Robert Archambeau, internationally recognized for excellence in wood-fired ceramics, has resided in Manitoba since 1968. Archambeau was professor and head of ceramics at the University of Manitoba from 1968 until his retirement in 1991. He continues to conduct workshops throughout North America. Archambeau currently maintains a studio in rural Bissett, Manitoba. He has concentrated throughout his career on functional ceramic objects, particularly the vessel or container form. He has exhibited extensively across Canada and has been recognized internationally with shows in Australia, Czechoslovakia, Japan, Korea and the United States.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery is planning a major exhibition in 2003 to celebrate Archambeau's distinguished career. Archambeau's work is represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Canada Council Art Bank, the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, the Glenbow-Alberta Institute, the Liu Collection in Hong Kong, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Toledo Museum of Art in the United States.

Bruce Cochrane is an exceptional craftsman whose technical mastery of a variety of clays and techniques has set him apart as an innovator with an identifiable aesthetic and a commitment to function. Since 1978, Bruce Cochrane has been ceramics professor at the Sheridan School of Craft and Design. His programme there is considered one of the finest in the country. Cochrane has also conducted workshops throughout North America and in China. He has exhibited across Canada and in China, Japan, Holland and the United States. This fall Cochrane will travel to China to continue further research on ceramic techniques that he is currently exploring in his work. Cochrane's pieces can be found in numerous private and public collections, including London's Victoria and Albert Museum, the Kansas City Art Institute, the New York State College of Ceramics, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Canadian Crafts Museum, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art.

Léopold L. Foulem is internationally renowned in the contemporary ceramics world. He creates provocative works that challenge stereotypes and explore the fringes of respected ceramic traditions. A technical wizard, Foulem combines erudition and humour to create a unique vocabulary indisputably his own. Foulem, who divides his time between Caraquet, New Brunswick and Montreal, has had his work exhibited across Canada and in Denmark, England, France, Holland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. His ceramics career, which extends over more than thirty years, was recognized in 1999, when he received the Jean A. Chalmers Award. Foulem's work is represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Shigaraki Museum of Ceramic Art in Kohga-gun, Japan, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, the Musée du Québec, the Musée des arts décoratifs in Montréal and the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art.

Kaija Sanelma Harris is perhaps one of the most important textile artists working in Canada today. Based in Saskatoon, Harris is at the forefront in technical innovation, creating new visual experiences of light, colour and texture from the physical foundation of weaving and its grid format. Harris' work has been exhibited across Canada and in Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Spain and the United States. Harris has completed a number of major public art commissions, including tapestries for the TD Bank Tower of the Toronto-Dominion Centre in Toronto and for Agriculture Canada in Saskatoon. Harris' pieces can be found in numerous private collections in her native Scandinavia, as well as in private and public collections including the Government of Canada, the Department of External Affairs and International Trade, the Canada Council Art Bank, the City of Regina, the Mendel Art Gallery and the Stewart Hall at Pointe Claire Cultural Centre, Quebec.

Isabel Rorick is the foremost practitioner of the distinctive art form of Haida spruce-root basketry. For over twenty years Rorick, who is based on Hornby Island in British Columbia, has created woven works that are not only respected for the historical tradition they represent, but are unequalled in their standards of craftsmanship and aesthetic form. Rorick's work has been exhibited extensively in Canada and the United States and was profiled on the CBC visual arts series Art Spots in 2000. Her work can be found in private and public collections including the British Museum, the New York Historical Association in Cooperstown, the Burke Museum of Natural History in Seattle, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Royal British Columbia Museum and the Vancouver Art Gallery.