This past Saturday, the Bowls Ceramic Sale and Chili Cook-Off returned to The Art Center for the first time since the pandemic. We had previously held it at the wonderful Six Bridges Brewing, but we were missing the vibes in our own center, as well as the tradition of chili.
Our ceramics studio has been a huge force in The Art Center’s longevity and success since our move to the current building in the early 2000’s. Bowls began as a fundraiser to help cover some of the expenses required to run such an active studio and to improve its offerings. Through the work of Bowls over the years, we have been able to add kilns, ventilation systems, and expand our programming and materials offerings.
Bowls is no small feat! Our ceramics students and instructors volunteer their time for most of a full year to create the collection of bowls and silent auction pieces available for sale. Kiln firings, wheel throwing, and glazing must be managed around the studio’s robust class schedule and the typical volume of student work moving through our kilns. Add to this the usual challenges of ceramic work (explosions, pitting, cracking, and crackling), and you can imagine how much effort our volunteers put into making this event possible! This year, over 300 bowls were thrown and glazed and just under 300 survived to make it to the event.
While the bowls themselves take center stage at a Bowls event, we can’t discount the chili. 13 chili cooks competed this year for the coveted first place spot, each with a unique take on a traditional red, white chicken, or vegetarian chili. The tasters did their part (we started running out of chili about halfway through the event!) and the voting was close. Our first place winner was Anu with “Bowling for Veggies,” a delicious vegetarian chili that won by four votes. Right at Anu’s heels was Peter with “Smoky Bison Chili” in second, and for third place we had a tie between Kate and Dani, with “Chile NO Carne” and “The Poultrygeist” respectively.
Our demo space turned into a party of its own, a place where people were socializing while watching our in-house artists work on their sculptures and wheel throwing. Kids flocked to the table to do coloring pages, activity pages, and small art projects, and people got a chance to see our studio in action.
And while we did not host the event at Six Bridges this year, our old friends were still present! They made a generous donation of beer for us to pass out to our chili tasters and to add to the party atmosphere of the evening.
We had a wonderful time seeing everyone and shopping the beautiful work of our clay studio. It’s truly a testament to the family atmosphere of our studio that so many people came together and donated their time and talent to the creation of this event! It was a massive success, with over 7k raised for further studio improvements. We’re aiming to expand our kiln room, especially now that we have added the massive Miranda to our kiln family. This will help us with our increased class load and the ever-growing productivity of our students.
Thank you to all of our Bowls volunteers: Kendall Taylor, Mary Hattrick, Lory Van Ness, Kelsey Hargrave, Sue Bilkey, Li Fen, Lynn Pennington, Ramona Razavi, Larry Willis, Michelle Kerem, Jennifer Lindsey, Jennifer Schau, Marie Joh, Candice Dobra, Andrew Hermann, Sejal Whitaker, Kathy Archambault, Andi Pedersen, Judy Goyette-Payne, Denise Quinlan, Amanda Blanton, Sharon VanWinkle, Karen Dvornek, Susan Calderon, Ciara Hoehne, Joanne Easlick, Leslie Murphy, Carman, and Debra Yaun.
A very special thank you to Cathi Brostrom, Ketki Desai, and Julie Skadowski. This wonder team went well above and beyond to make this event possible.
Thank you to our Chili Cooks: Jennifer Lindsey, Dani Eiteman, Marie Joh, Anu Whitaker, Lynn Lanier, Kathy Archambault, Angie Willie, Larry Willis, Monica DuBois, Joanne Easlick, Peter Johnsrud, Kate Nahodyl, and Denise Quinlin.
Thank you to Davens Ceramic Center for your generous donation of clay, and for your general support for our ceramics classes!
Thank you to Six Bridges Brewing for providing us with delicious beverages for the evening!
Thank you to Chip Davis for taking such lovely photographs of the event!
And thanks to all who came and shopped at Bowls! We hope to see you at the event again next year!
