A studio shaped by community.
Carpinteria Ceramics Collective began with a simple idea: our community deserved a creative space where people could make things with their hands and feel like they belonged.
Our Mission
Carpinteria Ceramics Collective is a nonprofit community pottery studio dedicated to creativity, connection, and belonging.
Our mission is to create a welcoming space where people can slow down, work with their hands, learn new skills, and connect through the shared practice of ceramics.
Whether you're interested in taking a class, becoming a member, volunteering, donating, or simply supporting the vision, we invite you to help build this creative community with us.
Meet the Team
Atlas Klapp
Atlas Klapp is the Executive Director and founder of Carpinteria Ceramics Collective. Their life and work are inspired by the natural landscapes of Santa Barbara, California, where they grew up and still live today. Their pieces often reflect this by combining raw, organic textures with modern design and aesthetics. Atlas has a degree in Ceramic Art, and their work has been featured in British Vogue, Santa Barbara Magazine, and Voyage LA, and in various local markets and shops in Santa Barbara. Beginning from a garage, expanding to their own studio in Carpinteria and establishing a successful local business, Klapp Ceramics, Atlas perfected the craft of production pottery, and carried their passion to connect the Carpinteria community to ceramics with the establishment of this Non-profit. Cultivating an inclusive space for artists could share their work and people of all ages and backgrounds could come together, explore their creativity, and build meaningful connections through art has been a lifelong dream of Atlas’s. Carp Ceramics Collective is the realization of that very idea.
Kim Garcia
Kim Garcia, originally from the East Coast, found her love of pottery right here in Carpinteria in 2023. Her passion was strong from the start. Learning from private lessons, she quickly excelled past simple techniques onto complex structures of style and artistry. Kim found her niche in community action and philanthropy where she has hosted the annual Empty Bowls Fundraiser to support Food Forward®, a Los Angeles grassroots Non-Profit fighting hunger through Farmer’s Market gleaning and backyard harvests. She has mastered the art of the soup bowl and transcended beyond her hosting abilities to take on her board position at Carpinteria Ceramics Collective. Kim is one of the creative visionaries behind the operation as well as one of our wheel-throwing teachers. She is the friendliest face you’ll encounter at CCC and we are lucky to have her.
Kylie Keenan
Kylie Keenan is a Santa Cruz native who found her way to Santa Barbara to pursue a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Studies at UC Santa Barbara. Her passion for pottery and the outdoors began young, exploring clay and art in school, and leading her to intern for Atlas in their studio while in college. She has been teaching classes and producing wholesale pottery for Klapp Ceramics since 2024, and has developed her sgraffito techniques using natural landscapes and wildlife of Santa Barbara as her inspiration. After graduating, Kylie stepped up as Associate Director of our Non-profit to help design, facilitate, and bring Carpinteria Ceramics Collective to life. You’ll be seeing her welcome you into the space at the reception desk as well as teaching classes and workshops. Be sure to say hello and ask her about bees, matcha latte recipes, and bikes!