center, where they serve as Foundry Department Lead and organize community iron pours. McCormick is the founder of Fire Press Library and contributes to arts organizations nationally through board and committee service. Their work has been exhibited nationally, including at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, the Burke Museum of Natural History, Franconia Sculpture Park, Sloss Metal Arts, and the Henry Art Gallery.