The Clay Arts Guild began as a small group of students committed to assuring the success of the new ceramics program of the Civic Arts Center of Walnut Creek.  On August 10, 1964 Ron Caya, the Center’s first Art Director, chaired a meeting with interested students. Fourteen students agreed to pay dues of $5 per year to a new organization called the Clay Arts Association.   Members enthusiastically helped fund new equipment and facilities right from the beginning.

The  Clay Arts Association began looking for a studio and eventually decided on a quonset hut near Civic Park. By the end of that first year (1964) the Association had held two sales in Broadway Plaza using a vacant store, purchased two wheels and helped pay for the installation of a gas line for kilns.

The Association’s name changed to the Clay Arts Guild (CAG) in 1979 when the studio was moved to the old Walnut Festival Building in Civic Park – our present day Studio E.  The kiln area, for instance, is where the stage for the old festival building was located.

The Clay Arts Guild is proud of its over 50 years of support and collaboration with Walnut Creek’s Center for Community Arts (former names: Civic Arts Center and Community Arts Education).  Today CAG boasts over one hundred members.