Ceramic Artists Create Nonprofit, Scholarship

GOSHEN — Seeds of ceramics are taking root in Michiana.

In the fall, the Northern Indiana Clay Alliance was established with 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.

“We’re still getting ourselves organized, but we want to try to provide opportunity not only for the artists that live here, but we want to make sure that we’re bringing people in from beyond,” said co-founder Trevor Daugherty.

He and Justin Rothshank, both of Goshen, founded the Northern Indiana Clay Alliance in an effort to make use of resources available to further opportunities for clay in Michiana. Rothshank serves as the board president, and Daugherty manages daily operations as the executive director. They’ll also be introducing the Marvin Bartel Scholarship to a high school senior studying art.

*Bartel, now a Greencroft resident, began teaching clay at Goshen College in 1970 and taught many of the ceramic artists in the area today. Daugherty lives in Bartel’s old home and uses the studio.

Over the last 11 years, the Michiana Pottery Tour in northern Indiana and southern Michigan, boasting many of Bartel’s students, has grown to 10 stops, making more than $100,000 in sales during the weekend-long tour each year. The Northern Indiana Clay Alliance forms from members of the tour.

“Almost every ceramic artist here in Goshen, specifically who has stayed, is kind of out of his family tree of artists,” Daugherty explained. “We all have this connection to him so we’re naming the scholarship after him. He’s had this incredible impact on ceramics in northern Indiana and we want to honor that.”

Daugherty added that while the scholarship will be named after the man that brought the modern clay artists to the community, there are more than 180 years of history of ceramics in Indiana.

“NICA recognizes that Indigenous people from tribes, like Miami and Potawatomi, were utilizing local clay in this region to create for their daily use and trade,” the website says. “The Treaty of 1828 forcefully removed many of these Native residents who called this area, and the natural resources surrounding, home. There is much more to be learned about the creative use of clay in our region at this time.”

The alliance is membership driven.

For students and teachers, the cost is $50 per year. The membership gains them access to the quarterly newsletter, invitation to artist mixer and networking events, discounted workshop fees, discounts on IndianaClay.org purchases, professional development opportunities, and a promotional sticker.

For friends and hobbyists, the cost is $100 per year for the same.

For full-time or part-time artists, the cost is $200 per year, and gets them on the artist directory listing, possible participation in Michiana Pottery Tour with host invitation, participation in annual Christmas sale, first access to regional exhibition and teaching opportunities, and social media and marketing support, as well as all benefits of the friends level membership.

“There aren’t a lot of professional development opportunities, which are required to keep up your license to teach, so we’re going to try to bring some of that to the region,” Daugherty said.

For more information, visit www.indianaclay.org or follow along on Instagram at @indianaclayorg.