Ginny Sims was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, and currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ginny works primarily in clay and often incorporates other materials and found objects in her installations for supportive context for her sculptures and vessels. Ginny has worked at potteries in Centola, Italy, and Isle of Iona, Scotland. She has exhibited at numerous galleries in the US and Europe and has held solo shows at 0fr. in Paris, France and Hair and Nails gallery in Minneapolis, MN. Ginny has been the recipient of numerous grants including Jerome Foundation Study and Travel Grant (2016), Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant (2017), Jerome Ceramic Artists Project Grant (2013, 2019), McKnight Fellowship for Ceramic Artists (2022). Ginny is the 2025/26 recipient of the Mark Hampton | Henry W. and Marian T. Mitchell Rome Prize
Ginny's work often references different moments in ceramic history and incorporates the cultural information she finds there with present day social and political experiences. Her vessels and sculptures acknowledge that pottery is a reflective, invisible, critical and, for millennia, necessary material object of culture. Because the history of pottery in the west is divided between industrial capitalism and folk craft traditions, and its objects are so intimately involved with the body either in its creation or its use more than any other medium, Ginny believes it can bring into dialogue aspects of the capitalist system and the body in a palpable, straightforward way that other mediums cannot.
How has your time in Rome shaped or shifted the direction of your project so far?
My time in Rome and at the Academy has added so many new challenges and directions that I didn’t expect. One curious take in my art-making and thinking is that I came here convinced that I needed to change something. But after a few months of experimenting, I have found that all of my walking, talking and seeing has enriched what I think were already good ideas – I have found new ways to think about the work I have done and the work I want to continue rather than to just scrap it all. I have come away feeling that I have added to my creating and imagining rather than have subtracted from it. There has been so much value and excitement in that accumulation of experience and awareness in these last few months here.
What part of your daily routine or environment at the Academy has most influenced you and your work?
I have really enjoyed life here – as it is so undefined and open; but it is also super challenging balancing life with my family and making, socializing, engaging. But when you find the balance, it is so worth it. My daily habits have changed over the months being here. I used to take long walks alone to familiarize myself with the neighborhood after lunch, now I have coffee with friends, or head to the Mercatino or grocery store. I love that I have discovered Monteverde and it has become my own sweet neighborhood.
Have any encounters – with people, places, new information – opened up new paths in your research or practice in the past months?
There is a fellow here, David Keplinger, who is a poet and has been leading occasional poetry workshops. There is a small dedicated group of us, and we have such a good time and read our words aloud without any judgement. We are all opening up and “improving” as we get our stride in this unfamiliar territory. I’ve found that words were a missing link for me; I had never had the confidence to write it all down. That has changed the way I think about what I want to show, and has given me the confidence to discuss my words outloud, and pair it with the visual work I do. Additionally, I met a bookstore owner, Giuseppe Cassetti, who was part of a group of artists in the 70’s that organized Francesca Woodman’s first exhibition here in Rome. We have conversations but he gets irritated with me because my Italian is so bad! That has honestly been the main impetus to get more serious about studying Italian, because I know we have so much to talk about.
What are you hoping to explore or deepen in the remaining months of your residency?
I only have one month left! So I can’t stop thinking of the work I could do if I stayed, and how to transfer that thinking back to my studio back home. In my remaining days in Rome, I will just walk everywhere; it’s my favorite thing to do here.