If your idea of something made of clay is a mug or a casserole, you might want to take a look around the city this week as 5,000 artists, educators and connoisseurs who specialize in the medium converge on Pittsburgh, bringing with them an array of work that ranges from practical to conceptual.

The occasion is the annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts that this year will be held Wednesday through Saturday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.

While there is a fee to attend the conference, most of the ceramic exhibitions are outside the convention center, open to the public and, with a couple of exceptions, free.

At last count the number of shows was nearing 100, located as near to conference headquarters as the Westin Convention Center Hotel and as far afield as the Olin Art Gallery on the campus of Washington & Jefferson College.

Local and national artists are exhibiting, some of them just beginning to build a reputation and others well established. Many are educators. The work includes functional pottery and conceptual projects, sculpture and installation. Some shows tie in with presentations to be given during the conference, such as "Naked Raku" at CCAC Allegheny Campus and Brian Molanphy's work made at the National Manufactory of Sevres, France, exhibited at the Conscious Cafe, Carnegie.

The majority of exhibitions will open Wednesday and continue only into Saturday. But that still leaves a lot of clay to see before Wednesday, and several of the best shows will stay after the conferees leave town.

Bill Strickland, president and chief executive officer of Manchester Bidwell Corp., will give the keynote address Wednesday evening on "The Art of Leadership."

Other conference lectures range in subject from the pragmatic, "Community-based Arts Practice: Models for Community Engagement," to the esoteric, like "The Function of Theory."

Among video topics are potters of Nepal, India, Yoruba and Mexico, and ceramists such as the late George Ohr and the noted Rudy Autio.

Panels will address topics from "Saving the World," a discussion of the potential of silver-enhanced ceramic water filters to efficiently provide safe water to rural communities, to "The Yixing Influence on Contemporary American Ceramics," regarding the rich brown clay teapots of Yixing, China.

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the convention center. Conference fees are $210, $145 for students with a statement on school letterhead from registrar, dean or professor verifying current full-time status. Day admission tickets are $55 Wednesday, $75 Thursday or Friday, $35 Saturday. Attendees must be current members of NCECA and may join when registering; $50, $30 students. (All fees given are for American attendees; go to www.nceca.net/conference for other rates.)

The accompanying list of exhibitions is arranged by location so that you can make the most of your exploration of clay.