'CLAY IS FOR EVERYONE' - POTTERY NORTHWEST'S FIRST BLACK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RESHAPES WHO GETS TO CREATE, EARN, AND BELONG

By Beverly Aarons

Ed King, Executive Director of Pottery Northwest, is transforming the 59-year-old institution by confronting its history and rebuilding its business model to serve Black and Brown artists long excluded from the clay community—not just through messaging, but through operational and economic redesign.

Pottery Northwest's Executive Director, Ed King.

Clay is in the blood. It is lineage. It is memory. From the ritual vessels of the Bamana Empire to the face jugs of Edgefield District, South Carolina, clay has carried Black identity, labor, ritual, and resistance. Yet this inheritance has been at risk of erasure through gatekeeping, economic precarity, and cultural and historical displacement.

Ed King, the Executive Director of Pottery Northwest, is working to interrupt that erasure by reshaping who gets to create, earn, and belong in Seattle’s clay community.

Only 2% of potters in the United States are Black, a stark disparity given that Black people are roughly 14 percent of the U.S. population. But it’s a reality King is working to reverse. “We’re starting to close that gap through intentional programming, community-building partnerships, and anything we can do to make sure that people feel seen and valued, and that they have a place where they don't have to apologize, and they can say, ‘No, I'm here. I don't have to code switch. I don't have to present differently. I can be myself unapologetically,’” King said.

His approach centers operational and economic redesign—expanding scholarships, lowering financial barriers, redirecting institutional resources into artist development, and building pathways where Black and Brown artists can learn, earn, teach, and exhibit within the same ecosystem.

The upcoming Black Clay exhibition—a collaboration between Pottery Northwest and ARTE NOIR—shows how community partnerships can interrupt systemic erasure by placing Black ceramic artists at the center of institutional visibility, not as exception, spectacle, or token.

“We both deeply care about making sure there's opportunity at every level for Black and Brown people to experience what everyone else already has access to,” King said of his collaboration with ARTE NOIR to explore ceramic-centered work in the African diaspora. King emphasized that Black Clay is intended to function as a flexible container—a space where Black potters can explore any thematic direction, not only those historically or institutionally coded as ‘Black.’

Ed King making pottery.

“I want the quality and the range of the artistry to be varied. It should be contemporary, but also whimsical, but also serious, but also able to take on important political discussions, right? And if there's an artist who wants to talk about Black lives, let's go. But if there's a different artist who wants to talk about fun and exploration and discovery—to be lighthearted and whimsical—I'm also like, let's go. I personally don't have a stake in the artistic voice of the various artists. I want to be the purveyor of opportunity that elevates and celebrates whatever voice they bring to the table.”

In 2021, Pottery Northwest was burning through cash, operating at a six-figure deficit while searching for a more affordable home. By May 2022, the organization had relocated to the basement level of Foster/White Gallery in Pioneer Square—a move that offered visibility and an opportunity to connect with a more racially diverse community. But the relocation, coupled with the organization’s shaky finances, also signaled institutional fragility in the eyes of some people in the arts community, according to Ed King.

In July 2022, King was living in Miami, Florida when he got the offer to become Pottery Northwest’s first Black Executive Director. He had previously worked as a marketing manager and arts administrator, but he said he was looking for work that was more values-aligned.

“Something that I believe deeply in is the human-centric outcomes of what we do in the arts,” King said of his role at Pottery Northwest. “And so, there are any number of arts institutions where you will find a focus on artistic excellence and a focus on discipline, a focus on outcomes, right? ‘What did your artwork look like or sound like?’ ‘How did it present?’ ‘Did it make money?’ But very rarely do arts organizations have business models that are focused on, ‘How did we transform people?’ ‘How did we build community?’ ‘How did we make people feel safe, welcome, seen, and valued?’ And when I read Pottery Northwest’s aspirations as we started to really get to know each other, I said, ‘This is it. This is where there's a true alignment of values.’”

Ceramicists in the studio. Image courtesy Pottery Northwest.

Ed King’s effusive personality is infectious. During our interview, it was easy to imagine him transforming a room full of skeptics into believers—or a group of clay enthusiasts into a robust community grounded in mutual support. He made it clear that his passion lies in making clay accessible to everyone—through strategies that move beyond tokenism or superficial equity efforts that insert Black artists into white institutions without challenging or transforming the organization’s culture.

After experiencing notable revenue and participation growth in 2023 and 2024, it’s clear that diversity, equity, and inclusion have become one of Pottery Northwest’s greatest strengths. According to their 2024 annual report, the organization’s enrollments increase of 18%, reaching an all-time high of 2,412—20% of those enrollees accessed programming through Pottery Northwest’s $100,000 in scholarships and free clay events. But King was clear, during our interview, that Pottery Northwest’s goals are not to merely give access to pottery education but to create a pipeline to a financially sustainable pottery career for those students who choose that path.

“I want the quality and the range of the artistry to be varied. It should be contemporary, but also whimsical, but also serious, but also able to take on important political discussions, right? And if there's an artist who wants to talk about Black lives, let's go."

“You come in on a scholarship,” Ed King said, referencing the journey of Pottery Northwest students. “Sometimes people want to go into being an apprentice. From apprentice, people go into being an instructor. And slowly, the tables turn for some students, where they were paying us for classes—and if they're a scholarship student, they weren't paying—and then we're paying them to be instructors. And so, there are pathways—not just to have fun—but pathways to financial vitality.”

Students also have an opportunity to sell at Pottery Northwest art shows and markets for a 60/40 revenue split, King added, with Pottery Northwest taking the smaller percentage. “We're taking 0% if we send you out to Seattle Pride or Juneteenth, or any of the numerous markets we do externally. We're not taking a dime, not one cent.”

Just as Bamana potters were believed to manipulate nyama—vital energy—as they shaped clay by hand, Ed King aims to empower the Black ceramicists at Pottery Northwest to mold more than form and function. He wants them to shape power. To shape belonging. To shape the future. And in every vessel, wall piece, or sculpture, a lineage is remembered—not through replication, but through the freedom to experiment, to claim space, and to define meaning on their own terms.

SIDEBAR: What Comes Next? A Move to South Lake Union

After three years operating in the basement of Foster/White Gallery, Pottery Northwest is preparing to move into a 10,000-square-foot, street-level space in South Lake Union, in Fall 2026. The relocation will allow the organization to restart its gas kiln program—one of the only atmospheric gas firing programs in the region—and significantly increase gallery sales opportunities for its students. The new space will include an L-shaped community area for public programming and events. And with its storefront visibility, passersby will be able to see classes and artists in action—something that was impossible in the current location. “This new facility is going to engage community in a way we could never do from a basement. It's going to be transformative,” said King.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beverly Aarons. Photo credit: Donna Day

Beverly Aarons is a writer, artist, and game developer. She works across disciplines, exploring the intersections of history, hidden current realities, and imagined future worlds. She specializes in making unseen perspectives visible and aims to infuse all of her creative work with a deep sense of emotionality. She’s won the Guy A. Hanks, Marvin H. Miller Screenwriting Award, Community 4Culture Fellowship, Artist Trust GAP Award, 4Culture Creative Consultancies Award, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture smART Ventures grant. She was an ARTS at King Street Station Resident in 2021/2022, and her visual art has been exhibited at Studio 103 and Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. She’s currently producing a play about the future of human migration in collaboration with ShoreLake Arts, and she’s publishing Artists Up Close, a monthly e-magazine/newsletter that features in-depth and intimate profiles of emerging and established artists in the Seattle area and beyond.

Learn more about Beverly and her work here.