A NEW HOME FOR CLAY IS TAKING SHAPE IN DOWNTOWN GOSHEN

$300,000 READI 2.0 Arts & Culture grant helps Northern Indiana Clay Alliance prepare for October opening of new downtown ceramics center

There is something fitting about a community known for making things by hand creating a new place dedicated entirely to makers.

That is exactly what is taking shape at 118 S. Main St. in downtown Goshen, where the Northern Indiana Clay Alliance (NICA) is preparing to open the new Northern Indiana Clay Center this October. The approximately 8,000-square-foot working studio, classroom, gallery, and gathering place will serve everyone from curious first-time potters to established ceramic artists, with classes expected to begin in November.

And the community will soon have its first opportunity to see the new space: NICA will celebrate the grand opening of the Northern Indiana Clay Center at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, during Downtown Goshen’s First Fridays Harvest Festival.

The project recently received a major boost with a $300,000 READI 2.0 Arts & Culture grant, one of five awards made to projects in the South Bend-Elkhart region. The funding will help support renovations and equipment as NICA creates the region’s first dedicated public clay arts center.

For Elkhart County, it builds upon an artistic tradition generations in the making.

Goshen has a story to tell in clay

Northern Indiana’s relationship with ceramics stretches back centuries, beginning with the Miami and Potawatomi people who made pottery for everyday use and trade. Goshen’s modern clay community began taking shape in earnest in the latter half of the 20th century, as artists and educators established studios, taught students, and passed their knowledge from one generation to the next.

Marvin Bartel helped educate and inspire generations of ceramic artists during his long career at Goshen College. Dick Lehman established his studio at Goshen’s Old Bag Factory and developed an international reputation for his ceramics, writing, wood-firing practices, and experimentation. Mark Goertzen worked alongside Lehman for a decade before eventually taking over his studio, while Goshen College graduate Justin Rothshank returned to the area and established Rothshank Artworks.

Lehman, Goertzen, and Rothshank also became co-founders of the Michiana Pottery Tour, helping introduce a wider audience to the concentration of ceramic talent found throughout northern Indiana and southern Michigan. Today, artists including Norah Ruth Amstutz and Sadie Misiuk are among those carrying that tradition forward.

Misiuk’s own path provides a particularly good example of how that artistic family tree has grown. She learned ceramics at Central Michigan University from professor Greg Stahly, a Goshen College graduate who had studied under Bartel and worked with Lehman. After visiting Goshen for the Michiana Pottery Tour while in college, Misiuk chose to move here in 2015 because of the ceramics community she had discovered.

She worked with Goertzen shortly after arriving and developed a working relationship with Rothshank that has continued for more than a decade. After first participating in the Michiana Pottery Tour as a guest artist in 2017, she became one of the tour’s studio stops in 2019.

“I have grown into the potter I am today because of my move to Goshen and participating in the clay community here,” Misiuk said. “There is this incredible generational connection. Knowledge and a passion for clay have been passed down from one person to another, and the Clay Center gives us an opportunity to continue that tradition.”

From a network of artists to a permanent home

That community eventually helped give rise to NICA, established as a nonprofit in 2022 to develop and strengthen the ceramics community of northern Indiana and southern Michigan.

Now, the Northern Indiana Clay Center represents the next step: bringing resources that have long existed across individual studios, classrooms, apprenticeships, and relationships together under one roof.

Misiuk will be at the center of that effort as studio manager of the Northern Indiana Clay Center. She comes to the position after 11 years at Goshen Brewing Company, where she advanced from bartender to shift leader, assistant manager, and ultimately front-of-house manager—all while continuing her own ceramics work.

“With the news that NICA was opening a Clay Center, I decided to jump back into the ceramics world full time,” Misiuk said. “I loved the brewery and the community we created there, but ceramics is my true passion. With my experience as both a potter and a manager, it felt like the right fit.”

What’s coming to Downtown Goshen

The new center will significantly expand public access to ceramics in the region. Plans call for 30 pottery wheels, dedicated classroom and hand-building space, multiple electric kilns, a street-facing gallery, workshops, artist programming, and community studio space.

Programming will include wheel-throwing and hand-building classes at different skill levels, allowing someone to try ceramics for the first time while also providing opportunities for experienced students to continue developing their skills. Local and regional artists will also be able to purchase clay and glaze through the center—an important practical resource in an area where artists can otherwise travel two hours or more for supplies.

“The Clay Center is going to make ceramics more accessible to people who want to learn and explore,” Misiuk said. “There will be classes for different skill levels and different techniques, so people can start here and continue their learning journey. There are also more opportunities we want to develop as the clay community continues to grow.”

The center also adds another arts destination to downtown Goshen, placing working artists, classes, and exhibitions directly on Main Street.

Opening in a matter of days!

After years of building a regional network of artists, NICA is now entering a particularly busy stretch. In the weeks ahead, Misiuk and the NICA team will continue installing equipment, organizing studio spaces and preparing the facility for artists, students and visitors.

For Misiuk, there is something full-circle about helping open a center in the same community she first discovered through a pottery tour as a college student.

“It’s been an exciting first few weeks getting everything in place and ready to go,” she said. “We have a lot to get done, but we’re ready to take on the challenge.”

The $300,000 READI 2.0 investment will help NICA create the physical space. But the community behind it has been developing for decades, and will finally have a permanent place to call home. And inside, Elkhart County’s next generation of makers will have plenty of room to get their hands dirty!