Our Story
Mission, Vision, History.
Welcome to the nonprofit North Carolina Pottery Center, the only statewide facility in the nation devoted solely to pottery. Designed, funded, and constructed through the labors of many citizens, the center opened to the public in Seagrove, NC, on Nov. 7, 1998.
The North Carolina Pottery Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. EIN 56-1765000.
Our Mission:
Sharing North Carolina’s Clay Stories, Past & Present
Our Vision:
The North Carolina Pottery Center is a dynamic and engaging place where people of all backgrounds, ages, and interests discover the beauty and the stories behind North Carolina’s world-class clay culture.
We are the first stop for visitors arriving in Seagrove and a place to which people will return to learn about North Carolina pottery. Visitors enjoy the beauty of our campus and are delighted by our interior spaces. We provide them with information about ceramic artists in the local area and throughout the state, and we are a gateway through which visitors enhance their appreciation of North Carolina’s clay culture.
We tell these stories through excellent exhibitions and visual and participatory multimedia, as well as by providing experiential and educational opportunities. Our research and documentation focus on the concepts and themes necessary to support our exhibitions and programming, deepening our understanding of our state’s clay culture.
We are conscientious advocates for North Carolina’s potters and North Carolina pottery.
How:
We fulfill our mission and vision by promoting public awareness and appreciation of the history, heritage, and ongoing tradition of pottery making in North Carolina through educational programs, public services, collection and preservation, and research and documentation.
To do so, the center represents all North Carolina potters, from Native Americans and exemplars of the old utilitarian tradition to the well over 1,000 potters working throughout the state today.
Why Celebrate North Carolina Pottery?
In his book on Wood-Fired Stoneware and Porcelain, Pennsylvania potter Jack Troy declares,
“If North America has a ‘pottery state,’ it must be North Carolina.... There is probably no other state with such a highly developed pottery-consciousness.”
Those words are high praise, but they are well deserved. Where the Industrial Revolution ended the need for local craftsmen in most states, the potters’ wheels never stopped turning in North Carolina. Abundant clays, strong family networks, and a remarkable ability to adapt to new tastes and needs enabled our potters to survive hard times and flourish again. No other state possesses such a large, diverse, and continuous heritage. Around the village of Seagrove are 50+ family-operated shops, over 100 potters, and numerous others across the state, notably in the Catawba Valley and around Penland in the western mountains. In a typical year, the North Carolina Pottery Center receives visitors from nearly all states and 20+ foreign countries, all here to explore this remarkable tradition.
Seagrove Pottery Museum, Interior View (circa 1970s). Randolph County Historical Photographs. Randolph County Public Library.
Beginnings:
The initial inspiration to celebrate North Carolina’s ceramic heritage came from two legendary Seagrove potters, the late Dorothy (Cole) and Walter Auman. The couple opened Seagrove Pottery in 1953 when only seven active potteries were in the region. In 1969, they moved the old Seagrove train depot behind their shop and opened the first museum in the area, the Seagrove Potters Museum. The Aumans provided a full display of pots, tools, and historical memorabilia, as well as regular exhibits of the work of contemporary potters.
In her later years, Dorothy contracted cancer, and the Aumans sold their collection to the Mint Museum in Charlotte to ensure it was properly preserved. However, another local organization, the Museum of Traditional North Carolina Pottery (MTNCP), initiated the Seagrove Pottery Festival, held at the Seagrove School each year the weekend before Thanksgiving. This event eventually provided the funds to purchase a nine-acre tract and a house right in the heart of Seagrove. Then, during the late 1980s, the NC Department of Cultural Resources brought together the members of the MTNCP, the Aumans, and numerous other potters and pottery aficionados from across the state to create the North Carolina Pottery Center. This new organization formed a board of directors, established by-laws, and raised over 1.5 million dollars to construct the center.
An interior view of the North Carolina Pottery Center. Photo by Jon Eckard, 2024.
Facilities:
The center sits on an attractive, wooded lot with three buildings. The Voncannon House on Route 705 (designated The Pottery Highway by NCDOT) provides living space for periodic interns via our ongoing collaboration with East Carolina University. To the north, across a spacious parking lot, is the roughly 6,000 square-foot main center building, which contains permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, open storage, a gift shop, offices, a kitchen, and restrooms. The open, well-lit interior of this building, featuring natural woods and numerous windows, is very dramatic and has won several awards for architect Frank Harmon. Nearby is the 1,500-square-foot education building, with wheels, electric kilns, and other clay-working equipment. On the hillside just below the education building are two working, wood-fired kilns: a traditional groundhog and a double catenary arch kiln.
Programs:
The Center provides a broad educational experience for visitors, students and teachers, potters, scholars, and pottery collectors. Guests may learn more about North Carolina's rich pottery history by exploring the Center's permanent historical exhibition. The Center also plans and showcases two to four changing exhibitions per year. There is also a display of example pieces by local Seagrove potters. Local fifth-grade students, taught by the Center's educational program manager and local potters, learn to throw pots in our education building as part of a program funded by the North Carolina Arts Council. Periodic clay workshops are also offered for adults wishing to try their hand at turning pottery or hand-building. As an educational opportunity for potters from our state and others, the Center annually plans, hosts, and implements the NC Potters Conference. The Center also helps co-host the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival (March) and has an Open House in conjunction with the Celebration of Seagrove Potters (November) each year.