Fairbanks Potters Guild

Category: Guild Also called: FPG; Fairbanks Potters Guild (Alaska); fairbankspottersguild.com; @FairbanksPottersGuild.AK Last checked: 2026-10-09

What it is

The Fairbanks Potters Guild is a non-profit membership guild “dedicated to promoting ceramic arts and supporting the talented local potters of Alaska’s Interior” (homepage). Its Our Story page calls it “a collective of professional artists, dedicated hobbyists, and students who share a common love for clay.” The guild hosts local and guest-artist workshops, member exhibitions, an annual Empty Bowls fundraiser for local food banks, and a guild booth at the Tanana Valley Farmers Market every summer. It is a membership guild: it has dues tiers, voting rights, monthly meetings with minutes, and published bylaws. It does not run a public teaching studio. The site sends beginners to a separate local studio.

Who it’s for

Practicing potters, professional ceramicists, hobbyists, and students in the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the surrounding Interior (membership is open to potters there, per the Membership page). Members join to network, share glaze recipes and technical advice, sell under the guild banner at the farmers market and holiday sales, and get priority, discounted registration for guest-artist workshops. Beginners who want to learn pottery are pointed to Raven City Studio (a separate business) on the homepage and Resources page.

Why it’s listed

This is the guild’s first-party Google Sites domain (fairbankspottersguild.com). It has published dues tiers, a guild-run Google Calendar embedded on the Events page with dated 2026 and 2027 meetings and events, Drive folders of 2026 meeting minutes, and linked bylaws. It is not a scraped directory card.

• Contact (homepage and Gallery page, checked 2026-10-09): fairbankspottersguild@gmail.com. No street address or phone number is published. The site links a Facebook group and Instagram (@FairbanksPottersGuild.AK).
• Membership tiers (Membership page, checked today): open to all potters in the Fairbanks North Star Borough and surrounding Interior areas. High-Fire: $50 dues, with full voting rights, attendance at all guild meetings with minutes, participation in guild-funded (visiting potter) and non-funded events, and eligibility to sell at the Farmers Market and Holiday Bazaar. Mid-Fire: $25 dues, with full voting rights, meetings and minutes, and guild-funded and non-funded events. Low-Fire: no dues, with meetings and minutes, non-funded events (Empty Bowls, Holiday Party, etc.), and access to guild-funded workshops for a separate guest fee. Dues are paid online through the page’s payment buttons or in person at a meeting. The page suggests coming to a monthly meeting or emailing first.
• Sales (Events and Our Story pages, checked today): the guild sells at the Tanana Valley Farmers Market every Wednesday & Saturday, May through September, and has a booth in December at the Tanana Valley Farmers Market Holiday Bazaar. The Resources page links Farmers Market requirements for members who want to sell.
• Empty Bowls (Events and Our Story pages, and the guild calendar, checked today): the guild’s “signature fundraiser.” Buyers get a handmade bowl and local soup “to help fight hunger in the Interior,” and Our Story says it raises “thousands of dollars to support local food banks.” The guild calendar shows the 2026 Empty Bowls Event on April 4, 2026 at the Fairbanks Community Food Bank, and the next one on April 3, 2027. The 2025 calendar entry (“Stan Zielinski Empty Bowls Project: Sale and Silent Auction”) says 100% of proceeds go to the Fairbanks Community Food Bank, co-sponsored with the Student Ceramics Arts Guild.
• Meetings (guild Google Calendar embedded on the Events page, checked today): 2026 FPG Monthly Meetings at the Fairbanks Community Food Bank, 725 26th Ave STE 101, are listed for Mar 30, May 4, Aug 31, and Oct 5, 2026, with Nov 2 and Dec 7, 2026 next (5:30 PM Alaska time, each followed by an FPG Board Meeting). An Annual Meeting and Holiday Gathering is on the calendar for Jan 10, 2027, with “Time and location TBD.” The calendar also shows a July 12, 2026 FPG Picnic at Pioneer Park and Tanana Valley Farmers Market dates (last regular Saturday Sept 12, 2026).
• Governance (Resources page, checked today): links to The Bylaws (“Our official governing rules and mission”), Monthly Meeting Minutes and Board Meeting Minutes folders (each with a “2026 Year” file, most recently modified in March 2026), and Farmer Market requirements.
• Workshops (Events and Membership pages, checked today): the guild asks guest artists and members to propose workshops. Members get priority registration and discounted rates for professional workshops and guest-artist demos.

Dues and dates above are what the official pages and the guild calendar showed on the check date. Confirm on the live Membership and Events pages before treating any figure as fixed.

Official URL

https://www.fairbankspottersguild.com/

Our Story: https://www.fairbankspottersguild.com/our-story

Membership (dues tiers): https://www.fairbankspottersguild.com/membership

Events (Empty Bowls, Farmers Market, Holiday Bazaar; embedded calendar): https://www.fairbankspottersguild.com/events

Guild calendar (public Google Calendar embedded on Events): https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=fairbankspottersguild@gmail.com

Resources (bylaws, meeting minutes, Farmers Market guidelines): https://www.fairbankspottersguild.com/resources

Member Gallery: https://www.fairbankspottersguild.com/gallery

(Canonical first-party Google Sites domain checked 2026-10-09; every cited URL returned HTTP 200 to curl with a browser User-Agent.)

Location

Fairbanks Potters Guild: Fairbanks, Alaska (Fairbanks North Star Borough / Interior Alaska). It has no published HQ, street address, or phone. 2026 monthly and board meetings on the guild calendar are at the Fairbanks Community Food Bank, 725 26th Ave STE 101, Fairbanks, AK 99701, which is also where Empty Bowls is held. Summer member sales are at the Tanana Valley Farmers Market, 2600 College Rd, Fairbanks (Wednesdays and Saturdays, May–September). Contact: fairbankspottersguild@gmail.com.

This is a dues-based membership guild. It is not a teaching studio and not a supplier.

Notes

• Category is Guild: it has a non-profit membership structure with dues tiers, voting rights, monthly and board meetings with minutes, bylaws, and member sales under the guild banner. It runs no public classes or open studio. The site points beginners to Raven City Studio, a separate business that is not part of this listing.
• First Alaska listing on Clay Plaza in any category, adding the far Northwest / Alaska. Away from recent AL/NV/OK (Thu), RI/WI/LA (Wed), and CA/HI/MO (Tue) geos. Not the Anchorage Clay Arts Guild (a separate Anchorage group seen in search, not pursued). Keep separate from Lapidary / Mahjong / Bee / Bonsai directories.
• No street address, phone, founding year, or 501(c)(3) status is printed on the site. The guild calls itself a “non-profit,” and Our Story says it has been part of the Alaskan arts community “for years.” No founding date is claimed here.
• Meeting dates and times come from the guild’s own public Google Calendar (fairbankspottersguild@gmail.com) embedded on the Events page, not from page text. Times were converted from UTC to Alaska time (AKDT through Oct 31; AKST after Nov 1). The Events page itself names events without dates.
• Our Story says “Find our members every summer at the Tanana Valley Farmers Market,” and the Events page gives Wednesday & Saturday, May–September. The 2026 market season ended on the calendar’s “TVFM LAST NORMAL SATURDAY” (Sept 12) and “TVFM 2nd Sale!” (Sept 19).
• The Member Gallery page currently only asks members to email photos and shows no member work.
• Dues amounts are printed on the Membership page (“High-Fire Pays $50 Membership Due”, “Mid-Fire Pays $ 25 Membership Due”). The page does not say whether dues are annual. It says “pay your annual dues securely online,” so they are treated as annual.
• Currency evidence at check: 2026 meeting-minute files (modified March 2026) and 2026–2027 calendar entries. No closure notice.
• Not affiliated with Clay Plaza.
• No Clay Plaza contact, dues payment, membership application, or publication action was taken.
• First-party logo saved beside this listing as fairbanks-potters-guild.png (“FPG” brush-letter jug mark, the site’s header / og:image from Google Sites, resized from 1536 × 2048 to 900 × 1200).

FAQ

Q: How much does it cost to join the Fairbanks Potters Guild?
A: The Membership page (checked 2026-10-09) lists three tiers. High-Fire is $50, with voting and eligibility to sell at the Farmers Market and Holiday Bazaar. Mid-Fire is $25, with voting and access to guild-funded events. Low-Fire has no dues and covers meetings and non-funded events, with a guest fee for funded workshops. Membership is open to potters in the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the surrounding Interior.

Q: Where can I buy guild members’ pottery?
A: At the guild booth at the Tanana Valley Farmers Market every Wednesday and Saturday from May through September, and at the Tanana Valley Farmers Market Holiday Bazaar in December. The Empty Bowls fundraiser also sells handmade bowls.

Q: What is Empty Bowls in Fairbanks?
A: It is the guild’s signature fundraiser: buy a handmade bowl and enjoy local soup to help fight hunger in the Interior. The guild calendar shows Empty Bowls at the Fairbanks Community Food Bank on April 4, 2026, with the next one on April 3, 2027. The 2025 entry says 100% of proceeds went to the Food Bank.

Q: When and where does the guild meet?
A: The guild’s public calendar lists 2026 monthly meetings at the Fairbanks Community Food Bank (725 26th Ave STE 101), with the next ones on Nov 2 and Dec 7, 2026, at 5:30 PM Alaska time. The Membership page says everyone is welcome and suggests coming to a meeting or emailing fairbankspottersguild@gmail.com first.

Q: Does the Fairbanks Potters Guild offer pottery classes?
A: No public classes are listed. The guild is a community for practicing artists, and its homepage and Resources page point beginners to Raven City Studio, a separate Fairbanks studio. Members get priority, discounted registration for the guild’s guest-artist workshops. For classes, use a Studio listing.