2025 Great Lakes Cup Show

Celebrate the cup and the potters of the Great Lakes region.

Yourist Studio Gallery hosts The Great Lakes Cup Show, a juried exhibition presenting diverse forms, colors, textures, imagery, and techniques of Great Lakes ceramics via the cup.

The gallery was packed during the Great Lakes Cup Show opening reception as visitors admired the cups by juried and invited artists. At the conclusion of the reception, Alex Pratt received the Best in Show Award from Rose Gomez.

Other award winners include:

Second Place
Mike Stumbras

Third Place
Natalie Liu

Honorable Mention
Darcy Bowden
Barbara Piper

Voting for the People's Choice Award remains open and will continue throughout the show, which runs through November 15. The recipient will be announced when the show ends.

Exhibition Hours
October 24, 2025-November 15, 2025
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays
12:00-6:00 pm

The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Sneak peek at juried artists' cups.

Our judges have chosen cups by these outstanding Great Lakes ceramic artists to appear in the show:

Ceramic cups are small objects with a big impact, and making cups presents potters with a unique challenge. As the most intimate of pottery ware, cups must be pleasing to the user's lip, hand, and eye. Cups must also serve their utilitarian purpose of being comfortable to hold and drink from. Come see how our juried artists have incorporated these qualities in their cups while realizing their own individual artistic visions of the cup.

Collage of invited artists' cups, clockwise from top left: Charlotte Grenier, Elliott Kayser, Kenyon Hansen, and Brian Westrick.

These outstanding potters are joining the Great Lakes Cup Show as invited artists. We are pleased to announce the addition of Elliott Kayser to our roster of invited artists.

Charlotte Grenier describes herself as a functional potter who "explores form and surface to create objects that accentuate food and actively participate in our daily life." Her most recent body of work focuses on "constructing patterned surfaces reminiscent of nostalgic textiles."

Kenyon Hansen is a full-time studio potter and educator in the Keweenaw Peninsula who creates "utilitarian objects that enrich the quotidian experience" and "are generated and inspired by the everyday experience, patchwork quilts, structure and patterns found in nature." He soda fires his pieces, which he makes of porcelain and stoneware clays.

Elliott Kayser is a full-time studio artist who has "always had a passion for sculpting animals." His current body of work is an exploration of zoomorphic vessels with "a playful balance between utility and decoration." Kayser says of his work: "More than anything, I have fun making these pots. I make myself laugh, and want to share these moments with friends."

Tom Phardel is a sculptor who works primarily in clay and an Emeritus Professor of Craft and Material Studies, College for Creative Studies in Detroit, where he served as teacher and chair of ceramics for thirty years. His work has been praised as "notable for its sense of mystery, spirituality, and devoted connection to the natural world."

Brian Westrick is a Michigan functional potter, who received his BFA in Fine Arts from Grand Valley State University in 2012 and later earned his MFA in Ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2018. Westrick's work has been nationally collected and is featured in numerous private and public collections throughout the United States. He won the 2025 Potters Guild Joan Otis Award for best potter in the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, The Original.

The three panelists on the Great Lakes Cup Show jury are established, respected ceramic artists and teachers. We are pleased to introduce them to you.

Brigitte Lang achieved the distinction of "Master Craftsperson" in Ceramics, the highest professional qualification in Germany, requiring practical and theoretical expertise in the field. Lang has worked in ceramics for over 25 years, learning, studying, teaching, and producing signature works of functional ware.

John Leyland is retired from his position as Ceramics Studio Coordinator at the University of Michigan. Leyland also served on the adjunct faculty of the College for Creative Studies, where he taught wheel-based classes as well as some hand-building and sculpture classes in the Ceramics Department. He received an MFA from Miami University.

Kay Yourist is the owner of Yourist Studio Gallery. Soon after graduating from Bowling Green State University with a degree in Fine Arts, Ceramics, Kay opened her own pottery studio in Ann Arbor. That studio has since grown to incorporate an exhibition gallery, a pottery shop with tools and supplies for potters, and an extensive calendar of pottery classes covering all aspects of pottery making.