Debra Sloan
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Debra Sloan first took pottery classes when she was 16 leading her to a lifetime working with clay. After traveling for a year from 1972, she started in a self-directed apprenticeship from 1973 to 1979 where she managed a pottery school. She then attended the Vancouver School of Art from 1979 to 1982, and later attained her BFA from ECUAD in 2005. By the mid 1980’s, she started a family and now has four adult children and five grandchildren. Throughout the decades, she maintained a studio practice, taught clay sculpture classes, served on provincial craft boards, adjudicated, presented talks, published essays on ceramics, and has been collecting and writing about the 100-year ceramic history in BC.
Debra’s work is exhibited and held in collections, regionally, nationally, and internationally. She has received provincial, national and international grants and awards, and attended international residencies, including most recently, in 2019, a residency at Shigaraki, Japan, supported by a Canada Council grant.
Emerging from the Covid-years, in 2022 she participated in a collaboration with the Craft Council of BC (CCBC) and the Joe Ink Dance Company for a successful theatrical Dance/Craft production. Additionally very significantly, during 2022, the CCBC digitized her BC Ceramic Mark Registry, Debra’s compilation of over 500 BC ceramic marks, along with artist profiles.
Debra Sloan has served as President of the North-West Ceramics Foundation since 2018, which in 2023 will celebrate its 30th anniversary.