Partner Jessie Spaulding Wilber
Queer Places:
Chouinard Art Institute, 743 S Grand View St, Los Angeles, CA 90057
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242
Sourdough Rd, Bozeman, MT 59715, Stati Uniti
Frances Maude Senska[1]
(March 9, 1914 – December 25, 2009) was an art professor and artist
specializing in ceramics who taught at Montana State University – Bozeman from
1946 to 1973. She was known as the "grandmother of ceramics in Montana".[3]
During her career, she trained a number of now internationally known ceramic
artists.[4]
Senska was born in the port city of Batanga in the German Empire colony of Kamerun,[5] (now Batanga, Cameroon). She was the only child of Frank Radcliff Senska and Georgia B. Senska (née Herald), Presbyterian missionaries.[1] Her father was a physician who founded Sakbayémé Hospital in the town of Sakbayeme in the highlands region of Bassa in Kamerun, her mother was a teacher who worked at the local missionary school.[1] Frances was schooled at home; it took three days to walk to the nearest public school, and her parents felt this was too far away in case she fell ill with a tropical disease.[6]
She came to America for the first time in 1929.[7] She graduated from University High School in Iowa City, Iowa.[8] She earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1935 and 1939, respectively.[9] Her undergraduate training was in lithography,[10] and her graduate degree in applied arts (specializing in sculpture.)[9][11]
She taught art at Grinnell College from 1939 to 1942.[1] In the summer of 1941, she took art classes at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California.[1] But in 1942, her teaching position at Grinnell was eliminated so that the college could hire a physics professor.[11] That summer, she briefly studied ceramics under László Moholy-Nagy at the School of Design (now the IIT Institute of Design) in Chicago. Moholy-Nagy had a strong influence on Senska, influencing not only her ceramic design but her teaching style as well.[12]
She served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1946 during World War II, where she was trained as a pilot.[3][6][7] During her time in the military, she was posted to a base in San Francisco, California. She became interested in ceramics after taking a class from Edith Heath, then teaching at the California Labor School.[2][13] In the summer of 1946,[1] she attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art (now Cranbrook Educational Community), where she studied under Maija Grotell[2] (one of the most important studio potters of mid-20th century America).[9]
She began teaching at Montana State University in Bozeman in 1946.[11] The school's Department of Applied Art hired her to teach ceramics. But she did not, at that time, consider herself a ceramicist. "I started teaching ceramics with the merest little scrap of knowledge. I had had just two quarters of ceramics when I started teaching. I just learned it right along with the class," she later said.[11] Senska decided to build a ceramics program from the ground up. Olga Ross Hannon, the department's head, gave her $300, and she and her first class of students took over a storeroom in the basement of Herrick Hall, purchased foot-driven potter's wheels, and built an electric kiln from scratch.[11] Continuing to train in ceramics, Senska attended a workshop taught by noted French-American ceramic artist Marguerite Wildenhain at the Pond Farm artists' colony near Guerneville, California, in the summer of 1950.[1] Senska later said that she learned her hand technique from Wildenhain.[11] Her students included a number of influential ceramicists, including Rudy Autio and Peter Voulkos.[14][15] While teaching at Montana State, Senska met fellow art professor Jessie Spaulding Wilber. The two women became lifelong friends and companions.[11] Senska retired from teaching in 1973.[11]
Wilber died October 2, 1989. Senska died on Christmas Day 2009 at her home in Bozeman, Montana.[3]
My published books:
