Marietta Theodorou-LeMieux
Marietta Theodorou-LeMieux was born in Greece, into an eighth generation family of traditional potters that came from the island of Siphnos, Cyclades, known for its ceramic tradition. Marietta was elected to the MN Fulbright Board of Directors in Nov 2009. Click here for details.
Marietta was a finalist for the Bush Artist Fellowship in 2008 and 2006.
Since the age of nine she has decorated ceramic forms, some of which are now exhibited in the Museum of Greek Folk Art in Athens, Greece under her family’s name and in the Museum of Traditional Pottery.
At the age of 14 Marietta learned to throw on the potter’s wheel from her father and she opened her own studio in l982. She designed and developed a production of functional and decorative ceramic items, which are marketed in Greece, France, Germany and the U.S.A. Her studio gained the sponsorship of the Greek National Organization of Crafts Promotion in 1983 and of the World Crafts Council of UNESCO in 1985. In her first year of operation, at age 20, Marietta was awarded the first prize at the 25th PanHellenic Ceramics Exhibition in Athens, and her work was commissioned by the Greek Government to be given as presents to visiting foreign high officials.
In 1984 Marietta toured various Italian ceramic studios, factories and Museums under the Greek Government's sponsorship. She has also toured and studied working methods in numerous ceramic studios in the U.S.A., Germany, England, Turkey and other European nations.
She is the first and only Greek potter to receive the Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship and she was the Visiting Artist at the Ceramics Department of the University of Minnesota from March to October l995.
Marietta taught ceramics at:
Anatolia College, Thessaloniki, l980-l98l & l984-l987
EOMMEX (Greek National Organization of Crafts Promotion) Ceramics School l983-l984
DION MUSEUM: Ancient Ceramic Technology to archaeologists, Summer Season l987
University of Minnesota, demonstrations on wheel throwing to undergraduate and graduate students, Spring Semester, 1995
Is a member of the American Craft Council, the Association of Greek Artists Potters since l987 and of the Pan-Hellenic Association of Ceramists/Potters since its first year of existence 1992.
Marietta currently lives and works in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, USA, and also maintains a house and studio in Thessaloniki, Greece.