Since graduating with a degree in Sociology from Haverford College, Gwendolyn Yoppolo has been interested in the transformative power of education to change lives. While studying for her Master of Arts in Education at Teachers College Columbia University, her own life changed drastically when she collaborated on a kiln building project with fellow apprentices at a community pottery center. Deciding to combine her passions in art and education, she went on to complete her MFA in Ceramics at Penn State University. Since then, she has worked as an educator, an artist, a writer, and a vegan cook over the years, in many types of communities. She has been a resident artist at the Penland School of Crafts, the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and the Archie Bray Foundation. She has taught at Ohio University, The Ohio State University, and Juniata College, as well as at art centers such as Arrowmont School of Crafts and Anderson Ranch Arts Center.
She creates sensuous kitchen- and table-wares that use the physical experience of hunger and satiation to allude to larger issues of human desire and consumption. Her visionary designs challenge us to rethink the ways we nourish ourselves and others within contemporary food culture. By preparing whole foods with minimal technology, by sharing food with a group from a single serving dish, or by sitting down with a loved one to create a shared experience, we break apart from the individualized ready-to-eat mentality of our industrialized food system.