Hand in Hand 2024 - What a Night!
Thank YOU for helping to make this event a wonderful success!
The sun shone brightly on our clay community as we gathered for Hand In Hand 2024 Benefit & Auction, enjoying delicious food, wonderful company, and, of course, incredible ceramics!
We are immensely grateful for the energy, passion, and dedication of our board, staff, teachers, artists, students, volunteers, and all of you. People come to Clay Art Center as students, artists, teachers, and ceramics enthusiasts, but no matter the reason, they all find a home here. A place where we can ignite their passion for clay and provide a nurturing community for that passion to flourish.
Speaking at Hand In Hand this year, Clay Art Center Executive Director Emily Peck shared, “When Clay Art Center was founded in 1957 by Katherine Choy and Henry Okamoto, their vision was to create a community where artists could thrive. As they wrote in the charter for Clay Art Center: ‘It is hoped that member artists could be benefitted to a maximum degree, by enjoying the quietude of the workshop, encouraging each other, exchanging ideas, and joining efforts in working out various problems.’ As Katherine and Henry envisioned, Clay Art Center provides a home for artists to be creative, exchange ideas, and inspire one another, thanks to the ongoing support and commitment of our entire community.
Our programming at Clay Art Center takes many forms. Over the course of a year, we provide funding for 4 emerging artists. We provide more than 175 free afterschool classes for Port Chester students, hire 13 paid interns primarily from the Port Chester community, and offer classes in partnership with local organizations including Hope House, Carver Center, Salvation Army, Don Bosco, Blue Heart Forever Project, Cancer Support Community, Port Chester Senior Center, and so many more. Throughout the year, more than 5,000 students joined an adult or youth program to get their hands dirty. Our scholarship program provides opportunities for 800 adults and youth to join our programming at low or no cost. Fifty artists make Clay Art Center their creative home. Our gallery exhibits nine shows a year, all on view for free to the public. And these are just some of the many things that happen at Clay Art Center during a single year, thanks to our community.
Our plan is EXPAND and create accessible spaces. BUILD more space to present exhibitions, our shop and permanent collection. GROW to meet evolving needs of communities served and EMPOWER artists and students to flourish. We are excited for this journey and what it will allow for Clay Art Center.” - Emily Peck, Executive Director
At Hand in Hand this year, we also celebrated five honorees who have been part of our clay community and shared their passion for 25 years or more: Kazuko Lee, Deborah Mawhinney, Gloria Nixon-Crouch, Marilyn Richeda, and Denis Licul. Throughout their time at Clay Art Center, these artists have seen many changes from the addition of heat in the studios, to the growth in staff, studio space, classrooms, and more. The one thing that has stayed consistent is the strength and spirit of the artist community.
"Clay is a very special material; it is an element of the earth, it has the capacity to ground our restless minds and to bring us to the present." - Denis Licul, Clay Art Center Artist, Community Arts Instructor, 2024 Hand In Hand Honoree.
"This is not just a Port Chester thing, or a Westchester thing, but a New York State gem." - Steve Otis, New York State Assemblyman
$139,000 has already been raised towards our $145,000 goal! We still need your help to reach our fundraising goal to support our community programs, scholarships, artist residencies, exhibitions and more. Please consider giving by October 31st.
Thank you for being such an important part of the Clay Art Center community. The outpouring of encouragement, hope and support for Clay Art Center means so much to us!
