Sloss Cast Iron Conference

📣 OPEN CALLS – NCCCIAP 2027 📣

The National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art & Practices is now accepting applications for:

🔥 Guest Furnaces
🎭 Performances
🗣️ Panels & Presentations
🏆 Student Cupola
🛠️ Workshops
⭐️ Demonstrations

The 2027 theme, IRON WORKS: Work Smarter, Not Harder, explores community, collaboration, innovation, and the ways artists share knowledge, labor, and resources to strengthen the field of contemporary cast iron art.

We encourage proposals that push beyond traditional metal casting and introduce new technologies, methods, interdisciplinary approaches, and creative ways of working together. Whether you're teaching a specialized skill, presenting research, organizing a performance, or proposing a unique furnace project, we want to hear from you.

📅 Submission Deadline: October 31, 2026

📬 Notification of Acceptance: December 1, 2026

🔗 Link in bio to apply

Excited to announce the 2027 NCCCIAP theme
🔥 Iron Works: Work Smarter, Not Harder

Historically, neighborhoods were created around ironworks, industrial spaces responsible for iron production. People were not only dependent on the job that was provided by the ironworks, but also the programs, support, and community that were centered around the material. At Sloss Furnaces National Historical Landmark, iron casting has transformed from a large-scale, industrial operation, to a smaller, education-based model, yet the community that has been built around the material has remained.

It is within this community and at this conference that we find the ability to “work smarter, not harder.” Working in this manner doesn’t negate the effort, skill, or dedication put into a task or goal, nor is it about cutting corners. It could mean something different for everyone. Perhaps it’s about being more efficient in your labor, prioritizing and delegating tasks. Or it could be employing new technologies, methods, or processes to maximize time or minimize physical exertion. Maybe it is about leaning on your community to share the labor or their experience.

​It is our hope that the programming at the 2027 NCCCIAP connects you with a community of iron casters and artists that you can call on for knowledge, expertise, inspiration, or to just lighten the load. 

Help us build the future of iron casting🔥

Photo from 2023 Shift Change Conference Tailgating
Donations from this event went towards the Futures Scholarship

Your donation can support:
• General NCCCIAP Programming Support
• The Iron Futures Scholarship
• NCCCIAP General Scholarship Fund

🔗 link in bio to support
https://nccciap.square.site/product/support-the-nccciap/568?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

Donate, share, and help invest in the future of contemporary cast iron art

Have you started thinking about your performance idea for the 2027 conference? Calls open in July!

Take a look at past performance “Cauldron” with Kenneth Payne and SUNY Buffalo State from the 2019 NCCCIAP Beyond the Parting Line🔥

Planning to join the 2027 Student Cupola Contest?

Do you need an official “invitation to apply” for student group funding, departmental budgets, or grants?

We’ve got you covered! Please reach out to us at [email protected] to request a letter or to ask any questions.

Can you believe it?! 🎉 10 years of the Harder Barter Market!

The very first one was held April 8, 2017 at the NCCCIAP at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, AL.

Created by artists Kristen Tordella-Williams and Jenny Hillenbrand, the Harder Barter Market invites artists and participants to bring small, tradeable items to exchange with one another—anything from artwork, tools, raw materials, and swag to creative IOUs like cooking a meal or helping with yard work.

The purpose of this event is to bring artists of all backgrounds and career stages together equally to have a go at self-promotion, negotiation, valuing goods, networking, and taking chances! Most importantly we want to have fun! One folk’s patch is another folk’s treasure.

Here’s to a decade of creative barter and many more to come! 💫