Founded in 1966, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) is an organisation in the United States promoting ceramics as an art form for several decades. Most major American ceramic artists since the 1970s, such as Paul Soldner, Peter Voulkos, and Rudy Autio have been among its 4000 members. NCECA began in 1961 as a committee of the The American Ceramic Society (ACerS), and became a separate organization in 1966. The organisation's annual conference, begun that year, now sees over 1000 attendees. NCECA has also changed from being almost entirely a group of teachers and professors to a more mixed membership including a large number of professional artists who are not educators. In 2004, the first full-time studio artist was selected as president of the organization.
