Master Artist Apprentice Program virtual exhibition runs Oct. 3-Nov. 28
Craft Master Artist Apprentice Program (MAAP) Virtual Exhibition
October 3, 2025–November 28, 2025
Master and Apprentice Online Artist Talk
Craft MAAP participants discuss their experiences in the program. Join us!
October 21 at 11am Central/12pm Eastern
RSVP HERE
By Krishna Adams, Director of Visual Arts –
Celebrating its 16th year, the Master Artist Apprentice Program (MAAP) is a cooperative partnership between the Tennessee Arts Commission and Tennessee Craft. The mission is to encourage and invest in the continuation, advancement and creation of craft in Tennessee by recognizing the role of the master craft artist and apprentice relationship to preserve the state’s cultural heritage.
This year, four Tennessee master artists provided six months of one-on-one mentoring with apprentice artists from December 2024 to June 2025. The MAAP partnership cultivates the traditional master-apprentice relationship by awarding selected artists a grant to ensure craft is nurtured in Tennessee. Learn more about the Master Artist Apprentice Program for FY26 Applications are open now! Deadline is November 1, 2025.
Check out the MAAP exhibition here.
SCULPTURE
Master: Marty McConnaughey, Sharps Chapel, Tennessee
Apprentice: Danyelle Woods, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Self-taught artist Marty McConnaughey shifted from painting to sculpture after being inspired to work with found gourds and fiber from long pine needles. This has resulted in a body of nationally recognized, award-winning sculpture using natural and dyed gourds, pine needles, sweet grasses, paper tree bark and other materials from nature.
Her work is an unexpected, stunning and perfect marriage of found natural materials seeming to capture a millisecond of elements in motion otherwise unseen. McConnaughey captures a glimpse of absolute beauty in motion, leaving the viewer with a breathtaking, everlasting second frozen in time – resulting in her unforgettable sculpture. Her recent awards and exhibitions include a 2023-2024 solo exhibition at the Tennessee Arts Commission; the People’s Choice Award at the Best of Tennessee Craft 2023; second place from the Fountain City Art Council in Knoxville, Tennessee; and first place at the Best of Tennessee Craft 2021 at the Tennessee State Museum.
Danyelle Woods is an artist, educator and mother who weaves softness into her work.
In her artist statement, Woods explains her process: “Earthen pigments, organic forms, and textures lent by soil, pine needles, hair, and fibers to layer and build in each piece to form abstract landscapes which read like short stories, open to interpretation and adoption. The materials and their uses are both personal and universal, rooted in tradition and simple form, echoing a rhythm of being and becoming established long before our time.”
Woods holds a bachelor’s degree in art from Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi, and a master’s degree in education from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In addition to her studio practice, she teaches middle school visual art, where she cultivates a creative space rooted in empathy, exploration, and expression.
For more than 15 years, her work has been featured in solo and group shows at venues such as the Association for Visual Arts (Chattanooga), Stoveworks (Chattanooga), Gallery Chimera (Atlanta), and the Mississippi Museum of Art (Jackson), among others. She has also contributed to public art initiatives, including murals for hospitals and community centers in Central America.
Regarding her apprenticeship, Woods said in a statement, “I am deeply grateful for this program and the time it gave me to work with Marty- sharing ideas, techniques, and passions close to both of our hearts. Learning from Marty and other talented and kind-hearted creatives in the recent past has opened my eyes to exploring exciting possibilities as well as adding a new sense of depth and meaning to my work. As I share creative space and process with my own children, students, family, and friends, I consider how we can continue the larger work at hand.” Visit Woods’ website for more information.
FIBER AND TEXTILE
Master: Brittney Boyd Bullock, Memphis, Tennessee
Apprentice: Megan Jordan, Nashville, Tennessee
Working in fiber, mixed media and abstraction, Brittney Boyd Bullock’s practice uses color and repetition with abstracted patchwork to explore the power and connection felt when we slow down to reimagine and reframe the observable world. Her two- and three-dimensional collage and fiber works explore themes of ritual, rebellion, slowness and wonder.
Boyd Bullock is inspired by the history and legacy of Black abstractionists, weavers and spinners, and how they used creativity as a form of revolution and escapism in unfathomable times. The repetitious act of collaging, braiding, and tying knots invites a subconscious sense of security, predictability, and connection for Boyd Bullock.
Outside her studio practice, she is a nonprofit arts consultant, educator and arts advocate. Her work has been exhibited at The Frist Art Museum, Cameron Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Dixon Gallery and Garden.
Megan Jordan is a self-taught, national award-winning multidisciplinary artist, community organizer and researcher. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Vanderbilt University. Her creative practice centers on whimsy, imagination, well-being and the interconnectedness of all people to explore themes of justice, healing and collective action.
Her work has been shown at the United Nations COP27 in Egypt, the Nashville International Airport, the National Museum of African American Music, a 2020 project with Black Lives Matter Nashville and a 2021 project with Planned Parenthood of Tennessee. Learn more about Jordan’s work here.
CLAY
Masters: Tom Turnbull, Nashville, Tennessee; Catherine McMurray, Brentwood, Tennessee
Apprentice: Stephany Paredes, Spring Hill, Tennessee
Tom Turnbull’s pottery represents a life dedicated to ceramics. His father was a pioneer in ceramic arts in the early 1960s who produced clay and founded Standard Ceramic Supply where his son learned about clay production and was inspired by the many talented potters who sought his father’s technical expertise. Turnbull’s apprenticeships included work with Charles Counts, author of “Common Clay”; folk-art potter Legatha Walston; and Bauhaus-trained master potter Marguerite Wildenhain.
After graduating from New York University, Turnbull founded Mid-South Ceramic Supply in 1986. He was also the US agent for an Australian minerals company, RZM Zircon, and led the team that developed Opulence Glaze,™. In 1999, he sold the company and patents to be a full-time potter. His work is internationally recognized and is in collections including those of designer Hubert de Givenchy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Find out more about Turnbull’s legacy here.
His work is a version of impressionist painting using ceramic stains, minerals, and glazes, highlighting his painterly role as a master of alchemy and glaze chemistry. It was Turnbull’s greatest wish to contribute to the MAAP program as much as possible while undergoing medical treatments. Turnbull died on June 16, 2025, after a battle with cancer. According to program organizers, he remained dedicated to the apprenticeship throughout his illness.
Ceramicist Catherine McMurray holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the State University of New York at Potsdam. She opened her studio 25 years ago and creates functional ware in stoneware.
McMurray explains, “I enjoy making a variety of pieces, from small mugs to large casseroles, small teapots to large lamps. These are all made with the intention that they will be used for generations. It is always my hope that they will be timeless.”
Nearly 30 percent of her new work is fired through a process called Raku, a method of firing and glazing imported to the U.S. from Japan about 60 years ago. Due to the firing and glazing process, Raku pieces are not utilitarian but rather are unique in their various glaze features that can show the wonderful effects of smoke and fire.
For Stephany Paredes, the act of shaping clay is a responsive, grounding and honest process. Using her hands to knead and form clay reminds her to slow down, listen, and be present. Rooted in both function and feeling, her dialogue with the material results in vessels that hold food, flowers, or light. Beyond their utilitarian purpose, her works are imbued with memory, ritual, and the quiet weight of intention.
Her recent experience through the MAAP Program marked a significant turning point professionally and personally. “I emerged with a more refined body of work and a clearer vision for what I want to create next,” Paredes reflects. “But more importantly, I gained a sense of rootedness; of being part of a lineage of makers who pass down knowledge through hands and heart. My time with Tom Turnbull was more than an apprenticeship; it was an initiation into the quiet, enduring strength of working with clay.”
At the heart of her apprenticeship was time spent with master artist Turnbull. “To sit at the wheel beside a master was to learn not only technique but reverence,” she says. “He taught me that pottery is less about control and more about the relationship between clay and hands, form and fire, artist and community. His generosity, humor, and resilience remain pressed into every piece I make; they are my offerings of gratitude.”
As Turnbull’s health declined, Paredes was navigating her own pregnancy.
“There were challenges, some visible, others quietly unfolding,” she recalls. “The duality of our experience, him nearing the end of life, and me preparing to bring new life into the world created a powerful undercurrent. We became mirrors for one another, each moving through profound transformation of body, identity, and the unknown. In that space, clay became both witness and companion to the grief, the awe, and the change we were each holding.”
Recognizing the circumstances, Tennessee Craft and the Tennessee Arts Commission brought in master artist Catherine McMurray to support the apprenticeship. Paredes said the experience is a testament to the bonds between mentor and apprentice and the cycles of life embedded in the creative process.
Applications for the 2026 Master Artist Apprentice Program are open until Nov. 1, 2025. For more information, visit https://tennesseecraft.org/programs/maap/.
