Winnie Owens-Hart

Winnie Owens-Hart (born 1949) is an American ceramist and sculptor.

Life
Born in Washington, D.C., Owens-Hart received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree from Howard University.

She has exhibited in many solo and group shows, both in the United States and abroad. She has been a visiting artist at the University of Ife, now known as Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria, the Penland School of Crafts, and the McColl Center for Visual Art, Sierra Nevada College, and artist-in-resident at Pewabic Pottery, Baltimore Clay Works, Watershed, North Edgecomb, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

Among museums which hold examples of her work is the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution; she has created public artwork for Arlington County, Virginia, and has worked at the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. She has received an Individual Craftsman Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently, Owens-Hart teaches at Howard University.

Owens-Hart first came to Nigeria during the FESTAC events, together with Jeff Donaldson, Nelson Stevens,and other African American artists representing the United States. After the FESTAC event, Owens-Hart obtained a fellowship to return to Nigeria. She joined the faculty of the University of Ife as a ceramic artist. During her tenure at Ile Ife, she met the artist Agboola Folarin, who took her to the indigenous pot makers at Ipetumodu, a small town near Ile Ife, which was then famous for handbuilt pottery. It was at that pottery village that she worked with indigenous women potters to whom she apprenticed herself, and learned the skills of building pots with indigenous pottery techniques and open-air firing.

The immigration process made it impossible for her to remain in Nigeria, and she returned to the United States, where she joined the art department of Howard University, under the chairmanship of Jeff Donaldson.

She set up a ceramic studio in Virginia, where she made monumental ceramic pieces. She later returned to Ghana to work with indigenous potters. She has become an important community member among the indigenous women potters in Ghana.

Honors and awards

 * Honorary Board Member, Renwick Museum, Smithsonian Institution
 * Lifetime Achievement in the Craft Arts Award, Renwick Fellow, Smithsonian Institution
 * Fellow, Smithsonian Institution Faculty Research Program
 * National Endowment for the Arts – Individual Craftsmen Fellowship, 1978