Consider this a heads-up to anyone who loves clay -- potters, ceramists, collectors, decorators, fans of craft, art and art-craft: Between March 19 and 22 there's going to be more clay exhibited in the city than we've ever seen at one time, or are likely to see again in the near future. And almost all of those exhibitions will be free and open to the public. Frequently work is for sale, and usually there are good buys to be had.

If 2007 was the Year of Glass in Pittsburgh, this is the year of clay, though much of it is going to take place in a more concentrated time period. The impetus for such activity is the annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), which this year is expected to draw 5,000 participants to Pittsburgh.

Estimates on the economic impact the conference will make on the city range from $4 million to $12 million, depending upon who's doing the study and what's included (meals, plane travel, etc.), according to Josh Green, Manchester Craftmen's Guild director of Arts and Education Strategies and NCECA 2008 on-site liaison.

NCECA conferences regularly attract heavyweights in the studio ceramics field as well as astute collectors, so everyone who works with clay or represents clay artists -- particularly those in the region surrounding the conference site -- typically tries to find a way to exhibit work during them. Because most members are educators, for example, there will be a large student and faculty presence from schools as close as Carnegie Mellon and Robert Morris universities and as far afield as Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and the State University of New York at New Paltz.

As of yesterday, a Web site maintained by Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (www.ceramixpittsburgh.org) listed 104 exhibitions that will be running during the conference.

Some of those will stay past March 22, and some have already opened. I discuss three briefly below that you can visit now, and closer to the conference, I will make suggestions to help those with limited time choose among the many options.

The only exhibitions that will require registration will be those at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where the conference is being held. For a conference program or to register, go to www.nceca.net/conference.

The following trio of shows is a sampling of what can be expected during the conference.

The Frank Ross Legacy Exhibition at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild pays homage to the man who introduced Bill Strickland, president and chief executive officer of Manchester Bidwell Corp., to clay and set him on his career path.

Represented among Ross' students and friends are nationally known artists Edward Eberle, Val Cushing, Toshiko Takaezu and Wesley Mills. The work ranges from functional and traditional to conceptual.

Continuing through April 6 at 1815 Metropolitan St., North Side. The MCG ceramics studio will be dedicated to the late Frank Ross March 18 during a ceremony that will include "friends, food and music" (admission $35 advance, $45 door, $35 student). For information: 412-322-1773 or www.manchesterguild.org.

NCECA brings its own shows to town, and the 2008 Regional Student Juried Exhibition is already installed at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

This lively display from universities across the East Coast and Midwest includes conceptual, political, expressive, sculptural and functional ware. Some standouts are Scott Ziegler's "Interrogation," a flask-like shape covered with eyes; the colorful rows of busts that compose Laura Thompson's "PS 106"; Lindsay Hinkle's "Meat," plucked fowl in a cage on the floor; and Jo Watko's "Evolution" of a dinosaur body into an oil can.

It stays only through March 22 at 6300 Fifth Ave., corner of Shady. The Mr. and Mrs. Ira H. Gordon Pavilion, for raku, will be dedicated March 20 by seminal studio artist Paul Soldner. Free; for information: 412-361-0873 or pittsburgharts.org.

The conference inspired the Pittsburgh Glass Center to hold its first collaborative mixed-media exhibition, "Recollection," with glass artist Michael Rogers and ceramic artist Richard Hirsch.

The two addressed the themes of collecting and memory during a 2007 residency at the Glass Center, also using the clay facilities of The Union Project. They're exhibiting evocative blown-glass vessels that provide ritualistic display for ceramic objects given iconographic status. Hirsch also shows independent work.

Hirsch has been a member of the Ceramics Department at Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, since 1987. Rogers was professor and head of the Glass Department at Aichi University of Education in Kariya, Japan, for 10 years, and is also a member of the RIT faculty.

Continuing through March 30 at 5472 Penn Ave., Friendship. For information: 412-365-2145 or www.pittsburghglasscenter.org.