Paul Briggs ’92 M.S.Ed., assistant professor of ceramics, is featured in the Winter 2025 issue of American Craft magazine, the last time the publication is being offered in print form.
American Craft magazine is published by the American Craft Council. Briggs’ work is included in an article titled “Musings in Clay,” which notes that the artist’s pinched formed vessels continue to evolve. “Paul S. Briggs has a saying he is fond of repeating, whether to his friends, students, or at the end of his emails: ‘Chase the muse!’ That simple phrase—exclamation point obligatory—has been a guiding principle for the Alfred, New York–based ceramist, whose journey in clay has been long and wandering, yet never without focus and intention,” the article states.
“Surveying Briggs’s body of work, one can immediately glean the breadth of his musings. They range from undulating natural forms such as leaves and flowers expressed in airy and delicately pinched vessels, to more philosophical or political explorations of power dynamics, concretized through abstract slab sculptures.”
Briggs says in the article, “You can only get to the place you have your focus on by working, working, working. That dream that you have? If it’s gonna be realized, it’s gonna be realized by chasing the muse.”
A member of the faculty in Alfred University’s School of Art and Design since 2023, Briggs earned a master’s degree in art education/ceramics from Alfred in 1992. He also has a bachelor’s degree in education/ceramics from the City College of New York (1986), a master’s degree in rabbinic literature from Oral Roberts University (1991), a PhD in art education/educational theory and policy from Pennsylvania State University (1995), and an M.F.A. in ceramics from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (2016).