

Bill Farrell Memorial Scholarship Fund
Available for Youth Ceramics Students
In honor of Bill's lifelong commitment to education, commemorative gifts to the Bill Farrell Memorial Scholarship Fund will help relieve the financial burden for youth interested in Galena ARC pottery classes.
Bill Farrell
Bill Farrell had a rich and varied history as an artist, educator, lecturer, and kiln builder. After nearly four decades of teaching, he retired to Galena, IL where he built a wood kiln and delved into the rich history of wood-fire techniques found throughout Asia. He retired from this third (or fourth) career in the arts after a decade or more.
Farrell’s circuitous route took him from studies in painting and arts education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, to a masters degree at Penn State in 1960. Farrell taught as a k-12 educator before taking a position teaching painting and design at Purdue University. While at Purdue he accidentally offered to teach a clay class, which led to a lifetime of ceramics workshops, lectures, and international seminars throughout Europe, and in 1968 a professorship in the Ceramics Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He received a NEA ceramics sculpture award in the early 80’s, was a first year member of NCECA in 1965, and in 2000 Farrell was the artist in residence at EKWC in the Netherlands.




