Expanding from a pottery tour to a nonprofit proved to be an important step for this collective of ceramic artists. The transition to a formal structure has created opportunities for growth in its funding and operations.
The Michiana Pottery Tour was established in 2012 and quickly grew into a two-day annual event; by 2024, ten artists across this region in northern Indiana and southern Michigan were opening their studios to the public, with a total of 60+ artists participating and hundreds of visitors attending. With this growth, challenges emerged that highlighted the need for a more formal structure. This realization led to the creation of the Northern Indiana Clay Alliance (NICA), a nonprofit organization aimed at addressing the logistical and financial complexities that came with the expanded tour, as well as fostering a greater sense of community among artists in the region.
Why Start a Nonprofit?
What was once a labor of love, coordinated largely by volunteers, quickly became a year-round effort. As the Michiana Pottery Tour gained recognition, the demands for communication and planning throughout the year intensified. Organizing this without formal backing proved unsustainable. The initial informal setup, while effective for a smaller event, couldn’t handle the growing responsibilities—financial, legal, and organizational—that came with an event of this magnitude.
There have been two points of friction that needed to be resolved. From a legal standpoint, if something goes wrong, who is actually in charge in an informal organization? With several hundred people coming through our studio doors, there are any number of questions, concerns, and other actions that need to happen because of the sheer size of the event. This also manifests itself on the financial side. Not only are the finances increasingly complicated, as we’ve grown to nearly 60 artists on the tour, the tax ramifications, etc., for a single individual to manage isn’t tenable.
Secondly, the tour is a year-round endeavor from a management perspective. As the profile continues to rise, more organization and communication are needed throughout the calendar year to ensure its success. While many tasks have been shared among artists willing to volunteer for different roles, there needs to be some amount of central organization, and it’s also critical that a dedicated person willing to spend that time, which is tough to justify in an unpaid role.
Creating NICA allowed us to professionalize the management, streamline communication, and provide a consistent voice for the tour. This structure also opened the door to securing grants and other funding sources, which are vital for continued growth.
Benefits of Forming NICA
Since establishing NICA, the organization has seen measurable benefits in multiple areas. A key advantage of operating as a nonprofit has been access to grant funding. Because of the increasingly partisan political environment we’re in, perceived and real economic issues, and a general lack of trustworthiness of the public, raising funds and getting individuals to believe in any new group is an uphill battle. This not only goes for soliciting donations from the general public, but also getting members to believe in the mission of the organization.
Despite the current state of things, we’ve found that small-dollar support is still widely available for funding programming. That support, along with formalizing the structure, has also allowed us to expand our programming. NICA now offers quarterly events beyond the pottery tour, including additional shows and artist gatherings. These events have brought in over $150,000 in annual sales, which benefits the artists and enhances the visibility of the collective.
Additionally, we have been able to ramp up our scholarship offerings from a handful of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) grants each year to fifteen in total when combined with our Emerging Artist awards. Because of this, our membership has grown from a few Midwestern states to over fifteen states around the country, with members from Utah, Alaska, North Carolina, Texas, and beyond all represented in the last two years. This financial support helps ensure that artists from a variety of backgrounds have the resources to participate and grow.
Also, the pandemic changed so much of the ceramic world, and Instagram really stepped forward as the premier medium for capturing daily life as an artist. There is something about the visual focus of Instagram that fits so well with pottery, but the downfall is that many artists during that time and afterward began to have a lens into the life of others that didn’t accurately reflect reality. NICA’s focus on fostering direct, meaningful communication—through newsletters, in-person gatherings, and regular updates—has helped counteract this. We’re cultivating an environment where artists are more connected and can rely on each other for practical support and advice.
Challenges Along the Way
Shifting the organizational model brought its own set of growing pains. The early days were a balancing act of defining roles, creating systems, and establishing governance structures. As our membership grew and diversified, the challenge became meeting the varying needs of the artists involved. From providing scholarship opportunities to deciding on the expansion of programming, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Balancing the interests of both emerging artists and seasoned professionals while maintaining the integrity of the organization is an ongoing effort. We accomplish this by diversifying programming, especially sales opportunities, to fit a range of skill levels. Additionally, our board of directors, including seasoned artists and emerging artists, helps give voice to this balancing act.
Also, while we’re now eligible for grant funding as a nonprofit (a tremendous asset), grants come with their own set of challenges. The increasingly competitive nature of arts funding and the shifting political climate have made securing consistent support more difficult. Despite these challenges, we’ve learned to operate lean and creatively, making the most of the resources we have while positioning ourselves for greater opportunities down the line.
As a relatively new organization, we have been fortunate to find funding support, but larger asks for capital campaigns, etc., are yet to be tested. We are competing with far more established organizations with larger donor bases and veteran leadership. Funding and granting structures have changed and become more competitive. Even budgetary line items for the arts in statehouse budgets, once seen as an easy bipartisan “yes,” have moved into the political discourse. All of these things are challenges in this unique environment.
That said, it does push new organizations to think creatively and actively pursue a leaner mode that I believe will serve them/ us well when funding eventually comes back around. These are good lessons being learned in the early days of making the most of the dollars we have.
Looking to the Future
One of NICA’s key goals moving forward is to secure a physical space—a permanent hub for the organization’s activities. A dedicated space would provide artists with a central location for events, workshops, and community gatherings. This space would serve as both a resource center for artists and a venue for public engagement, allowing us to further strengthen our presence and create more opportunities for collaboration.
Rising real estate costs, aside from other basic forms of inflation (some caused by increasingly scarce materials), have made being a full-time practicing artist all the more difficult. It is more expensive to own or rent studio space. Equipment, raw materials, shipping— everything is more expensive than a decade ago. The pooling of resources through organizations like this, whether on a large scale with a community art center or smaller with the sharing of materials in a pinch, or anything in between, can make this life much easier.
For other communities considering a similar path, we’d advise carefully weighing the pros and cons of creating a nonprofit. While it brings a level of legitimacy and opens up funding opportunities, it also requires significant administrative work, sustained effort, and sometimes a steep learning curve. However, the ability to offer more support to artists—financially and through structured networking—has proven invaluable.
Though there are certainly challenges ahead, NICA is optimistic about its future. The organization has made impressive strides in the past two years, growing both in membership and programming. With a solid foundation in place, the next phase will be about consolidating resources, continuing to build the community, and ultimately creating a space where the region’s clay artists can truly thrive.
the author Trevor Daugherty is the executive director and co-founder of the Northern Indiana Clay Alliance. He is also a studio potter in Goshen, Indiana, and owner of Edible Michiana. Meredith McGriff was a consultant for this article.
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Expanding from a pottery tour to a nonprofit proved to be an important step for this collective of ceramic artists. The transition to a formal structure has created opportunities for growth in its funding and operations.
The Michiana Pottery Tour was established in 2012 and quickly grew into a two-day annual event; by 2024, ten artists across this region in northern Indiana and southern Michigan were opening their studios to the public, with a total of 60+ artists participating and hundreds of visitors attending. With this growth, challenges emerged that highlighted the need for a more formal structure. This realization led to the creation of the Northern Indiana Clay Alliance (NICA), a nonprofit organization aimed at addressing the logistical and financial complexities that came with the expanded tour, as well as fostering a greater sense of community among artists in the region.
Why Start a Nonprofit?
What was once a labor of love, coordinated largely by volunteers, quickly became a year-round effort. As the Michiana Pottery Tour gained recognition, the demands for communication and planning throughout the year intensified. Organizing this without formal backing proved unsustainable. The initial informal setup, while effective for a smaller event, couldn’t handle the growing responsibilities—financial, legal, and organizational—that came with an event of this magnitude.
There have been two points of friction that needed to be resolved. From a legal standpoint, if something goes wrong, who is actually in charge in an informal organization? With several hundred people coming through our studio doors, there are any number of questions, concerns, and other actions that need to happen because of the sheer size of the event. This also manifests itself on the financial side. Not only are the finances increasingly complicated, as we’ve grown to nearly 60 artists on the tour, the tax ramifications, etc., for a single individual to manage isn’t tenable.
Secondly, the tour is a year-round endeavor from a management perspective. As the profile continues to rise, more organization and communication are needed throughout the calendar year to ensure its success. While many tasks have been shared among artists willing to volunteer for different roles, there needs to be some amount of central organization, and it’s also critical that a dedicated person willing to spend that time, which is tough to justify in an unpaid role.
Creating NICA allowed us to professionalize the management, streamline communication, and provide a consistent voice for the tour. This structure also opened the door to securing grants and other funding sources, which are vital for continued growth.
Benefits of Forming NICA
Since establishing NICA, the organization has seen measurable benefits in multiple areas. A key advantage of operating as a nonprofit has been access to grant funding. Because of the increasingly partisan political environment we’re in, perceived and real economic issues, and a general lack of trustworthiness of the public, raising funds and getting individuals to believe in any new group is an uphill battle. This not only goes for soliciting donations from the general public, but also getting members to believe in the mission of the organization.
Despite the current state of things, we’ve found that small-dollar support is still widely available for funding programming. That support, along with formalizing the structure, has also allowed us to expand our programming. NICA now offers quarterly events beyond the pottery tour, including additional shows and artist gatherings. These events have brought in over $150,000 in annual sales, which benefits the artists and enhances the visibility of the collective.
Additionally, we have been able to ramp up our scholarship offerings from a handful of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) grants each year to fifteen in total when combined with our Emerging Artist awards. Because of this, our membership has grown from a few Midwestern states to over fifteen states around the country, with members from Utah, Alaska, North Carolina, Texas, and beyond all represented in the last two years. This financial support helps ensure that artists from a variety of backgrounds have the resources to participate and grow.
Also, the pandemic changed so much of the ceramic world, and Instagram really stepped forward as the premier medium for capturing daily life as an artist. There is something about the visual focus of Instagram that fits so well with pottery, but the downfall is that many artists during that time and afterward began to have a lens into the life of others that didn’t accurately reflect reality. NICA’s focus on fostering direct, meaningful communication—through newsletters, in-person gatherings, and regular updates—has helped counteract this. We’re cultivating an environment where artists are more connected and can rely on each other for practical support and advice.
Challenges Along the Way
Shifting the organizational model brought its own set of growing pains. The early days were a balancing act of defining roles, creating systems, and establishing governance structures. As our membership grew and diversified, the challenge became meeting the varying needs of the artists involved. From providing scholarship opportunities to deciding on the expansion of programming, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Balancing the interests of both emerging artists and seasoned professionals while maintaining the integrity of the organization is an ongoing effort. We accomplish this by diversifying programming, especially sales opportunities, to fit a range of skill levels. Additionally, our board of directors, including seasoned artists and emerging artists, helps give voice to this balancing act.
Also, while we’re now eligible for grant funding as a nonprofit (a tremendous asset), grants come with their own set of challenges. The increasingly competitive nature of arts funding and the shifting political climate have made securing consistent support more difficult. Despite these challenges, we’ve learned to operate lean and creatively, making the most of the resources we have while positioning ourselves for greater opportunities down the line.
As a relatively new organization, we have been fortunate to find funding support, but larger asks for capital campaigns, etc., are yet to be tested. We are competing with far more established organizations with larger donor bases and veteran leadership. Funding and granting structures have changed and become more competitive. Even budgetary line items for the arts in statehouse budgets, once seen as an easy bipartisan “yes,” have moved into the political discourse. All of these things are challenges in this unique environment.
That said, it does push new organizations to think creatively and actively pursue a leaner mode that I believe will serve them/ us well when funding eventually comes back around. These are good lessons being learned in the early days of making the most of the dollars we have.
Looking to the Future
One of NICA’s key goals moving forward is to secure a physical space—a permanent hub for the organization’s activities. A dedicated space would provide artists with a central location for events, workshops, and community gatherings. This space would serve as both a resource center for artists and a venue for public engagement, allowing us to further strengthen our presence and create more opportunities for collaboration.
Rising real estate costs, aside from other basic forms of inflation (some caused by increasingly scarce materials), have made being a full-time practicing artist all the more difficult. It is more expensive to own or rent studio space. Equipment, raw materials, shipping— everything is more expensive than a decade ago. The pooling of resources through organizations like this, whether on a large scale with a community art center or smaller with the sharing of materials in a pinch, or anything in between, can make this life much easier.
For other communities considering a similar path, we’d advise carefully weighing the pros and cons of creating a nonprofit. While it brings a level of legitimacy and opens up funding opportunities, it also requires significant administrative work, sustained effort, and sometimes a steep learning curve. However, the ability to offer more support to artists—financially and through structured networking—has proven invaluable.
Though there are certainly challenges ahead, NICA is optimistic about its future. The organization has made impressive strides in the past two years, growing both in membership and programming. With a solid foundation in place, the next phase will be about consolidating resources, continuing to build the community, and ultimately creating a space where the region’s clay artists can truly thrive.
the author Trevor Daugherty is the executive director and co-founder of the Northern Indiana Clay Alliance. He is also a studio potter in Goshen, Indiana, and owner of Edible Michiana. Meredith McGriff was a consultant for this article.
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