American Pottery Festival
August 28 – 30, 2026
Main & Galusha Galleries
Opening Night Party: Friday, August 28
Work Live Online: Saturday, August 29 at 10 am CT
Join us for the 28th Annual American Pottery Festival (APF), August 28 – 30, 2026!
Our biggest annual event brings together ceramic artists from across the United States, showcasing the best in the field. Experience a stunning variety of creative processes, techniques, forms, and surfaces. The event kicks off with our Opening Night Party on Friday, August 28, 2026!
Your participation in APF directly support NCC’s mission to advance the ceramic arts through education, exhibitions, scholarships, and grant programs. This festival serves as a thoughtfully curated platform for makers, clay enthusiasts, learners, collectors, and the curious to connect, create, and be inspired.
Each year, NCC prioritizes diversity when inviting artists, ensuring a wide representation of lived experiences and perspectives. The 2026 festival will feature an extraordinary lineup of artists whose work highlights a vast range of techniques, aesthetics, and materials. Their unique journeys to a career in ceramics will inspire participants of all backgrounds.
The weekend will offer engaging opportunities to connect with artists through artist talks, workshops, demonstrations, and casual gallery chats. Whether you’re a student, a collector, or a fellow maker, you’ll find valuable learning experiences throughout the event. Scholarships are available for all demonstrations and workshops, making them accessible to everyone.
About the Artists
Sara Alfieri, Kurt Anderson, Marissa Childers, Sandra Daulton Shaughnessy, Celia Feldberg, Stephen Heywood, Erica Iman, Samuel Johnson, Steven Young Lee, Suze Lindsay, Andrew McIntyre, Taylor Mezo, KyoungHwa Oh, Doug Peltzman, Lindsay Rogers.
Sara Alfieri
Alfieri’s work investigates the layered relationship between design, function, and accessibility through digitally designed, slip-casted ceramic vessels and architecturally-inspired sculptures.
Kurt Anderson
Anderson’s everyday ceramic objects feature technicolor imagery that playfully combines old and new: bold, sharply drawn characters that wouldn’t be out of place in graphic novels or street art are nestled within patterned backgrounds that nod back to the folk pottery traditions of China, Japan, and Persia.
Marissa Childers
Childers’ work explores moments of connection and intimacy while celebrating femininity and craft found within domestic spaces. She is often inspired by things society deems a craft or feminine such as, quilting, sewing, and decoration.
Sandra Daulton Shaughnessy
I describe my clay work as ‘ceremoniously functional,’ meaning there is an element of ritual involved while using my handmade pottery. Many of my pieces have an altered quality that expresses the softness of the clay and the atmospheric soda firing process.
Celia Feldberg
Celia Feldberg is an artist living in Philadelphia, PA. Born in England and raised in Massachusetts, she earned her BFA in ceramics from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Boston) in 2019. She makes illustrated pottery, teaches, and maintains an active involvement at craft schools. She is currently a resident artist at The Clay Studio (Philadelphia).
Stephen Heywood
Heywood’s work is influenced by architectural structures including factories, silos, barns, and water towers. His vessels are often composed of many wheel-thrown and handbuilt parts and take their shape as small functional sculpture.
Erica Iman
Iman’s hand-built work is inspired by geological formations. She leans on the clay’s inherent qualities to mimic the processes and structures in nature.
Samuel Johnson
Johnson’s work represents a blend of control and natural variation, emphasizing the organic changes produced by the wood kiln. Johnson’s work has been shown in over 100 group and solo exhibitions and is included in the permanent collections of multiple museums.
Steven Young Lee
Lee has lectured extensively in North America and Asia and is inspired by the dichotomy of the metropolitan and rural communities he has worked in. His intentionally deconstructing vessels aim to challenge traditional craft protocols and question classical notions of beauty and perfection.
Suze Lindsay
Working with stoneware clay, Lindsay subtly suggests figure and character by manipulating forms after they are thrown. An integral part of her work includes surface decoration to enhance her pottery forms by patterning and painting slips and glazes for salt firing.
Andrew McIntyre
McIntyre is inspired by patterns and luminosity of stained glass windows and he implements these details into his own work. He uses the traditional technique of perforating patterned holes in the clay to allow room for filling these windows with glaze to achieve a unique level of translucency.
Taylor Mezo
Using slab building and wheelthrowing techniques, Mezo’s work has playful forms and geometric surface patterns. She works primarily in funk-tional ceramic wares, made from red earthenware with a vibrant color palette. When she is not working in the studio, Mezo is probably scoping out a local classic car show for inspiration.
KyoungHwa Oh
Oh’s work consists of functional and sculptural carved porcelain. First, her pieces are thrown on the wheel, and then altered by cutting, adding clay, and carving to create new forms. Like Yin and Yang, Oh encompasses the influence between traditional Asian values and modern Western society.
Doug Peltzman
Doug Peltzman was born in New York City and raised on Long Island. He has been making pots since 2003. Since graduating with his MFA from Penn State (University Park, PA) in 2010, he established a pottery studio with his wife, Pam, in Shokan, New York. He is a father of three young children, a dedicated husband, and a full-time studio potter.
Lindsay Rogers
Rogers describes her practice as having a, “foundation deeply rooted in craft tradition.” She uses regional brown stoneware clay that she forms on a manually operated treadle wheel. Rogers is inspired by the connection between pottery and food and creates pieces that reflect the, “tremendous beauty that comes from the experience of creating and sharing a lovingly prepared meal.”
Related Events
Click on the tiles below to purchase tickets for opening night, workshops, and demonstrations:
Conference Scholarships and Discounts Available
100% scholarship available to BIPOC attendees
50% scholarship available to any who identify as experiencing financial need
50% discount for K-12 through post-secondary students and educators
$10 discount for NCC Members
Pre-festival Workshops
There are a limited number of scholarships and discounts available for pre-festival workshops. Please contact nccinfo@northernclaycenter.org for information.
Purchase Work
May Preview Show
Sales Gallery and Online:
April 28 – May 31
The American Pottery Festival Preview is your only chance to see and purchase work by this year’s guest artists until APF opening night on Friday, August 28!
Work will go live at 10 am CT on Tuesday, April 28.
You must be logged in to post a comment.