NCECA’s 60th conference, Volumes, takes place in Detroit, Michigan, March 25 - 28, 2026
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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.
Like the subterranean networks that connect trees in a forest, the meanings of words have roots that we can connect through etymology. Some of the earliest known artifacts containing writing were produced on scrolling spirals of papyrus that ancient Roman historians called volumen. The same underlying spiraling structure abides within pots, figures, and other forms fashioned from clay coils since ancient times. Today, neural networks carrying and harvesting volumes of information are generating Artificial Intelligence that will change how we learn, work, and create.
The meaning of volumes most integrally embodied in the 2026 conference theme lies within unseeable spaces of our clay works and the firing chambers that transform them. Volumes are forces that give power and shape to the world we experience. Detroit is a place that embodies this sense of interior energy. A real and metaphorical foundry of creative ambition and craftsmanship shaped by waves of migration, industry, and resilience, Detroit has volumes to teach us.
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 60th 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.
About NCECA
The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) is a dynamic, 501(c)3 organization that engages and sustains a community for ceramic art, teaching and learning. In addition to deepening knowledge within the field, NCECA expands it by working to cultivate the next generation of ceramic artists and enthusiasts through programing that affects professional artists, K-12 schools, community centers, universities, museums, galleries, businesses, organizations, collectors and enthusiasts of ceramic art. Currently comprised of approximately 4,500 members from the United States and more than 20 foreign countries, NCECA reaches thousands of additional individuals each year through its programs, publications, events, exhibitions and resources.
NCECA cultivates and sustains networks for reflective and creative practice through an annual conference, special interest symposia, and national and regional exhibitions. NCECA’s annual conference features dozens of presenters, demonstrations networking opportunities and exhibitions over three and a half days each spring, each year in a different US city. NCECA’s Board of Directors and special appointees review hundreds of proposals for sessions and exhibitions gathered through open calls for submissions. Sponsored exhibitions include the NCECA Annual, Multicultural Fellowship Exhibition, and the NCECA Juried Student Exhibition. In conjunction with the NCECA-sponsored exhibitions the organization also reviews, sites and promotes nearly 100 concurrent exhibitions in the host region surrounding the annual conference.
NCECA supports learning year-round beyond the conference through media resources that feature accomplished artists at work, a journal that chronicles presentations, and a catalog that documents the three NCECA sponsored exhibitions. Additionally, NCECA fosters inquiry and professional advancement of ceramic arts and artists through annual fellowships that support independent research beyond the academic environment and awards that recognize and support emerging artists and international residency experiences.