EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pewabic Pottery, one of the oldest continuously operating potteries in the country now a nonprofit with an array of programs, products, and partnerships in Detroit, Michigan, is seeking nominations and applications for its next Executive Director. Famously woman co-founded in 1903 with important contributions to Detroit’s historic architectural landscape and the national Arts and Culture community for over a hundred years, Pewabic continues to advance a vision for elevating the human spirit in handcrafted work through its thriving production, its educational programs for local communities and youth, and its connection and commitment to artists and arts organizations in the region. Now at the precipice of a new era with a sizeable campus on Detroit’s developing east side, a team of over 50 skilled artisans and leaders and a committed board, opportunities to expand partnerships and programs, and work conducted towards a fresh capital plan and strategic review, Pewabic is poised for a new leader who will collaboratively build and execute a strategic vision and plan for the future.
The next Executive Director will have the opportunity in the first year to work with the team to evaluate and validate key strengths and challenges of the organization, connect vision, strategy, and operations to shared program goals and funding opportunities, and harness the love of Pewabic’s stakeholders to build the pottery’s presence as a pillar of economic and artistic community building locally, regionally, and nationally.
Candidates for Executive Director will demonstrate vision, seasoned managerial and fundraising experience, humility, and proven commitment to Pewabic’s work. They will ideally have experience with diverse and distributed nonprofit funding models including a balance of earned revenue streams with strong and successful relationships with both individual donors and regional and national grantmakers in Education and the Arts. Capital campaign experience preferred. The successful candidate will demonstrate a track record of effective team building and management including leadership of strategic planning processes, design of shared leadership and accountability systems, and support toward a culture of clear and transparent communication that builds team alignment and joy in the work. Qualified candidates will demonstrate a minimum of 10 years progressive executive leadership experience and familiarity and/or connection to the Detroit region is a plus. The search is being led by Katherine Jacobs of NPAG & GDSI Leadership and complete application instructions can be found at the end of this document.
ABOUT PEWABIC
Pewabic Pottery was founded in 1903 by Mary Chase Perry (Stratton), an artist and educator, and Horace J. Caulkins, a dental supplier and kiln manufacturer. Pewabic became a leader of the Arts & Crafts movement in Detroit during a time that was both a golden age for handcrafted pottery and tile and a boom in industrialization with the birth of the automotive industry. Over the last 120 years, Pewabic and its historic building have remained a pillar of artistic production, education, and community building on Detroit’s east side.
Today Pewabic boasts a range of successful retail, education programs, and community activities. Pewabic’s retail store and production of masterfully handcrafted pottery and tile are a thriving operation bounded by the capacity of campus facilities and treasured by community members across the region. With a committed and hard-working team of artisans, both the physical and online stores are responsible for up to 70% of Pewabic’s overall budget each year. Pewabic’s education programs advance artistic learning, craft, and community building through both adult classes and youth programs on Pewabic’s campus and offsite in Pewabic’s mobile offerings for schools, senior centers, and more. Seasoned educators lead guided tours of Pewabic’s museum on campus and also city tours of Pewabic installations in Detroit’s historic architecture. Finally, community events such as the annual Home and Garden Party on Pewabic’s campus in late Spring as well as national partnership events such as the 2026 NCECA conference bring together longtime friends and new explorers of Pewabic’s craft.
Having successfully navigated the challenges of the Covid era under longtime leadership, Pewabic began a period of imagining its next opportunities to realize the full potential of its historic building and campus. While strong assessment and planning work was completed and continues today, Pewabic is poised for fresh leadership vision and management to guide the organization through a collective process with staff, board, and funders that validates and refines a plan for the future. This organizational work in the context of Detroit’s broader community revitalization planning, incoming, historic city leadership, and long-standing, dedicated funders in the Arts community present a unique opportunity for a seasoned executive to build on Pewabic’s reputation and standing as a pillar in the Arts community in Detroit and nationally.
To learn more about Pewabic, its programs, and its history, visit: https://www.pewabic.org/
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The Executive Director will be a seasoned, entrepreneurial, and strategic leader with the ability to guide Pewabic into a new era. The Executive Director will be instrumental in leading the organization through critical moments of operational review, program expansion, and fundraising growth, while supporting a healthy and sustainable balance of retail and production and a strong employment proposition for the team. This role requires an experienced manager and fundraiser with a passion for Pewabic’s mission and the ability to collaboratively build, communicate, and execute an inspiring vision for Pewabic’s future.
Opportunities and challenges for the next Executive Director include:
Strategic Vision & Leadership
- Work collaboratively with staff, board, community stakeholders, and funders to identify and build upon key strengths of Pewabic’s legacy and opportunities to expand and improve upon additional programs and operations.
- Articulate and champion the next level vision for Pewabic as a proud pillar of artistic community building and education connecting individuals of all ages in Detroit and across the region to shared artistic craft and purpose and economic opportunity in this period of rapid change for the region and the country.
- Identify, reinforce, and galvanize Pewabic’s partnerships, programmatic strengths, and physical space assets while strategically prioritizing and activating new opportunities for campus and program development.
- Review and refine clear goals and metrics, and advance a sustainable, healthy business model that aligns to organizational and staff capacity and ensures programs and services support the conditions for long-term sustainability.
Operational Leadership & Management
- Empower and guide Pewabic’s leadership team to realize opportunities for aligned, distributed management of Pewabic’s talented staff.
- Oversee all aspects of the financial, operational, and programmatic achievement of identified clear goals and success metrics for the team.
- Nurture relationships and effective communication with the staff to build a culture of transparency, clarity of decision-making processes, and accountability to shared goals.
- Work collaboratively with Pewabic’s Board of Directors to identify community relationship and program opportunities, support best practices in good governance and transparent communication across the organization, and to capitalize on areas of funding opportunity.
Fundraising & Financial Stability
- Steward and strengthen relationships with existing donors while cultivating and supporting new partners to realize Pewabic’s potential as a pillar of creative community on Detroit’s east side with a campus and operational improvement plan.
- Develop and implement a clear funding model that harnesses the power of Pewabic’s retail success, longstanding membership community, placemaking capacity on the east side, students and alumni, and educational expansion opportunity.
Community Engagement
- Sustain and deepen relationship across the Arts, public sector, education, and nonprofit community to build and sustain Pewabic’s legacy as an important part of Detroit history.
- Nurture partnerships with new and existing organizations interested in hosting Pewabic activities through both permanent and time bound space use that expands Pewabic’s campus reach in the region and in the national Arts community.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
While no one candidate will possess all the qualifications listed below, the ideal candidate will be passionate about Pewabic’s mission and bring many of the following skills and experiences:
- Leadership & Strategy: A minimum of 10 years of nonprofit or community-based leadership experience, with a track record of strategic growth and impact ideally in Arts and Culture or a connected field.
- Fundraising & Financial Acumen: Proven success in fundraising, including but not limited to securing grants and major gifts, individual fundraising and bequests, earned revenue streams, and capital campaigns in support of nonprofit programs and operations.
- Team Development: Experience managing organizations of comparable staff size and complexity and facilitating, designing, and overseeing strategic leadership team development for successful, distributed management. Demonstrated success building a strong and positive organizational culture with diverse staff across departments and levels is required.
- High Emotional Intelligence: Ability to foster trust, build relationships, and lead with compassion, integrity, and humility.
- Operational & Financial Management: Experience overseeing budgets in excess of $2M annually as well as management of financial planning, prioritization, and organizational system refinement to support impact goals. Experience managing retail and/or earned revenue streams in addition to program budgets is strongly preferred.
- Collaboration & Team Building: Strong people management and communication skills with the ability to build, mentor, and empower staff.
- Equity Fluency: Ability to operationalize equity in both programmatic community and youth outreach strategy and internal organizational systems for a diverse team to build upon Pewabic’s values and purpose as a welcoming place of connection, beauty, and inspiration for all.
- Community Engagement: Strong communication skills combined with deep appreciation and familiarity with the region’s community values, ethos, culture, and funder landscape. Deep experience in, connection to, and love for the Detroit region is highly desirable.
WORK LOCATION, COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Work Location: Pewabic’s historic campus is on the east side of Detroit, Michigan. This role requires significant in-person commitment of time both in the office and in the community.
Salary and Benefits: Compensation for this full-time, exempt position includes a competitive salary base and a performance bonus component commensurate with the success of the organization. A generous benefits package is also provided. Full details available upon request from interested candidates.
TO APPLY
This search is being led by Katherine Jacobs of NPAG and founder of GDSI Leadership. Due to the pace of this search, candidates are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Candidates may submit their cover letter, outlining their interest and qualifications, along with their resume via NPAG’s website: https://www.npag.com/pp-ed
Pewabic is an equal opportunity employer and proudly values diversity. Candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
