Be sure to check out Bonnie's upcoming workshop offering by Vince Pitelka: FORM AND SURFACE WITH COLORED CLAY, coming up in June in beautiful Ouray, Colorado

NCECA: National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts

NCECA has always been an excellent experience for me, and this was my 7th or 8th, and each year they seem to get better. I found people very friendly from my first in Columbus, OH and each year I know more people, so they’ve gotten to be like a family reunion for me.

There is a great variety of events to attend through the 2 ½ days of presentations, and the one day of bus tours of galleries. On Tuesday, March 13, 2007 I joined several friends and took a taxi to a gallery opening of a Clayart Cyber Show. This was one that 2 clayarters had juried from submissions by participants on the clayart listserv.  It was an excellent show made even better by my knowing almost all the artists, most of whom were present at the opening.

The next day, Wednesday, March 14th, Louisville did such a great job with the bus tours. There were 4 different routes where busses came regularly, and the shows had so many great pots. When you register, you select whether or not you want to take certain of the busses. The cost is about $10 per route, and I’ve found them well worth it. You don’t have to hassle getting from place to place. The bus drops you off near a gallery, sometimes several galleries, and when you’re ready to move on, you wait in that same spot for the next bus.

Over the years I’ve particularly enjoyed NCECA in cities that are not typical destination vacation spots, such as Louisville, KY, because galleries seem to be friendlier to ceramics. I’m hoping that Pittsburgh, PA next year will be the same.

I stayed at the Galt Hotel, which also turned out to be an excellent choice. It was close to the Convention Center, which had NCECA presentations, but had recently remodeled, very nice, spacious rooms. I could walk to the Convention Center without going outside.

I attended 4 presentations, all lectures or discussion groups and all were good. There were many more I didn’t attend, and I heard good things about those. There were also all-day demonstrations in 2 different rooms. Each room held 3 ceramics people with video on screens like a sports event, and each person had a microphone so everyone could see and hear what the clay people were making.

I gave an information discussion on Taxation for US Ceramic Artists at a breakout session, and had a group of about 25 people, all of whom seemed quite interested and attentive. Although many participants were people who knew me, this was part of the official NCECA program, and there were many whom I’d never met.

This was an especially well organized, well run NCECA. As usual, my single favorite spot was the vendor room, which is huge. I found several tools I couldn’t live without, most of them planned purchases. It’s great being able to see everything right in front of you, and talk with the manufacturers and retailers.

Because Louisville is a small city, the galleries are all a reasonable distance from downtown, and the shows were particularly good. I saw quite a few pieces I wanted to remember, and took photos of them.

Bonnie [be sure to check out Bonnie's upcoming workshop offering by Vince Pitelka: FORM AND SURFACE WITH COLORED CLAY, coming up in June in beautiful Ouray, Colorado]