About Bozeman Community Kiln

As Director of Operations and Co-Owner of Bozeman Community Kiln, Heather oversees many of the systems that keep BCK running, from retail and supplier relationships to gallery operations and community art sales.

Heather joined the early planning and development of BCK after moving to Bozeman in 2017. She brought a strong background in leadership, organization, merchandising, and logistics, having advanced from a seasonal part-time retail position to General Manager within a year. From the beginning, those skills played a central role in helping turn the studio from concept into reality.

Today, Heather oversees BCK’s pottery shop and manages the wholesale relationships behind the tools, merchandise, glazes, and specialty clays the studio carries. She also curates work for the BCK gallery and serves as the primary coordinator between BCK and the artists participating in community exhibitions and sales, managing the artwork and logistics needed to bring each show together.

Heather is especially passionate about glazing and has developed a deep working knowledge of the commercial glaze lines offered through BCK. She regularly tests products and combinations to understand their behavior and intentionally applies that knowledge to her own ceramic work. Her glaze research also helps guide which products BCK chooses to carry.

Since BCK opened, Heather has become an accomplished ceramic educator, bringing patience, practical knowledge, and strong problem-solving skills to her teaching. Her creative interests extend beyond clay; Heather is a fiction writer and continues to value storytelling as a quieter part of her creative practice.

As the Director of Education for Bozeman Community Kiln, Megan brings extensive experience as a ceramic artist, educator, curriculum developer, and engineer to the continued development of BCK’s educational programming.

Megan holds an MFA from Montana State University and a BFA from the University of Minnesota Duluth. She began her teaching career at Montana State University, where she taught art foundations and ceramics and developed course curricula. She later brought that experience to BCK, helping develop both beginner and advanced ceramics classes for the community.

Megan’s work with BCK has helped shape the structure and progression of the studio’s ceramic education. Her combination of technical ceramic knowledge and teaching experience allows her to approach curriculum with an understanding of both how materials behave and how students build skills over time.

Her experience extends well beyond the studio. Megan has taught beginning ceramics at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and her ceramic work has been shown in juried, solo, and collaborative exhibitions and sold through galleries in Montana and the Midwest.

Megan currently works in Wisconsin as a project analyst with Kohler Company’s Vitreous Support and Advanced Development Engineering team, where she applies many of the same strengths that inform her work in ceramic education: technical problem-solving, product development, experimentation, and clear communication.

As Founder and Director of Bozeman Community Kiln, Ashleah leads the studio’s vision, operations, ceramic programming, and community development. Her work focuses on building a welcoming studio culture where people can learn, create, connect, and grow through shared experiences with clay.

Ashleah earned a BFA in Ceramics from Montana State University in 2020 and completed an accelerated vocational nursing program at Maric College in 2004. In 2005, she became licensed as a vocational nurse and spent more than a decade working across geriatrics, psychiatric care, pediatrics, and home health. Her background in caregiving, military family life, and supporting a household shaped by trauma continues to influence the way she approaches leadership, teaching, and community-building.

In 2019, Ashleah partnered with longtime friend and fellow military spouse Heather to bring Bozeman Community Kiln from concept into operation. Since then, she has helped shape BCK’s educational programming, membership structure, studio culture, and broader vision for community-centered ceramics.

Ashleah has extensive experience teaching ceramics to children, older adults, and people with a wide range of learning needs. Her teaching emphasizes curiosity, process, mentorship, and confidence over perfection, with a focus on helping students develop both technical skills and an individual relationship with clay.

In her own studio practice, Ashleah explores the relationship between subconscious emotional memory and creative expression. She views art not only as a finished object, but as a process that can foster presence, self-awareness, resilience, and human connection; values that remain central to both her artwork and her leadership at BCK.