17th firing of the Johanna Kiln at The Saint John’s Pottery starts Friday | College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University

October 7, 2024 • 4 min read

When the 17th firing of the Johanna Kiln at The Saint John’s Pottery gets underway Friday (Oct. 11), the work of sculptor Catherine Mulligan will again be included – just as it has with every firing since the first in 1995.

“She’s really our Earth Mother,” said Richard Bresnahan ‘76, the founder and director at The Saint John’s Pottery. “She’s such an incredible human being and a fantastic artist.”

But Mulligan’s ties to Bresnahan and The Saint John’s Pottery date back well before the Johanna Kiln’s initial firing. In fact, she’s been part of the endeavor since soon after it was first founded in 1979.

“The first time I met Richard was at the Rourke Art Museum (in Moorhead) in the early 1980s,” said the 90-year-old Mulligan, who was then working as a senior lecturer in art at North Dakota State University, and as a National Endowment for the Arts artist-in-residence in Fargo.

“I really liked his work because it was about the earth, but at the time, clay did not really appeal to me. But he invited me down and we worked together. That was back when the studio was still in Joe Hall. They’d put the work down in the wine cellar. I just thought it was absolutely marvelous.

“I loved the community there, and as it has kept growing over the years, he’s continued to include me for which I’m extremely grateful.”

That included when the current kiln, named in honor of Sister Johanna Becker, OSB, was first unveiled.

Designed by Bresnahan and built by apprentices and volunteers, the Johanna Kiln is the largest wood-burning kiln in North America. It can fire up to 12,000 works of pottery and sculpture when it is fired every two years and takes as many as nine weeks to load.

Once the doors are closed, the lighting ceremony featuring hundreds of individuals from the Saint John’s community – monks, laypersons and guests – takes place.

The kiln area is ritually purified in Japanese tradition with rice, salt and sake, then lit with a handmade torch.

This year’s ceremony is scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday and is open to the public. Multi-time Grammy nominated folk artist John McCutcheon ’74 will be on hand to perform with a choir, and Douglas Mullin, the Abbot of Saint John’s Abbey, will provide a blessing. A meal will follow at the pottery studio at 5 p.m.

The ceremony is dedicated to three individuals who had a huge impact on The Saint John’s Pottery family, and who have passed away since the last firing in 2022.

They are:

Spirit boats have been made in their honor, which their family members will take in canoes out onto Stump Lake and release at the conclusion of the ceremony.

“It’s a way of honoring their memory and sending their spirits back into the spirit world,” Bresnahan said.

The firing itself lasts 10 days and around 60 people come to help over that time period. When it is completed, the kiln is sealed with recycled clay and allowed to cool for two weeks. Then, it is opened, and the ceramics are unloaded, cleaned and prepared for use.

This year’s firing will include the work of 30 artists representing 13 states and several countries.

And it all gets underway Friday.

“The energy you feel at the lighting ceremony is always so unbelievable,” Bresnahan said. “It really is like a family reunion in many ways.”

That family has long included Mulligan, who now lives in Colorado and will not be at Friday’s ceremony in person. But she will again be represented by her work.

“The clay keeps coming to me,” she said. “Richard is so generous to continue to keep me in the loop. It’s such an amazing process to be part of.”

Carter Slette (left) and Allison Breen (right), apprentices at The Saint John’s Pottery help load the Johanna Kiln for its 17th firing.