Join us for NCECA’s 2025 Cultivating Community event, a series of virtual programming from November 17 to 21, 2025, to engage, learn, and collaborate!
Cultivating Community is a free series of on-demand videos and virtual programming, taking place from November 17 to 21, 2025, to inspire and foster a sense of connection for everyone interested in working with ceramics. Together, we’ll explore teaching, learning, creativity, and leadership while promoting collaboration and engagement.
Save the date, pre-register, and join the 2025 NCECA Members Meeting on November 19, to connect, contribute, and strengthen our community.
Whether you’re an artist, educator, student, or enthusiast, this week offers opportunities to learn, exchange ideas, and connect. As a member, you’ll support this vital work and gain access to exclusive opportunities to shape the future of our field. Be part of the conversation, connect with peers, and help strengthen the community we are building together.
Learn more about Cultivating Community and discover how to become a member by visiting the NCECA website. https://nceca.net/members
Support NCECA by signing up for a recurring monthly donation!
2025 NCECA Members’ Meeting
Pre-register today to join the NCECA Members’ Meeting on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, from 12:00pm–1:30pm Eastern!
When ceramic artists and educators established NCECA, their vision was to create a sense of connectedness where there had once been isolation. Individually and collectively, NCECA members continue to foster networks of creative camaraderie and knowledge sharing. Be part of the conversation during the upcoming NCECA Members’ Meeting and connect with your network.
The NCECA Members’ Meeting is a chance to learn updates from the organization, and share your ideas with clay colleagues and friends who are also NCECA members.
The Members’ Meeting has been an ongoing feature of the since NCECA's inception. With the advent of the pandemic in 2020, NCECA modified its bylaws to transform this important gathering, making it accessible to NCECA members everywhere, even when they are not able to attend the annual conference. This means that more NCECA members than ever can meet and take part.
New this year! NCECA invites members and our broader community to share questions or topics you would like to be considered during this year’s Annual Members Meeting. Your input helps shape meaningful conversations. You will receive the Members' Meeting link after pre-registering. See you there!
Monday, November 17, 2025
2025 NCECA Keynote Presenters:
Suleika Jaouad and Kim Dickey
Creativity as a Lifeline: Art, Writing, and Resilience with Suleika Jaouad
Join artist, activist, and New York Times bestselling author Suleika Jaouad with celebrated artist and professor, Kim Dickey, for an intimate conversation as they explore the intersection of art, writing, and health. Discover how creative practices can foster resilience, navigate illness, and offer profound healing, while connecting deeply with the human experience.
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Suleika Jaouad (pronounced Su-lake-uh Ja-wad) is the author of the instant New York Times bestselling memoir, Between Two Kingdoms. She wrote the Emmy Award-winning New York Times column “Life, Interrupted” and her reported features and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vogue, and NPR, among other publications. A highly sought-after speaker, her mainstage TED Talk was one of the ten most popular of 2019 and has nearly five million views. She is also the creator of the Isolation Journals, a community creativity project founded during the Covid-19 pandemic to help others convert isolation into artistic solitude; over 100,000 people from around the world have joined.
Born in New York City to a Tunisian father and a Swiss mother, Suleika attended The Juilliard School's pre-college program for the double bass, and earned her BA with highest honors from Princeton University and an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College.
Suleika’s career aspirations as a foreign correspondent were cut short when, at age 22, she was diagnosed with leukemia.
She began writing her New York Times column “Life, Interrupted” from her hospital room at Sloan-Kettering, and has since become a fierce advocate for those living with illness and enduring life’s many other interruptions. Suleika served on Barack Obama's Presidential Cancer Panel, the national advisory board of Family Reach and the Bone Marrow and Cancer Foundation, and the Brooklyn Public Library’s Arts & Letters Committee. She was awarded the Red Door Advocacy & Community Service Award, and has been an artist in residence at Ucross, ArtYard, and the Kerouac Project. Suleika travels the world teaching workshops and speaking, and she was an Anacapa Scholar in Residence at the Thacher School anda lecturer in the Narrative Medicine Program at Columbia University. She has appeared on the Today Show, NPR's Talk of the Nation, the Paris Review, the Los Angeles Times and Glamour, among others. -
Kim Dickey examines the meaningfulness of the decorative, both in terms of how it is used to signify the role an object must play in the world, and in the way a dismissal of the decorative came to exclude any number of voices from the art world. Working with a variety of media, she makes objects and installations that set the stage upon which various artistic traditions can “speak” directly to one another to foster a closer conversation.
Dickey has had solo shows in New York, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Aspen and Denver, in galleries and museums across the country and globe. Dickey’s work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville; Everson Museum, Syracuse; Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, which featured her mid-career retrospective in 2016. Recent commissions at hospitals, including the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC, has inspired her long-held belief that art can promote healing.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
NCECA’s Giving Circle
Lunch & Learn with Dr. Jessica Merritt from 1:30PM to 2:30PM/ET.
As we prepare for our milestone 60th Anniversary and continue to expand programs that support artists, educators, and students, your partnership is more vital than ever. This year, deepen your connection to NCECA by joining one of our Giving Circles, each representing a unique way to sustain and shape the field we love.
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The Legacy Circle honors visionary donors whose long-term commitments, planned gifts, or estate pledges ensure NCECA’s enduring impact for generations to come. To join, contact Jessica Merritt, Development Manager, at Jessica@nceca.net or (720) 307-5510 to schedule a personalized consultation and craft your legacy plan.
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The Presidents’ Circle recognizes leadership donors whose annual contributions of $10,000 or more sustains NCECA’s core mission—strengthening fellowship programs, advancing creative research, and supporting the organization’s long-term stability.
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The Artisans’ Circle celebrates generous supporters whose annual gifts of $1,000–$9,999 expand access to education, exhibitions, and professional development opportunities across our ceramic arts community.
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The Potters’ Circle welcomes all who believe in the power of clay and community. Gifts at any level—large or small—help NCECA take from, expand, and inspire with creativity and care.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
2025 NCECA Emerging Artists
Engage with the 2025 NCECA Emerging Artists as they present their artistic practices at the 2025 NCECA Formation Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Engage with the 2025 NCECA Emerging Artists! Explore the compelling work of Austin Coudriet, Reniel Del Rosario, Vincent (Sniper) Frimpong, Chenlu Hou, Michelle Solorzano, Micah Lewis-Văn Sweezie—in this insightful video presentation from the Formation Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Discover their innovative techniques and conceptual approaches that are redefining contemporary ceramics, and gain valuable insights into their artistic processes as they shape the future of the field!
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Austin Coudriet earned his BFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2019. He is a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation and a 2024 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist award recipient. Coudriet creates large-scale sculptures and ceramic furniture, and teaches his techniques in workshops nationally and internationally.
Website: austincoudriet.com
Instagram: @austincoudriet -
Reniel Del Rosario is an artist who uses ceramics, quantity, and satire to discuss commodification and value. His projects range from interactive fabricated stores to reimagined artifacts and imperfect copies of commodities. His work has been exhibited internationally through traditional and alternative venues from museums, galleries, and simply on the public sidewalk.
Website: renieldelrosario.com
Instagram: @adrenieline -
Vincent (Sniper) Frimpong is a contemporary ceramic artist born in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. He holds an MFA from the University of Arkansas and has received numerous awards. He is an Assistant Professor at Talladega College in Alabama, and is displayed in many exhibitions. Vincent founded The Frimpong Case.
Website: snipersart.com
Instagram: @sniper_ceramica -
Chenlu Hou, born in Shandong, China, is a Providence-based ceramic artist and 2019 Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) MFA graduate. She has held residencies at the Museum of Art and Design, Penland School of Craft, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, the Archie Bray Foundation, serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Connecticut College, and is a Visiting Critic at RISD.
Website: chenluhou.cargo.site
Instagram: @chenlu_hou -
Michelle Solorzano is a figurative ceramic sculptor originally from the Dominican Republic. She holds a BFA in Painting and Ceramics from SUNY Potsdam and an MFA in Ceramics from Indiana University. Solorzano explores themes of immigration, identity, and culture, blending Taino, African, and Spanish influences.
Website: michellesolorzano.com
Instagram: @michelleisolorzano -
Micah Lewis-Văn Sweezie is a ceramic artist from Kalamazoo, Michigan. They earned their BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago primarily focused in ceramics and sculpture. Sweezie often is influenced by dichotomous elements of culture and craft, having grown up in both Vietnam and America.
website: micahsweezie.com
Instagram: @ceramicnoodles
2025 NCECA Members’ Meeting
Pre-register today to join the NCECA Members’ Meeting on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, from 12:00pm–1:30pm Eastern!
When ceramic artists and educators established NCECA, their vision was to create a sense of connectedness where there had once been isolation. Individually and collectively, NCECA members continue to foster networks of creative camaraderie and knowledge sharing. Be part of the conversation during the upcoming NCECA Members’ Meeting and connect with your network.
The NCECA Members’ Meeting is a chance to learn updates from the organization, and share your ideas with clay colleagues and friends who are also NCECA members.
The Members’ Meeting has been an ongoing feature of the since NCECA's inception. With the advent of the pandemic in 2020, NCECA modified its bylaws to transform this important gathering, making it accessible to NCECA members everywhere, even when they are not able to attend the annual conference. This means that more NCECA members than ever can meet and take part.
New this year! NCECA invites members and our broader community to share questions or topics you would like to be considered during this year’s Annual Members Meeting. Your input helps shape meaningful conversations. You will receive the Members' Meeting link after pre-registering. See you there!
Thursday, November 20, 2025
2025 NCECA Closing Keynote Presenter,
Sana Musasama, The Chapters In My Journey
CLOSING LECTURE: The Chapters In My Journey with Sana Musasama
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Sana Musasama will explore her artistic journey through the chapters of her career: Exploration, Study, Travel, Time Creating, Humanity, Girls, Employment, Activism, and Returning to Ourselves and Joy.
Sana Musasama is a clay artist, humanitarian, and global trotter. Musasama’s work and passions center on the lives of little girls who were, and still are, her mentors as she traveled the world. Clay is Musasama’s primary material using the sculptural language, in addition to mixed media materials, like cloth, dirt, glass, etc. At the age of 73, she has found herself returning to prior series, such as the House series, which she created prior to any art school training.
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Sana Musasama earned her BA from City College of New York in 1973, and her MFA from Alfred University, New York, in 1988. Musasama received the 2018 Achievement Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts for her years of teaching and her humanitarian work with victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia. Musasama is the coordinator of the Apron Project, a sustainable entrepreneurial project for girls and young women reintegrated back into society after being forced into sex trafficking. In 2016, she was a guest speaker on “Activism through Art” at ROCA. A recently published article by Cliff Hocker, “If I can Help Somebody: Sana Musasama’s Art of Healing,” appears in the International Review of African American Art. In 2015, the Museum of Art and Design in New York selected four works from The Unspeakable Series for their private collection; Musasama was awarded the ACLU of Michigan Art Prize 7 and Art Prize 8. In 2002, she was awarded Anonymous Was a Women and in 2001, Musasama was featured in the 2001 Florence Biennial. Her work is in multiple collections such as The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina; The Museum of Art and Design in New York, New York; the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, New York; the Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, New Hampshire; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York; Bluffton University in Bluffton, Ohio; and in numerous private collections. Musasama lives and works in New York.
Friday, November 21, 2025
Instagram Live: Cultivating Community with Dara Hartman and Women Working With Clay Symposium, facilitated by Antra Sinha
Invited by the Collaboration and Engagement Committee:
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Dara Hartman is a full time studio artist in Salt Lake City, UT. She serves as the Director of the Women Working With Clay Symposium at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA and as the Exhibitions Committee Chair for the 2025 Salt Lake City NCECA. She received a BFA from Virginia Tech and an MFA from Montana State University. In 2005, she was an Artist in Residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. She has taught at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Clark College in Vancouver, WA, and Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, OR. Dara’s career includes a stint as a product designer and design team leader which led to traveling in China and working with factories on model design and production. In 2018, Dara was a Resident Artist at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in Jingdezhen, China. In 2026 Dara will be the Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA
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Antra Sinha is a ceramic artist, and educator, currently Gallery Coordinator and Art Instructor at Utah State University. She earned her BFA and MFA from the MS University of Baroda in India. She was an apprentice at Golden Bridge Pottery from 2002-2012, where she worked for a decade.
Welcome to the 2026 NCECA Volumes Conference in Detroit Michigan, from March 25-28, 2026.
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NCECA’s 60th conference, Volumes, takes place in Detroit, Michigan, March 25 - 28, 2026
Volumes, the 60th conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), explores material-driven experimentation and conceptual frameworks that animate art created through clay. The essential energy of voices and sounds of the Detroit region catalyzes this conference’s theme.
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Registration for the 2026 Volumes Conference is now open! Visit 2026 Volumes Conference page to learn more with the button below.
Volumes, the 60th annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts takes place in Detroit, Michigan.Volumes, the 60th conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), explores material-driven experimentation and conceptual frameworks that animate art created through clay. The essential energy of voices and sounds of the Detroit region catalyzes this conference’s theme.