Magdalene Odundo

Printmaker, arts educator, and ceramic artist Magdalene Odundo was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and received her education in both Kenya and India. She began her artistic career as a graphic-design student and relocated to England in 1971 to follow her interest. She studied art at Cambridge College of Art and acquired a passion for ceramics during her early years in the UK.

Odundo's passion for ceramic art spurred her return to her native Kenya and Nigeria, where she searched out traditional techniques that spoke of her own cultural heritage, having learned that ceramic art is a medium that connects cultures all over the world. She became aware of similar procedures used in various cultural centers throughout the world while studying hand-building processes in Kenya and Nigeria. Odundo discovered blackware jars in the San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. Her global experiences provided her with talents that she would later use when she returned to England.

Odundo received a BA from St. Joseph's College of Art and a masters degree from the Royal College of Art in London after returning to the UK. She later went on to instruct at the Commonwealth Institute and the Royal College of Art in London. She was a professor of ceramics at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College.

In the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2008 she was appointed to the Office of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to the arts. The Detroit Art Institute's Friends of African and African American Art presented her with the African Art Recognition Award. She became a Patron and Trustee of the National Society for Education in Art and Design in 2011.
_{—Adapted from https://www.theclaystudio.org/artists/magdalene-odundo, accessed 7-6-2021}