My name is Hine. I’ve lived in Nice for almost 20 years, I work in tech, and I recently fell in love with pottery.
A few months ago, I had an idea. Not a finished project — a conviction. That the communities that exist around ceramics in Nice could connect, expand, and become something even more alive. That ceramics could reach beyond studios — and become a real cultural practice, visible and accessible to everyone. And that you, the professional studios, would be at the heart of it all.
So before doing anything else, I wanted to write to you.
The vision
Imagine Nice with a living ceramics scene. Not just studios doing well in their own corners — but something connected. People practising at all levels. Beginners discovering clay. Enthusiasts continuing between courses. Independent ceramists. Artists from other disciplines drawn to the material. And at the heart of it all, teachers and professional studios keeping that culture alive in the city.
A community where people stay connected to ceramics and to each other — not just for a trimester, but throughout life. When they’re looking for their first class. When they move to Nice and start from scratch. When they take a break and come back. When they want to go further and are looking for the right teacher. When they want to join a technical workshop, attend a talk, or simply find people who share this passion.
This isn’t utopian. It exists in many cities around many practices — music, dance, visual arts. Communities where professionals and amateurs mix, enrich each other, and keep something alive that’s bigger than any one of them.
Nice deserves that for ceramics. And it can’t exist without you.
What Nice Pottery Club wants to build
Nice Pottery Club is a non-profit association — currently being created. Not a school, not a competing studio. We’re not here to make money — we’re here to make ceramics more accessible, more visible, and more alive in Nice. What’s good for studios, artists and practitioners is good for us — and vice versa.
The idea isn’t to replace what you do. What you do — the teaching, the guidance, the groups you build around your studio — nobody else can do that. It’s your craft, your passion, and it’s irreplaceable.
What we want to create is the fabric that connects all of it. Regular events — technical workshops run by properly paid professionals, artist talks, informal meetups, open-air practice sessions. A shared space where people continue to practise between their classes. Programmes accessible to those who can’t afford private classes — funded through grants and sponsors, not by you. Partnerships with social and healthcare organisations — so that ceramics can reach people who wouldn’t naturally have access to it.
And above all — an active community that grows interest in ceramics in Nice. Not just for us. For everyone.
Why I’m writing to you now
Because we’re at the very beginning — and that’s precisely when it makes sense to talk. Before things are set in stone, before decisions are made. This project can still take a thousand different shapes, and your perspective should be part of it from the start.
And because building something like this without you — without your experience, your knowledge of the scene, your vision of what Nice’s ceramics community needs — would make no sense. You’re best placed to know what could work, what wouldn’t.
This isn’t a formal proposal. It’s not a partnership request with strings attached. It’s an invitation to a conversation — open, without hidden agenda, between people who love ceramics and want to see it grow in Nice.
Let’s talk
I’m looking for an exchange, not a validation. Your ideas, your questions, your reservations — all of it could shape what this association becomes.