History

In 1979, Fr. Michael Blecker, then president of Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, invited Richard Bresnahan to return to his alma mater to build a pottery program adapting Japanese techniques and incorporating indigenous materials. A student of the arts at Saint John's University, Richard studied pottery from 1972 to 1975 under Bill Smith and Sister Johanna Becker, OSB, a distinguished scholar of Japanese art and a ceramic specialist. Upon his graduation, Sr. Johanna arranged an apprenticeship for Richard with Nakazato Takashi Pottery in Japan, where the Nakazato family has been producing pottery for 13 generations. After completing his apprenticeship, Richard was named a "master potter" by his teacher Nakazato Takashi, the son of Nakazato Tarōuemon XII (Muan) a National Living Treasure of Japan.

Richard has distinguished himself as a renown potter in the United States as well, in part due to his unique style and innovative pottery process. Over the years, Richard's work has been featured in numerous publications including: Arts, the magazine for members of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; The Studio Potter; the Utne Reader; Minnesota Monthly; and Cargill News. Photography of Richard’s work from a show at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is also featured in a recently published book of poetry by Jerome Freeman entitled Starting from Here. On Earth Day 1996, Richard received the 1996 Earth Day Award from the Upper Midwest Network of Business for Social Responsibility.

Indigenous Materials

Over the past 27 years, Richard Bresnahan has developed the only university program in the United States to fully integrate local and recycled resources with the art experience. All of the primary materials used in the pottery process -- clay, glazes and fuel -- come from local sources. In 1979 Richard identified a major clay deposit (an abandoned road bed at a nearby glacial ridge) that yielded 18 thousand tons of clay for use in the pottery program. A few years later (1984), a kaolinite deposit (the foundation of making porcelains) was discovered as a waste material at the Meridian Aggregates Company of St. Cloud. This material was also given to Saint John's. Together, these two deposits are large enough to last for 300 years, ensuring an ample supply of clay for generations to come.

The glazes used to decorate Saint John's pottery also come from indigenous materials. These glaze materials include ashes from flax straw, navy bean straw, wheat straw, sunflower hulls, wood ash and pink quartzite dusts. The wood burning kilns at Saint John's have also been fueled by local materials -- dead fall from the Saint John's woods and waste wood from local wood products companies.