Scott McClellan: The Studios He Built

This is the final post in a three-part series on Scott McClellan, head of ceramics at the Seattle Artist League. The first post looked at the grounded physicality of his pots; the second, at the structures—musical, material, and cultural—that shape his thinking. Now we turn to the studio he built: how his quiet pragmatism and clear decisions shaped a ceramics program that makes room for difference and stays open to change.

Built from Clay

Scott McClellan earned his BFA in ceramics from Utah State University, then worked as a studio tech at Edinboro University before completing a long-term residency at Taos Clay. He went on to earn an MFA from the University of Missouri, with a minor in sculpture, followed by a two-year wood-fire residency at the Clay Studio of Missoula, where he conducted most of the glaze research that would shape his later work.

McClellan designed and built the ceramics program at the Seattle Artist League, where he now teaches and serves as head of ceramics. His teaching is clear and pragmatic. His professional practices class includes a demonstration where he boxes a pot and throws it across the room—to show the packing works. There is no performance, only proof.

The Studios He Built

McClellan’s work reflects the values at the Seattle Artist League: process over polish, presence over perfection, curiosity over certainty. Like the school he helped shape, his work invites attention, encourages variation, and holds space for uncertainty.

It’s an ethos of attention, adaptation, and making that stays responsive—always adjusting, never formulaic. It leans into friction. It finds structure in process and honesty in imperfection

McClellan doesn’t teach students to throw like he does. He built a space where they can throw how they want—with attention, with edge, without apology. What he shaped at the League isn’t a style. It’s a studio built for staying in motion.

---

Stay tuned—there’s one more post on the way, marking a major milestone for the League’s ceramics studio and the community it’s grown.