Our Highest Awards and Honors

As I sitting here, watching the Oscars, I am thinking about our own upcoming awards.  While we don’t keep it top secret until the envelope is opened, these awards are the similar to the Academy Awards in that they are the most prestigious in our field.  Here, I will provide the briefest of introductions to these phenomenal figures in our field.  But this tiny tidbit is merely designed to entice you to join us at

10:45 Friday in Ballroom B & C

as we celebrate these NCECA members and major figures in our field:

Our Regional Award of Excellence goes to Harriet Brisson.  NCECA has a beautiful rich history, and Harriet Brisson was not only a part of that history, she was its recorder too.  Nearly 25 years ago, Ms. Brisson took a sabatical to write a document retelling the first 25 years of our organization.  If you haven’t read it, you can check it out here, then come and honor her for her service to the organization and to the Providence community!

The NCECA Outstanding Achievement Award will recognize the lives and work of Lisa Blackburn and John Hartom.  Lisa Blackburn & John Hartom may be  better known by their creation, Empty Bowls, an international project to fight hunger, while simultaneously advocating for arts education.  We are thrilled to be able to honor them with this award during their 25th anniversary

As an organization dedicated to education, we recognize outstanding teachers in our field with the Excellence in Teaching award.  Our 2015 recipients of this award are Linda Arbuckle and Wayne Higby.  Higby began his career as a ceramics professor in 1968 at the University of Nebraska at Omaha after 2 years there and  three at RISD, he made New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred his home for over 4 decades.   After earning her MFA at RISD, Linda Arbuckle began her career in teaching at LSU.  In 1992, she took a position at Florida Univeristy where she has remained.  She broadens her impact by also teaching multiple workshops every year and maintaining an extensive resource of educational tools on her website.  We are honored to recognize the outstanding dedication to teaching that these two educators have exhibited throughout their lives.

Being inducted as Honorary Members of NCECA are Léopold Foulem and Mary Barringer.  Many of us might know Mary better by the magazine she founded and has edited for the last four decades, Studio Potter.  Throughout those years she also taught full and part time and maintained a studio of her own.  Léopold is a Canadian Ceramicist, writer and teacher.  He has been active in our field for over half a century and has been featured in over 40 solo exhibitions.  Both of these individuals represent the pinnacle of lifetime achievements in our field.

Finally, our highest award, Fellow of the Council will be bestowed upon Keith Williams.  Keith is a former president and director-at-large for NCECA, wearer-of-funny-hats and marvelously mustached man with a better than mediocre sense of humor.  He has been a ceramicist since 1973, and has been teaching ceramics, art history and drawing at the collegiate level since 1989.  Keith continues to serve NCECA in a variety of ways from active participation in special projects to words of wisdom, and mentorship to many current board members.  He is a fine example of what NCECA service should look like (hats optional)

We hope you will all join us to cherish these treasures in our field at

10:45 Friday in Ballroom B & C