Kaabo Clay

Reclaiming Our Heritage One Pot at a Time

Kaabo Clay stands against the erasure of African cultural heritage within Western ceramics. Pottery and sculpture are culturally universal artforms, yet if you walk into a typical community clay studio anywhere in the United States, it is unlikely that you will see a single Black face. Kaabo Clay is a social and mutual aid network that connects Black ceramic artists and encourages in-person initiatives by and for our members. The collective exists to decrease experiences of racial isolation and to claim our heritage and influence as African descended people within the field of ceramics. 

Currently, we are fundraising $5,000 toward capacity building. Kaabo was established in 2021 and became an official non-profit last year. As a new organization that formed during the BLM movement, we are still developing our capacity and are in need of foundational support to this end. The money we raise during Give 828 will be spent on a six-month contract with Black woman-owned grant writing service called We All Flourish. During that time, we will go through steps to become grant ready, including organizing our membership, developing volunteer recruitment and orientation processes, community relationship-building strategies and more. The organization was founded by artists, not administrators. We are seeking guidance to create organizational stability and sustainable growth so that we can continue to build on the services we provide to our members.

Crafting Unity, Shaping Culture

Our Activities

Kaabo Annual Award

Our Annual Award for Black Ceramicists has paid out over $30,000 to our constituents since 2021 to fund projects, activities and aid that directly benefits our community. The award exists to remove barriers to working with clay, to fund special projects and to address financial hardship for Kaabo members. (Membership at this time is free.) Our award has funded youth programming, employment training, all-Black ceramics residencies, cultural preservation projects and individual studio artists in the US, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.

National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA)

Through private and corporate donations, we raised over $20,000 since 2021 to increase the presence of Kaabo members at NCECA, the largest annual ceramics education conference in the world. We were able to cover conference passes and housing for about 25 Kaabo members who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to attend. 

Materials for Nigerian Ceramicists

Kaabo Clay has formed a partnership with an artist collective in Lagos, Nigeria called Visions in Clay. We supply them with oxides, mason stains and other ceramic materials which are not easily accessible in Nigeria and in exchange, they share their experience and expertise with the collective through virtual artists talks.

Local Youth Programming

Kaabo Clay collaborates with schools and youth education programs in Sarasota, Florida, where the organization is headquartered, to provide ceramic classes and materials, and to share the cultural legacy of African and African diasporic ceramic traditions.

Virtual Events

Kaabo Clay offers workshops, artist talks and business advice sessions via virtual meetings throughout the year. These virtual events are free to our members.

Exhibitions

Clay Holds Water, Water Holds Memory Exhibition (2023). Kaabo supported an exhibition of ceramics by women and non-binary artists of color at NCECA. The exhibition was curated by Kaabo member Adero Willard and opened to the public for the duration of NCECA, March 2023 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Pot Swap

We used social media to facilitate pottery trades among Kaabo members–one forceramicists in the United States and one for those in Nigeria. This activity speaks to the social networking mission of our organization, to decrease feelings of isolation for ceramicists of color. We used Instagram to pair ceramicists and encouraged them to swap ceramics they’ve made via the mail.