Letter to our Community : CAC is Reopening!

July 18, 2020

After almost four months, Clay Art Center’s doors are open again. It is exciting to see our artists back in their spaces creating new works, loading and unloading kilns. Our students are coming back next week to begin glazing all of the work they made in makeshift home studios or on wheels rented from the Studio. After all the time on Zoom, it is so nice to see everyone in person.
 
When I started at the end of October, I thought my first year would involve a lot of listening and learning so that I could understand the many facets of Clay Art Center. I envisioned spending time observing all of our programs, and once I understood what worked and what didn’t, I could then begin making changes. 2020 was not what any of us expected. I am still doing a lot of listening and learning but we aren't waiting to make changes. The staff and board are working hard to change programs, policies, and practices to ensure that Clay Art Center is safe, inclusive, and community focused.
 
All of this is happening while we also work to make sure that Clay Art Center remains a strong and vibrant community after months of closure and plans for smaller programs for the foreseeable future. You have all supported our community by donating your unused class tuition, giving to our Two-Strong Hands Campaign, buying our Clay Art Center t-shirts, and offering your time and energy to help us get Clay Art Center up and running. We are busy planning a virtual Hand-in-Hand benefit and we are looking forward to celebrating with all of you about what we have achieved together and where we plan to be in the future. I can’t thank all of you enough for all you continue to do to support the Clay Art Center community.
 
Things don’t look exactly like they did when we left in March and that is a good thing. It has given us time to think about what we want Clay Art Center to be and how we can best engage with our community locally and nationally and we look forward to sharing it with all of you!

Emily Peck
Executive Director

*Originally published in CAC’s weekly newsletter on July 18, 2020