Coming to Goshen, you probably wouldn’t think much about the arts as part of its long-standing cultural history as the Maple City. But people have been shaping the clay in this region for more than 300 years — long before Goshen had a name, Miami and Potawatomi potters were digging local clay for daily use and trade. That history runs in an unbroken line to the present. In the 1840s, the Goshen Democrat reported on a French potter named Paul Kirkdorffer working in town and on the Dausman brothers’ combined sawmill and pottery.  By the late 1960s, Marvin Bartel, professor...

By Mafe Aguilar Vargas • November 12, 2026 • Features

If you learn how to learn you can do anything.” These were the introductory words by Dick Lehman, ceramics Goshen College alumni, as he began a conversation based on the learning process as an artist who is driven by passion and experimentation. Lehman got his start in pottery as a student at GC learning how to throw from a fellow alumni, Bob Smoker who is now a part of the Northern Indiana Clay Alliance with Lehman. “We both harbored dreams of becoming potters,” Lehman said. As his curiosity in ceramics grew he had begun taking classes as an elective during...

By Mireya Alemán • April 3, 2025 • Arts