Kansas City Art Institute is a four year college of arts and design in Kansas City, Missouri. KCAI offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, in which a comprehensive liberal arts program is complemented, in 14 programs including ceramics, fiber, and printmaking. Ken Ferguson served as the chairman of the ceramics department from 1964 to 1996. Many prominent and influential figures in contemporary ceramic arts have graduated from the ceramics program.
Born out of dynamic faculty and a history of creative excellence, the ceramics major concentrates practical ability with technology and artistic flair, using clay and, increasingly, glass as the major materials of study. Alongside the development of vessels and built objects, there is a critical emphasis on the historical and theoretical underpinnings of the major. Within the department, students have access to a significant collection of ceramic pieces that are used as examples of best practice. Graduates of the program go on to distinguished graduate programs or become studio ceramicists in their own right.
