Green Learning Community Meeting Quick Registration Links!
Green Learning Community meetings are open to everyone to attend. Come to learn, come to tell us what you are doing, come to support sustainability in our field! For detailed descriptions of each meeting please visit the Green Learning Community Tab above.
green learning community (GLC)
The Green Learning Community is a casual group of makers, artisans, craftsman, distributers, collectors, and educators who gather every month to discuss different topics involving sustainability, materials consumption, and environmental issues and stewardship in ceramics. All are welcome to join these meetings! Click on Green Learning Community above for more information. Next discussion groups listed to the left.
green task force (GTF)
The NCECA Green Task Force is a committee of the National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). It was formed in 2008 to increase awareness and share knowledge that advances environmental stewardship in all venues of ceramic art and education.
Time for the conference! Exciting!! Here are activities at NCECA that may have content addressing environmental sustainability - please double check the dates times and location - See you in Salt Lake!
Exhibitions at NCECA:
Room 260 A Convention Center
FORMATION UNDER THE BIG SKY:
WILD CLAY & MATERIAL RESEARCH AT MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY
Organized by Josh DeWeese and Jeremy Hatch. Celebrating the Wild Clay Research Project at Montana State University from the 1940s to the present day and the artists who have explored local clays and ceramic material for their creative expression. David Peters, Matt Levy, Amy Edler, Cameron Engh, Kenzie Lindemann, Miles Heespelink, Ben Blackwood, Dante Gambardella, Jack Schwarze, Kevin Hock, Joe Geil, Rachel Marne Jones, Danielle O’Malley, Rose Schreiber, Frances Senska, Peter Voulkos, Jeremy Hatch, Josh DeWeese. Reception: Wed, Mar 26, 4–5:30pm
MESTIZO GALLERY
92 S Rio Grande St., Salt Lake CitY
281-793-4260
TREADING LIGHTLY: WALKING THE TALK
Co-curated by Lisa Orr and Pots on Wheels.
This exhibition features ceramic artists advancing sustainability in their practice, exploring environmental themes, and sharing innovative solutions for a sustainable future. Osa Atoe, Jane Bamford, John Baymore, Linda Christianson, Naomi Dalglish, Julia Galloway, Michael Hunt, Paulina Jimenez-Gomez, Justin Lambert, Brandi Lee Cooper, Yuliya Makliuk, John Neely, Scott Parady, Kate Roberts, Lindsay Rogers, Brad Clem
Mon–Sat 10am–5pm.On view: Mar 25–May 3
Reception: Thu, Mar 27, 5–9pm
VISUAL ART INSTITUTE
2900 S 300 W, South Salt Lake
801-474-3796
IN TRANSIT
Organized by Eliza Weber and NCECA Green Task Force.
Anchored with work from Green Task Force members, this exhibition focuses on sustainability themes and highlights the collective carbon footprint by asking participants to bring work rather than shipping. Liz Duarte, Robert Harrison, Brian Kohl, Janna Longacre, Emma Logan, Derek Reeverts, Eliza Weber, Chanda Zea
On view: Mar 25–29
Mon–Fri, 10am–7pm (Thu open until 9pm), Sat 9am–3pm
Reception: Thu, Mar 27, 6pm–9pm
Project Space at NCECA:
Exhibit Halls D–E
Tuesday 6:30PM–8:00PM (reception)
Wednesday-Friday 9:00AM–12:00PM/1:00PM–4:00PM
Salt to Salt
Nina Samuels - Come create a community marine reef out of clay that will later be fired with salt from the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Sculpt, throw, or mold work that will be strung together and submerged in the ocean to serve as a sustainable artificial reef for marine organisms. Learn about and participate in making sustainable ceramics.
Wild Clay, Domestic Sludge
Join the NCECA Green Task Force, Matt Fiske, Hamish Jackson, and others for a wild clay experience that includes learning how to ethically harvest and process wild clay using materials from Utah. Join our Green Learning Community, learn about waste clay and glaze possibilities, and help promote environmental sustainability in our field.
STEAM Poster Session
(Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics)
Thursday 3:00PM–5:00PM Friday 9:00AM–3:00PM
(POSTERS ON VIEW)
A showcase of posters with research and testing results from topics relevant to science, technology, and ceramic arts. The Thursday afternoon session will allow conference attendees to engage with the poster creators. Posters will remain on view through Friday at 3:00PM.
Thursday and Friday Programing
Thursday March 27 9:00AM–9:30AM. 155 A–C
LECTURE: Volcanic Pumice and Clay Body Formulation
James Tingey
Pumice is an overlooked and poorly understood material in the formulation of clay bodies. The lecture will help the studio artist understand the chemistry, melting behavior, limitations, and potential application of one commercially available pumice and provide information, recipes, and testing methods to begin their own clay body development.
Thursday March 27 1:00 – 1:30 255 D–F
LECTURE: A Continuous Native Journey: Micaceous Clay
Carmelita M. Topaha - CANCELED
Thursday March 27. 1:00 – 2:00. 155 A–C
CO-LECTURE: Biohybrid Fabrication with Ceramics and Fungi
Thomas Schmidt and Jonathan Dessi-Olive
University of North Carolina Charlotte colleagues Thomas Schmidt and Jonathan Dessi-Olive will share their innovative research on cultivating fungi with ceramics for applications in art and design. This co-lecture will provide an overview of this emerging sustainable practice and share how this methodology developed into an interdisciplinary course for students in art and architecture.
Thursday March 27 2:30 – 3:30 155 A–C
PANEL: Rocket Kiln: Low Emission Wood Firing
Lisa Orr (Moderator), Chris Alveshere, Rodney Morgan Permaculture meets ceramics in the low-wood, low-emission firing technology of the Rocket Kiln, based on the smokeless Rocket Stove technology. All temperatures up to Cone 10 can be achieved in a few hours using a repurposed kiln atop an efficiently designed firing chamber.
Thursday March 27 3:00PM–4:30PM 255 A–C
SHORT FORM PRESENTATION: Green Ceramics
Manpreeth Singh Nishter from India shares insight on sustainable ceramics. His studio and processes make our planet a better place without compromising on quality of work.
Friday March 28 9:00 – 10:00 255 A–C
PANEL: Indigenous Ceramics: Generations of Clay Deposits
Gavin Noyes (Moderator), Trey Adcock, Tara McCoy, Elroy Lehi
Three Indigenous potters will introduce conference attendees to ceramic art traditions and steps toward revitalization in Ute, Cherokee, and Pueblo cultures. Clay, fire, water and minerals used to make clay art are not simply materials, but are living, breathing, spiritual beings, who are viewed as relatives.
Friday March 28 9-12 demonstrating artist
Mata Ortiz Pottery Techniques by Diego Valles
Valles will demonstrate the main steps to creating a Mata Ortiz vessel by creating pots with natural-occurring clays using coils, burnishing bone-dry pieces, and decorating the surfaces using his slips with human hair brushes, adding his personal touches to the traditional techniques.
Friday March 28 4:30PM–5:00PM 255 D–F
LECTURE: Saying Yes to Experimental Community Projects
Audra Clayton
Firing food as glaze? How can studios say yes to unorthodox proposals, new relationships, and expansive possibilities? Hear from Audra Clayton, Ceramics Manager at Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media, about her and social practice artist Lindsey Scherloum’s experimental collaboration using ceramics in support of community efforts around food insecurity.
our mission
VISION
Through tenets of sustainability, community, and education the NCECA Green Task Force works to expand the capacity of the community to engage in environmental stewardship in the practice of using clay and ceramic materials.
MISSION
Through education, research, programming, and communication, the NCECA Green Task Force will expand and advance the scope of awareness and knowledge about environmentally sound practices when working with clay. Recognizing that sustainability and issues in equity are tied together, we proactively strive towards racial equity, greater diversity, and thoughtful inclusion.
The NCECA Green Task Force (GTF) is a sub-entity of the National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). It was formed in 2008 to increase awareness and share knowledge that advances environmental stewardship in all venues of ceramic art and education. Ranging from administrative work to conference gatherings and further extending to share information with and among NCECA’s members about important environmental issues affecting the ceramic arts. The GTF will provide a forum for progressive discussion on green studio practices and creative solutions to issues facing the field.
The Green Learning Community (GLC) is a sub-entity of NCECA formed in 2021. It is a casual group of makers, artisans, craftsman, distributers, collectors, and educators who gather every month to discuss different topics involving sustainability, materials consumption, and environmental issues and stewardship in ceramics.
our history
In 2008 under the presidency of Robert Harrison the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Art (NCECA) formed the Green Task Force (GTF) to focus on the increasingly popular green/sustainability movement and how it relates to the field of ceramics. The early meetings were spent focusing on what it was the Green Task Force would do to bring forth issues of sustainability to the international community that makes up the membership of NCECA.