Audra Smith is the 2017 recipient of the Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award through Northern Clay Center.  Smith received a BA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and has been a staff member and teaching artist at Northern Clay Center since 2010.  Smith's goals for her work are to create well-made utilitarian pottery.  She continually explores color, pattern, space, and shape in her surface decoration, all of which inform the "ongoing discovery of [her] personal language as a ceramic artist."

Audra Smith grew up in Ohio, completed her undergraduate studies in NY in 2010, and has resided in the Twin Cities ever since.  She was raised, along with her two siblings, to understand the value of seriously hard work by single mom/educator Candy.  In her youth she was always encouraged to pursue tasks which fulfilled her, either academically or on the sports field, and most importantly not to give up when faced with challenges or failures.  As a sophomore in college her passion for clay solidified, and she's been developing her skillset as an artist, technician, and teacher ever since!  Audra lives in North Minneapolis with her husband Chris Singewald, who is also a ceramic artist, and their cat, Meatball.  Audra and Chris deeply value the many friendships developed within the clay community of the twin cities and also spend as much time with their widely scattered family as they can!  Out of the studio Audra can be found engaged in any one of several activities she chooses to fill her evenings and weekends; cooking, vegetable gardening, biking, concert going, cribbage playing, brewery frequenting, morel foraging, amateur woodworking, etc.