Kathryn Hearn

Birth Date: 30th March 1953
Death Date: 15 June 2025
School: Central Saint Martins

Kathryn Hearn was a ceramics artist and educator.

Hearn grew up in Cheshire and first encountered pottery at Further Education college. She completed a foundation course at Leicester Polytechnic before studying for a BA in Ceramics at Loughborough University. After graduation, she moved to the Lake District, establishing a dual workshop for tableware production and decorative objects, while teaching a range of students at Kendal College.

Hearn began her career in Higher Education as a first-year subject leader on the BA Ceramics and Glass Course at Sunderland University. In 1988, she joined the Central School of Art & Design (later Central Saint Martins), initially as a tutor. Within two terms, she became course director of the Ceramics Course, a post she held until her retirement in 2015. During her tenure, she introduced initiatives such as the second-year client project, which involved collaborations with external organizations including Sir Terence Conran, Fair Trade, The Red Cross, Ben & Jerry’s, lighting companies, fashion magazines, tableware manufacturers, interior design agencies, and landscape architects.

Hearn was a founding member of the National Association for Ceramics in Higher Education (NACHE) and contributed to the establishment of an annual exhibition of student work, culminating in the first Ceramic Contempories at the V&A. She also participated in the Atoms to Art, Ceramics and Glass Research Network. Her experimentation with strata-cast porcelain led to a product range with Wedgwood, launched at Ambiente in Frankfurt and later exhibited at the V&A.

Following a move to Cambridgeshire, Hearn established a studio with her husband and glassmaker Stewart Hearn, drawing inspiration from the Fens landscape. After retiring from Central Saint Martins in 2015, she focused on larger hand-built forms, using techniques such as coiling, stacking, slabbing, and weaving. Hearn continued teaching on the MA Design course until her diagnosis with leukaemia in early 2024.