Fraser Valley Potters Guild Soda Fire, before and after, Shadbolt Centre, December, 2020.

The Canadian Clay Symposium, a major event for the ceramics community in BC, takes place every two or three years. Founded by Cathi Jefferson and the Fraser Valley Potters Guild in collaboration with the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, the CCS comprises volunteers whose backgrounds include professional ceramic artists and educators, working together with city staff from the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby, BC. The mandate of the symposium is to provide a forum in which both professionals and students can gather and participate in an educational environment. Exposure to a wide variety of local and international practices, aesthetics and expertise fosters heightened awareness and furthers both technical skills and knowledge of the craft.
Read more about the Canadian Clay Symposium

The NWCF has funded these CCS keynote speakers:
Steven Young Lee – 2017
Takeshi Yasuda “Form, Function, Feast” – 2013
Jack Troy “Aesthetics” – 2010
Magdalene Odundo “Surfacing” – 2007
Walter Ostrom “Reinventing the Wheel” – 2004
​Clary Illian, “Diversity in Clay” – 2002
Susan Greenaway – 2000

The NWCF has honoured these important BC ceramists:

At each Symposium, the NWCF nominates prominent British Columbia artists to be honoured for their contribution to the ceramic culture of BC. Those artists are:

2017: “R:evolution-Tradition-Technology,” Honourees: Don Hutchinson, David Lloyd, Tam Irving, Sally Mitchener, Sam Kwan
2013: “Elementum-Form Function Feast,” Honouree: Bob Kingsmill
2010: “Aesthetics,” Honouree: Robin Hopper
2007: ” Surfacing,” Honourees: Stan Clarke & Jean Farni
2000: “Canadian Clay Symposium,” Honouree John Charnetski