Turner Center for the Arts Ceramics Instructor Ramiro Santillan teaches five beginner-friendly Weekday Pottery Classes each week, including Mondays 10am-Noon and 6-8pm, Tuesdays 6-8pm, and Wednesday 10am-Noon and 6-8pm. In addition to his work at the Turner Center, Santillan was also a ceramics instructor for the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program in 2024. He expressed how art classes offer students at all levels, including beginners, a needed space to create things and cultivate community.

Santillan discovered his love for art and creativity at a young age while working on school projects with his family. He began spending hours on projects that were only meant to take minutes when a creative element was involved, and he soon found that he couldn’t see himself pursuing any career path that didn’t involve creating. He attended Valdosta State University as an art major, and it was while pursuing his degree that Santillan took his first sculpture class and fell in love with ceramics. While he works to diversify his talents through painting and drawing, Santillan said that he chose to continue to pursue ceramics “not just for the challenges it presents, but for the people it attracts….I am primarily a potter, and can’t keep my hands away from clay for too long.” His professors inspired him to teach, and he loves sharing art with anyone interested in learning.

Santillan has been teaching pottery classes at the Turner Center for two years. Students from all experience levels, including beginners, choose one of five available class times to attend for four weeks consecutively. The classes begin with an introduction into the world of clay and ceramics methods and are student-specific from start to finish. Each student develops ideas for what they wish to create, and Santillan workshops with them to turn their ideas into a reality. He said that along the way, students become friends with their classmates, and they even enjoy an occasional class birthday party.

Santillan said that while he will always consider himself a student of arts because there is so much to learn and explore, he has learned to “take on the mantle of artist.” He works to make something every day, even if it’s just a sketch, and usually sets a weekly quota of pieces he wants to start or develop further. Santillan regularly shows his work in the Turner Center’s annual juried Spring into Art Exhibition, where he won first place in the highly competitive painting category in 2023. The work of Santillan and his students was featured in the Turner Center’s 2024 Annual Glass and Ceramic Invitational Exhibition. A large public art mural painted by Santillan and fellow ceramic artist and Turner Center Instructor Taylor Nalley is featured on the east side of the Richard Hill Glass Studio, located on the Turner Center Campus.

Santillan believes that the arts have a lot to teach us in life, and works to teach his students to make art without fear, saying “The worst thing that can happen in pottery is a broken pot – and every broken pot is a lesson in “how-not-to-make-a-pot,” or an opportunity for discovery. Having a pot at the end of the day is secondary to the journey of making and learning – sometimes the “ruined” pots lead to the next big idea!” He described how he aims to offer students a needed space to create things, explore ideas, and cultivate community in his classes, saying “It’s my way to break bread and share my craft with my community.”

To learn more about Weekday Pottery Classes and many other opportunities to explore the arts at the Turner Center, visit turnercenter.org, or contact Art Education Administrator Hailey Rathmann at hrathmann@turnercenter.org or 229.247.2787.