NCECA 2025 : Small Bites from A First-Timer's Conference

National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts' 59th Annual Conference, Formation, took place in Salt Lake City, Utah at the very end of last month from March 26th to March 29th - and I had the honor to attend for my first time!

The conference was chalk full of panels, talks, demonstations, exhibitions booths and ceramic goodies galore. The line-up of presentations varied from conversations about clay communities, problem solving glazes & clay bodies, anthropological analysis, and scientific explorations and experimentations and more. I did my best to attend a variety of topics presented; however, I found myself continuously coming back to the more anthropological talks (which if you know me, you know that makes sense a lot of sense as I do have a bachelors degree in anthropology.)

Below I'm going to quickly layout some of the presentations I attended and some of the highlights and tidbits I found interesting.

Volcanic Pumice and Clay Body Formation : Presented by James Tingey (Raw Materials Technical Specialist, Instructor and Gring Room Manager at Alfred University)

• Pumice can act as an alternative to fluxes (like feldspar) in clay body formation

• Pumice can also be used in glazes to increase the firing range (the Kansas Geological Society has studies about this such as the 1952 analysis about the Uses of Volcanic Ash discusses this in more depth)

• Pumice melts better/at a lower temperature than Neph Sy & Minspar (Soda feldspar)

• In a chemical breakdown of a claybody which uses pumice it has a higher iron content, which is sometimes seen as a negative as it can prevent a true white clay body.

  

  Slide from James Tigney's Presentation, Volcanic Pumice and Clay Bodies

Ghanian Ceramics : A Trans-Atlantic Renaissance : Presented by Samuel Nortey, Jeanie Hulen and Vincent (Sniper) Frimpong

• In Ghanian contemporary ceramic practice many finished ceramic artworks are left unglazed. It is both a stylistic choice and due to material availibility.

• In Ghanian Academia publication is often valued over artistic exploration and exhibtion for professors. Despite this, many in the field acknowledge that both aspects (publication and exhibtion) are vital to professorship in the studio arts.

• Papers you can read by Dr. Samuel Nortey & Adam Posnak - From Arkansas to Ghana: The clay is still red and Ghanian-American Ceramics

• Vincent (Sniper) Frimpong and other Ghanian ceramic artists studying at KNUST/University of Arkansas have formed a collective called Goldcoast Terracotta

Indigenous Ceramics : Generations of Clay Deposits : Presented by Elroy Lehi, Gavin Noyes, Tara McCoy, Aldean Ketchum, Trey Adcock. Presenters are from branches of the Cherokee Nation and the Ute Tribe.

• Questions to ponder from the presentstion via an indigenous perspective : How can we understand the clay? How can we offer support to indigenous communities in their pursuit of cultural clay knowleged and exploration moving forward?

• Over 50 tribes used to (and some still do) gather at Great Salt Lake to collect salt

• Aldean Ketchum creates creamic flutes which are viewed as a healing instrument in his tribe. Music can be viewed as giving trees a voice. The room came and healed together as we were lucky to witness a speical moment where Aldean played a song on his flute which he called "Grandfather's song."

• Kananesgi is a Cherokee organization which encourages art in community by providing the tribe's artists with business skills and opportunity. it also seeks to share knowledge, pass down skill sets and increase craftmanship. The organization hosts indigenous makers markets, fashion shows and art shows.

  
  
  

  

  

  
  
  

  The above are images from various shows and booths within the conference venue.

  
  

  Stay tuned for a post where I'll discuss some of the curtorial choices made in the 2025 NCECA Annual Exhibit True and Real!