Northern Clay Center

At Northern Clay Center, we believe art builds strong people and strong communities!

With your support, NCC will continue to lead in ceramic art, nurturing a welcoming, creative space for artists, learners, and educators—and sharing this vibrant hub with community members who need it most.

Through our outreach programs—ClayToGo and ART@HAND—we bring ceramic experiences directly into our neighborhoods: into schools, libraries, senior living facilities, adult day centers, memory care units, under-resourced communities, and summer camps.

Our Vital Aging / ART@HAND programs bring clay classes to individuals in many care settings: long-term, assisted, memory care, adult day, inpatient and outpatient environment. There, people ages 55+ engage through hands-on workshops, which can result in improved cognition, fine motor skills, memory recall, reduced isolation, and a stronger sense of purpose.

At the same time, our school and community-based residencies and workshops empower young people in under-resourced neighborhoods with tools, mentorship, and hands-on ceramic making—often bringing materials and teaching artists to where students are.

Your donation today makes these programs possible: providing clay, tools, teaching artist time, transportation, and the flexibility to adapt to diverse settings—from classrooms to memory care units. With your help, we can provide these essential programs, ensuring that every person—young or old, well-resourced or not, emerging artist or experiences—has access to the power of making with clay.

Here are a few examples of what your donation will help us achieve:

Spark Creativity	$50	Can provide clay, tools, and glazes for a classroom workshop, giving a child their first experience with ceramics in school or at a community center.
Support Vital Aging	$100	Can provide supplies for an ART@HAND session in a memory care or adult day program, bringing joy, connection, and improved well-being to older adults.
Introduce a Child to  the Wonder of Art	$250	Can provide scholarship funding to bring a child from an under-resourced community to NCC for camp or classes.
Empower Teaching Artists	$500	Can help fund stipends to artists so they can provide young learners with meaningful, hands-on exposure to the ceramic arts.
Build Community Access	$1000	Can support ClayToGo outreach in neighborhoods where access to arts education is limited, ensuring clay reaches those who might otherwise be left out.
Transform Lives Through Clay	$5000	Can underwrite a semester-long partnership with a memory care center or under-resourced school, creating sustained impact through ongoing classes, workshops, and exhibitions of student work.

None of our efforts are possible without the very generous support from our members, donors, students, volunteers, visitors, and artists, who buttress the efforts of our staff and board through financial contributions, through volunteering of time, and through the sharing of knowledge and passion for the ceramic arts.