NCECA’s 59th Annual Conference,
Formation, Salt Lake City, Utah,
March 26-29, 2025.
Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center
90 S W Temple St, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84101
Formation, the theme of the 59th annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), invites us to dig deep into the historical and cultural significance of ceramics worldwide. Philosopher and educator John Dewey wrote, “The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.”
Formation is the rhythmic heartbeat that pulses within our construction of self, ever-present throughout nature and represents the beginning of all materials, things, and ideas. The Great Salt Lake region has undergone shifts in climate and geology that manifest formation in notable ways. Teaching, learning, and creation through clay involve continual engagement with formation as action, engagement, and analysis.
Formation orders and reconfigures our understanding of cultural identity, continuity, and change in times of environmental crisis and innovation. Formation is a moment of opportunity – a dynamic process of definition, vision, and determination within individuals, communities, the human-made, and the natural world. This event, centered on ceramic art, will explore formation through exhibitions and presentations by diverse creators and culture workers involved in pottery, sculpture, design and installation, and performance.
2026 Volumes Conference, Detroit, Michigan
NCECA’s 60th Annual Conference, Volumes,
takes place in Detroit, Michigan.
Wednesday, March 25 - Saturday, March 28, 2026
Volumes, the 60th conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), explores diverse cultures, 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.
Teaching, learning, and creation through clay involve continual engagement with volumes as action and analysis. Volumes give form to our cultural identities, continuity, and change in a time of environmental crisis. Centered on ceramic art, this 6oth NCECA conference will expand access and deepen understanding of ceramic art. Creators of culture, educators, and students involved in pottery, sculpture, design and installation, and performance will be its engines.
Get ready for the 2026 Volumes Conference! Stay updated on all upcoming programming, events, and announcements by following us on social media @NCECA. Click the button below and stay informed!
2025 Formation Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah
NCECA’s 59th Annual Conference, Formation, takes places in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Wednesday, March 26 - Saturday, March 29, 2025
Philosopher and educator John Dewey wrote, “The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.”
Formation is the rhythmic heartbeat that pulses within our construction of self, ever-present throughout nature and represents the beginning of all materials, things, and ideas. The Great Salt Lake region has undergone shifts in climate and geology that manifest formation in notable ways. Teaching, learning, and creation through clay involve continual engagement with formation as action, engagement, and analysis.
Formation is a moment of opportunity – a dynamic process of definition, vision, and determination within individuals, communities, the human-made, and the natural world. This event, centered on ceramic art, will explore formation through exhibitions and presentations by diverse creators and culture workers involved in pottery, sculpture, design and installation, and performance.
To learn more about the 2025 Formation
Conference and register, click the button below:
2024 Coalescence Conference, Richmond, Virginia
NCECA’s 58th Annual Conference, Coalescence, took place in Richmond, Virginia.
Wednesday, March 20 - Saturday, March 23, 2024
A process repeated at every scale in nature, from sub-atomic particles and water droplets to binary stars and black holes, coalescence occurs when separate elements merge into a single body or group. When coalescence occurs in nature even light years away, we are able to sense it through the energies released. Creative coalescence is a vibrant force in Richmond, Virginia’s cultural ecosystem, and its energies radiate throughout the region’s community centers, K-12, and higher education, and studios.
Coalescence is the power, presence, and innovation that occurs through our work with clay and communities. Coalescence was an opportunity to share and learn about the changing ways we teach, learn, and create through clay. NCECA invited you to share stories, research, and the creation of coalescence happening through your work in ceramic art.
To learn more about the 2024 Coalescence Conference click the button below:
2023 Current Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio
NCECA’s 57th Annual Conference, Current,
took place in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Wednesday, March 15 – Saturday, March 18, 2023
Cincinnati is home to a vibrant creative community of artists, many working with clay. Collectively and individually, they got their hands dirty and shaped new worlds. The region’s first peoples of the Eastern Woodland Indian tribes venerated their ancestors, moving tons of earth over long distances to form massive mounds. In the early 19th century, scores of brickmakers and artisans churned out construction materials from the clay-rich flatlands bordering the Mill Creek in their very backyards. Later, ceramic artists like Maria Longworth Storer established Rookwood Pottery when she discovered that the clays of the Ohio Valley rivaled those used in the world’s finest ceramics.
The Current conference included presentations, demonstrations, lectures, exhibitions, and a resource hall featuring vendors, nonprofit organizations, and a gallery expo. To learn more about the 2023 Current
Conference, click the button below:
2022 Fertile Ground Conference, Sacramento, CA
NCECA’s 56th Annual Conference,
Fertile Ground, took place in Sacramento, California, with Virtual Access.
Wednesday, March 16 – Saturday, March 19, 2022
Poet and activist Gary Snyder writes, “The great Central Valley region does not prefer English over Spanish or Japanese or Hmong. If it had any preferences at all, it might best like the languages it has heard for thousands of years, such as Maidu or Miwok, simply because it is used to them. Mythically speaking, it will welcome whomever chooses to observe the etiquette, express the gratitude, grasp the tools, and learn the songs that it takes to live there.”
NCECA’s first hybrid conference included virtual and in-person programming at the convention center, featuring presentations, demonstrations, lectures, exhibitions, a resource hall with vendors and nonprofit organizations, a gallery expo, and more than 80 exhibitions held at venues around the region. To learn more about the hybrid 2022 Fertile Ground Conference, click the button below:
2021 Rivers, Reflections, Reinventions, Virtual Conference
NCECA’s 55th Annual Conference,
Rivers, Reflections, Reinventions took place virtually online on the vFairs platform.
Wednesday, March 17- Saturday, March 21, 2021
Waterways, natural and constructed, are key features of the Cincinnati region. Poet Langston Hughes captured an essential metaphor for the ways in which water courses through time and territory to mirror the experience of our inner lives. “My soul has grown deep like the rivers,” tells us that our lives are forever changing, our life spans occupying but a fraction of the events that occur throughout the natural and crafted world over time. Clays, minerals, stories, ideas, and aspirations of those who create are all transported through rivers’ currents, figurative and literal. Like clay hardened in fire, rivers far outlast us.
NCECA's first-ever virtual conference was held entirely online, featuring programming, presentations, and exhibitions. To learn more about the 2021 Rivers, Reflections, Reinventions Conference, click the button below: