Price Increase: What You Should Know
Friends of Pottery Northwest,
As Executive Director, I am writing today to announce that Pottery Northwest will be raising class prices starting with the Fall quarter.
Everyone on the team takes this issue seriously and we determined that it was a necessary increase that will help in our pursuit to continue providing high-quality ceramic experiences in our new home in Pioneer Square.
The new class pricing structure will be:
• 10-Week Clay Classes: $525
• Studio Access: $385
Our team did the research to ensure that our price increase would still keep our studio below the median cost of other clay studios in both price and services. We compared our pricing structure and studio offerings with other ceramics studios in King County.
Even after our pricing adjustments, Pottery Northwest remains in the lower middle of the cost spectrum.
Our per-class hourly cost is approximately $17.50 — not including our unlimited studio hours available to all of our students. Our research shows that other clay studios can cost from $20-$40 per class hour with limitations on access to their facilities, the addition of firing fees, limits on how many wares you can produce, or limits on the square inches your wares can be.
We do our best to limit the amount of restrictions our students have to access our facilities here at Pottery Northwest. We support our community’s full ceramics exploration with almost no limitations on a maker’s desired artistic outcome in either size or quantity.
Starting in the Fall Quarter, the Pottery Northwest community will be able to benefit from the new spray booth that has just been installed in the studio. All of our kilns, including the new front-loading FL20 will be fully operational — greatly increasing our capacity to fire and return wares to our student body. While the studio used to close at 6pm, we will be maintaining our 9pm closing time throughout the foreseeable future so students can have more time to work on their projects. Additionally, we will be expanding the studio access space with more seats, wheels, and tables so you can work on your projects regardless of how full our classroom spaces are.
In addition to the value we offer to our students, it is our goal to be a responsible non-profit organization that pays a living wage to our employees, rewards our teachers with pay bumps, attracts exciting visiting artists, and to exist as an organization that makes investments in the equipment and tools needed to maintain and operate a high-quality ceramics studio (like expanding studio access).
If you’ve been with us for a few quarters, you know we are still making adjustments from our move to Pioneer Square - still adjusting, growing, and expanding our operation and services to our clay community. We are dedicated to being the best version of ourselves for you - our student population. Our team is proud of our standing as the oldest ceramics studio in Seattle and our commitment to you is central to our motivation toward excellence in ceramics.
For those who need tuition assistance, we are happy to help. Please CLICK HERE to learn more about how Pottery Northwest can help you financially.
If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, feel free to REACH OUT and tell me what is on your mind. I value your input, your contribution, and your presence here at Pottery Northwest.
I thank you for understanding this change in our pricing and appreciate you being a part of our ever-growing community. After all, YOU are Pottery Northwest.
Sincerely,
Ed King
Executive Director
Pottery Northwest
