OCTOBER 18, 2017

INTAKE                2:00 - 4:00 PM
JURYING             4:00 - 5:00 PM

PUBLIC JUROR LECTURE 5 - 5:45 PM

World-renowned Kenyan-British artist, Magdalene Anyango Namakhiya Odundo, OBE, was born in Nairobi in 1950 and received her early education in India and Kenya. She studied Graphic Arts at the Nairobi Polytechnic in Kenya and the Cambridge College of Art in the U.K. She changed her focus to ceramics while studying for her BA at West Surrey College of Art and Design (now University for the Creative Arts). She subsequently received an MA from the Royal College of Art in London. Following her university studies, Magdalene Odundo pursued field research in traditional hand-building techniques in Nigeria, Kenya, and New Mexico. She then taught at the Commonwealth Institute in London from 1976 to 1979, at the Royal College of Art in London from 1979 to 1982, and was subsequently appointed as Professor of Ceramics at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, England, from which she recently retired. 

In 2008, Ms. Odundo was awarded the African Art Recognition Award by Detroit Art Institute and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) at Queen Elizabeth’s birthday. In 2014, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Florida and an honorary award from the University for the Arts in London in 2016. Odundo’s work can be found in major museums and private collections worldwide.