Creating Community Through Clay
Meet our Team
The Staunton Clayground Staff & Instructors
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Cary Dahl
FOUNDER & DIRECTOR
Cary believes strongly that pottery is about community, and it has been her dream for many years to a create just such a community right here where she lives, in Staunton, Virginia. A place where people can come together to create, exchange ideas and grow as artists and as friends. Hand-building is her preferred way to play with clay. She teaches classes and workshops on this aspect of the craft.
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Jennifer Delare
STUDIO MANAGER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
The only thing Jennifer loves more than finding new ways to explore her craft is sharing that experience with others, so when Cary invited her to be a part of this community-focused studio, she was over the moon. She is still working to improve her skill, and focuses mainly on throwing on the wheel, though she loves experimenting with all kinds of surface decoration techniques and enjoys hand building as well. She teaches classes and workshops.
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Nicole Hill
INSTRUCTOR
Since taking her first college ceramics course, Nicole has been hooked on creating with clay. She truly believes ceramics gave her the courage in herself to create whatever she could think up. Through both hand building and wheel throwing, Nicole has explored, taught, and sold ceramics, and she is always ready for the next creative challenge.
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Brooke Fawley
INSTRUCTOR
Brooke has a rich background in teaching ceramics. She has taught art in schools for over 20 years, to all ages, including high school ceramics. She has taught art in three states, Virginia, Colorado, and New York, where she also worked creating ceramic pieces for Artyard Studio. Clay is central to her multimedia approach to creating. For Brooke, the spark and privilege of teaching is in helping others connect with the joy of creating and seeing others launch their ideas into the creative process. -
Janly Jaggard
GUEST INSTRUCTOR
While Janly’s formal art training (both B.A. and M.F.A.) was in England, the Shenandoah Valley has been beneficiary of her teaching since 1993. She has taught pottery, vitreous enamel, drawing and painting, both privately and at the Beverley Street Studio School. Staunton Clayground is delighted to welcome her as an instructor of classes and workshops in coiling and slab building. Her breadth of experience and knowledge will contribute to students’ experiences and understanding of the medium.
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Calling experienced potters and clay artists of all kinds!
We are actively growing our team! We are looking for regular teachers, guest instructors and studio technicians. We plan to offer long-running classes, one-day or weekend workshops and more. If you’re interested, please get in touch with your ideas and availability. We’d love to hear about your work and see some pictures, too! We look forward to hearing from you.
Cary Dahl
Founder & Director
Cary comes from a long line of oil painters, and indeed, portrait painting was Cary’s first love. After a handbuilding class with Janly Jaggard and Jim Hanger, however, Cary became drawn to pottery for its tactile qualities and the camaraderie of the community studio. Phil Unger and Liz Beaver at Blue Ridge Community College became her teachers over the next several years, fostering her fascination with texture and form.
Years of service at church and on nonprofit boards, both local and international (including The Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge, Stuart Hall School, and EVACE International) have focused Cary’s attention on Staunton as a community. She believes that the joy of creating together is a great way to foster closer connections among our residents, both new and old.
When her hands are not covered in clay, Cary loves hiking, biking, reading, traveling and learning French. She has a wonderful husband, Allen, and three children who never cease to amaze and surprise her; Hannah teaches English as a Second Language at VCU, Oliver remodels and repurposes historic buildings in Staunton, and Sophie is a budding anthropologist focusing on post-Soviet cultures.
Jennifer Delare
Studio Manager & Creative Director
Jennifer has always been interested in ceramics, taking her first slab and hand-building class in Italy when she was just a teenager. In Florence, where she went to high school, she fell in love with art and art history. She later attended art school in Milan. A few years later, while living in New York City, she expanded her skill to include the pottery wheel. After some time away from pottery, she rediscovered her passion for clay during lockdown, and she hasn’t looked back.
Jennifer has spent her adult life living on and off in the US and Italy, where she worked for many years as an English teacher. She decided to settle down on this side of the ocean several years ago. After a few years in Philadelphia, she and her husband, Ben, another former globe-trotting English teacher, decided to move somewhere with a slower pace and a lot more green, which is how they ended up in Staunton. When she’s not getting her hands dirty at the clay studio, Jennifer works as an Italian-language translator. She also enjoys cooking, reading, writing, sewing and the great outdoors.
Nicole Hill
Instructor
Nicole’s ceramics journey started at the University of Northern Colorado. Through the Art Education program she centered her focus around ceramics and took a total of seven ceramic courses. Following university she dove head first into teaching art, starting with being an elementary school art teacher for four years in Colorado, and then an upper elementary school art teacher for three years in Charlottesville. Nicole is currently working part time at Stuart Hall Schools as a dorm parent, sub, and study hall proctor as she creates ceramics to sell at local fairs. Her professional art career is just getting started. She is very proud of her accomplishments of participating in her first fair, Staunton’s Art in the Park, in 2023, and completing her first commissioned set of work for local Trinity Church.
When Nicole is not teaching or creating, she spends time with her husband Justin and their three dogs Halo, Paisley, and Cal. She loves to rollerblade around Gypsy Hill Park, to read fantasy adventure novels, and finding great food to eat and cook.
Brooke Fawley
Instructor
“Seeing a mug being used every day by a loved one who lives far away during a Zoom call or a bowl that I made full of beautiful berries at a gathering for the community is such a wonderful feeling. I can be there for loved ones in some way.”
Creating functional pottery has been a wonderful experience for Brooke, but she also enjoys using clay sculpture in whimsical multimedia projects. She loves how messy, transformative and long the process of working with clay can be. Each piece has an extra-long relationship with its artist from start to finish. Like so many of the things in life we spend time with, the relationship and time creating a ceramic work of art creates opportunities for experiencing transformation, building friendships, healing, wonderful excitement, and is always a journey, from blob of clay to sparkling vessel.
“As far as hobbies go, I am very dedicated to teaching and looking forward to creating a mural at my school this summer. Traveling, gardening and good food all delight me.”
Janly Jaggard
Guest Instructor
Born in Suffolk, England, Janly received a diploma of Art & Design in Ceramics at Art College for Foundation Studies at West of England College of Art in Bristol, later earning a Master’s Degree in Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts. She has been teaching various mediums, including pottery, vitreous enamel, drawing and painting, since moving to the Shenandoah Valley in 1993. Janly exhibits her painting and enamel work both nationally and internationally and has worked as a judge at several regional art exhibitions. She has regularly been accepted to participate in artist residency programs, including at the prestigious Pocosin Art Center in North Carolina and the Virginia Center of Creative Arts.
Janly has taught ceramics, painting and vitreous enameling at the Beverley Street Studio School. Staunton Clayground is delighted to welcome her as an instructor of classes and workshops in hand building, focusing on coiling and slab building techniques. She adds a depth and breadth of art understanding and technique that will benefit students and other teachers alike. Likewise, Janly appreciates her role as a teacher in making her a better student, learning from so many different sources about the significance and importance of the Arts in this increasingly de-personalized world.
While practicing her art, Janly investigates the technical differences that occur between the mediums she uses. Creative processes and materiality are the focus of her work.