It’s the fall of 2021, and Ben Roti is worried.
The Iowa transplant, who had built a career as a ceramics artist in the Verde Valley since 2010, wanted to host a festival at his home studio in Camp Verde. But he was worried if anyone would show up.
“What if everyone showed up?” he said his friends replied.
Their reassurance would prove to be prophetic.
During its inaugural weekend that November, the Verde Valley Pottery Festival saw about 750 people turn up at Roti’s front yard.
“My neighbors were not thrilled with the fact that I had said we were going to throw a little festival, maybe some people would show up,” Roti said. “Turns out, everyone did show up.”
Five years and a venue change later, the Verde Valley Pottery Festival is set to celebrate its fifth anniversary, and its first as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization from Friday, Nov. 13, through to Sunday, Nov. 15, at D.A. Ranch in Cornville.
“I always saw this as being an educational opportunity for everyone in the community,” said Roti, who is the head ceramics instructor at the Sedona Arts Center. “From the groundroots foundation of all of this just being embedded in education. It really made the natural progression of just recognizing that we could grow the educational component. This was never meant to be a for-profit-type organization.”
Achieving that nonprofit status means continuing the festival’s mission of not only supporting the community of Arizona-linked ceramicists that Roti has helped nurture over the years, but also continuing community outreach through hour-long demonstrations, artist talks and instructor-led children’s activities.
Sponsorships, donations and grants are also a large component of funding the festival and educational outreach. However, Roti noted that they will not find how much in grants they will earn until after the festival is over, due to not starting the grant writing application until later.
Talks about turning the festival into a nonprofit began at least two years ago. But it wasn’t until May that Roti spearheaded the process with help from other members, including founding members Jeff Heeg, Mike Upp and Heather Spontak.
“About two months later, we were officially a nonprofit,” Roti said.
“There’s a lot of costs associated with our artists that come to central AZ or Northern AZ,” Roti said. “We’re in a very nice community, so the hotels and things aren’t always as budget-friendly for the artists, so it’s really helping supporting the artists that are supporting the event, but also giving back to the community through the educational purpose.”
In addition to a sponsorship from Laguna Clay, companies such as New Mexico Clay have donated supplies for the artists and for the children’s activities.
The fifth annual festival begins Friday, Nov. 13, with a ticketed one-day-only “first pick” event, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 15, at D.A. Ranch, will feature the works of 15 artists, including founders Roti, Heeg, Upp and Spontak.
Attendees can also make their mark with an eight-foot by 20-foot clay mural, which will be fired during the festival in a wood kiln that D.A. Ranch owners Alexis and Trey Petznick had built on property.
“When we start on Nov. 13, that will actually be five years from the day that we started the original back in November of 2021,” Roti said. “That was a major milestone, I feel for me as the founder of the original festival to become a nonprofit five years later, and have this idea of driving a mission, which has been something that I’ve always used to navigate which direction I would like to go.”
