Emily Endo Selected for 2027 Arts/Industry Foundry Residency at Kohler Co.
Emily Endo. Courtesy of the artist.
Cranbrook alumna Emily Endo (MFA Fiber 2010) has been selected for the 2027 Arts/Industry residency in the Foundry at Kohler Co. in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Chosen through a highly competitive juried application process, Endo will take part in the residency from January 25 through April 30, 2027, as part of a four-artist cohort that also includes Raul De Lara, Amy Yoes, and Erin Jane Nelson. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Kohler Co. announced the full class of twelve artists in October.
Arts/Industry was established in 1974 as a partnership between the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Kohler Co., and it has hosted more than 600 artists since. Each year, up to twelve artists spend three months working in the company’s Pottery or Foundry, where they have 24/7 studio access, expert technical support, and the opportunity to work alongside Kohler Co.’s skilled artisans. Residents in the Foundry work in cast iron and brass, and work made during the residency enters collections jointly stewarded by the arts center and Kohler Foundation.
In February, the arts center opened Emily Endo: Estuary, Endo’s largest exhibition to date and the institution’s first scent-focused show, and Endo also served as the first ExAIR artist-in-residence of 2026. Estuary presented new works in glass, metal, found shells, and minerals alongside original fragrances, including one built around geosmin, the earthy scent soil releases after rain.
Endo works across sculpture, glass, scent, and installation in a research-driven practice that draws on the histories of science and mysticism. Using kiln-formed glass, organic media, and aroma molecules, Endo makes work that references the transformative relationships among body, material, and space. Glass has long interested Endo for its associations with “magic, science, fragility, and preservation.”
Endo earned a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art before completing her Master of Fine Arts at Cranbrook Academy of Art. From 2010 to 2018, Endo taught at Oregon College of Art and Craft, where she chaired the fibers department from 2013 to 2018. Endo’s work has been exhibited at Somerset House in London, Massey Klein in New York, LVL3 in Chicago, Bullseye Projects in Portland, and the Neutra VDL House in Los Angeles, and it has been featured in American Craft, Architectural Digest, Dezeen, and Interior Design. She lives and works in Joshua Tree, California.
Learn more:
JMKAC and Kohler Co. Announce 2027 Arts/Industry Artists in Residence – Sheboygan Sun
