Meetinghouse Clay Center: Community Education
Donation protected
Wow. I am leaving the initial story up to remind myself and all of you of how far we've come in such a short time. And we are not going to let a pandemic bring us down. And thanks to #SmallBusinessRelief, Go Fund Me's matching grant for small businesss, I am very close to getting the matching $500 grant.
Our first session of classes was wonderful, and between word of mouth and promotion, our second session was about to swing into a strong foundation. We will emerge stronger and more resiliant, because we have such a solid foundation of people who want to pitch in, in whatever way they can. Please consider donating so that we can launch into the summer stronger than ever.
Here we are! So close to a dream; to establish a community. The Meetinghouse Clay Center , where the clay arts are celebrated, and artists who work in many media can inspire each other and grow together.
This summer, the path towards that dream opened up. I found a beautiful building with many former lives. It was a dance center for years, and before that, a church. It has a large, light and bright studio for classes, a lower level for individual artists to work, and a sweet little gallery space! The location is fantastic. I have lists of students ready to sign up for classes, and artists committed to the spaces.
The cost of bringing this space to life as a place for people of all ages and experience levels to take clay classes, for resident artists to work in a communal space with the opportunity to develop their work, and as a gallery, is $40,000. I have raised $25,000 already between my own savings and some extraordinarily committed students who believe in this as strongly as I do.
Meetinghouse Clay Center is the healthy spinoff of years of experience, and a population of enthusiastic students who are ready to have a stand alone clay center.
I need just $15,000 more by the end of October to bring this clay community to life.
Will you help me bridge the gap? Any size donation will help.
I have much of the equipment I need:
3 Electric kilns
4 wheels
Sturdy handbuilding tables (Thank you, Dad!)
A slab roller (Thank you, Mom!)
But there is much I still need to purchase:
4 more wheels (8 + wheels are needed to run profitable classes. The first 4 students pay the instructor, the fifth pays the facility costs, then 6-8 make a profit) $1,100 each.
18 seats for the wheels and tables $50 each
Sink $700
Traps for keeping clay out of the septic system. 2 @ $250 each
A pug mill for recycling clay - used $1,000
Buckets: 12 @ $10 each
Glaze materials
Many small tools
Shelving. Lots and lots of shelving. 8 wheeled units at $90 each. Bracket shelving $500
Pedestals for display
However, the largest costs are vinyl flooring to protect the beautiful existing wood floor, new electric, and plumbing. Those three items come in at around $25,000.
Everything I have done so far has gotten me ready for this leap. My schooling, running a small business selling my own clay work, and starting and running a successful ceramics program at a community arts center. In my last role as ceramic program manager, I built and managed a program for ages 5-85. Over 250 people a year benefitted from the classes and community that I created.
Meetinghouse Clay Center started as a seed ten years ago, when a colleague bought a derelict nursing home in upstate New York, and founded what has become the nationally recognized Saratoga Clay Arts Center. Since then, every interesting space I’ve seen for sale or lease I have shaped into a quiet dream for a bustling community devoted to the ceramic arts on Cape Cod, my home.
The building is in Cataumet, a village in the town of Bourne, on Cape Cod. It is geographically distant from the other community clay studios in the area. It has good parking, and is near a cafe, several restaurants, an ice cream shop, as well as some great retail shops.
Meetinghouse Clay Center will fill a niche. There are no resident artist spaces for ceramics on the Cape. That sweet spot for when you’ve outgrown a classroom setting, but are not in the position to build or house a full fledged ceramics studio of your own. As well, the nearby Cataumet Arts Center does not offer ceramics classes, and has lists of artists who need work space that we can help accommodate. Our instructors are professional, working clay artists, and experianced teachers who will deliver top notch instruction to students of all ages and abilities.
My goal is to have artist spaces ready to occupy by November, and I hope to start offering classes in January. Please visit www.meetinghouseclay.com to sign up for our newsletter and learn as soon as classes are posted!
My landlord assures me there is plenty of time to accomplish this if I get cracking. Whatever you can contribute will help bring this dream to life.
Thank you!
Sarah
Our first session of classes was wonderful, and between word of mouth and promotion, our second session was about to swing into a strong foundation. We will emerge stronger and more resiliant, because we have such a solid foundation of people who want to pitch in, in whatever way they can. Please consider donating so that we can launch into the summer stronger than ever.
Here we are! So close to a dream; to establish a community. The Meetinghouse Clay Center , where the clay arts are celebrated, and artists who work in many media can inspire each other and grow together.
This summer, the path towards that dream opened up. I found a beautiful building with many former lives. It was a dance center for years, and before that, a church. It has a large, light and bright studio for classes, a lower level for individual artists to work, and a sweet little gallery space! The location is fantastic. I have lists of students ready to sign up for classes, and artists committed to the spaces.
The cost of bringing this space to life as a place for people of all ages and experience levels to take clay classes, for resident artists to work in a communal space with the opportunity to develop their work, and as a gallery, is $40,000. I have raised $25,000 already between my own savings and some extraordinarily committed students who believe in this as strongly as I do.
Meetinghouse Clay Center is the healthy spinoff of years of experience, and a population of enthusiastic students who are ready to have a stand alone clay center.
I need just $15,000 more by the end of October to bring this clay community to life.
Will you help me bridge the gap? Any size donation will help.
I have much of the equipment I need:
3 Electric kilns
4 wheels
Sturdy handbuilding tables (Thank you, Dad!)
A slab roller (Thank you, Mom!)
But there is much I still need to purchase:
4 more wheels (8 + wheels are needed to run profitable classes. The first 4 students pay the instructor, the fifth pays the facility costs, then 6-8 make a profit) $1,100 each.
18 seats for the wheels and tables $50 each
Sink $700
Traps for keeping clay out of the septic system. 2 @ $250 each
A pug mill for recycling clay - used $1,000
Buckets: 12 @ $10 each
Glaze materials
Many small tools
Shelving. Lots and lots of shelving. 8 wheeled units at $90 each. Bracket shelving $500
Pedestals for display
However, the largest costs are vinyl flooring to protect the beautiful existing wood floor, new electric, and plumbing. Those three items come in at around $25,000.
Everything I have done so far has gotten me ready for this leap. My schooling, running a small business selling my own clay work, and starting and running a successful ceramics program at a community arts center. In my last role as ceramic program manager, I built and managed a program for ages 5-85. Over 250 people a year benefitted from the classes and community that I created.
Meetinghouse Clay Center started as a seed ten years ago, when a colleague bought a derelict nursing home in upstate New York, and founded what has become the nationally recognized Saratoga Clay Arts Center. Since then, every interesting space I’ve seen for sale or lease I have shaped into a quiet dream for a bustling community devoted to the ceramic arts on Cape Cod, my home.
The building is in Cataumet, a village in the town of Bourne, on Cape Cod. It is geographically distant from the other community clay studios in the area. It has good parking, and is near a cafe, several restaurants, an ice cream shop, as well as some great retail shops.
Meetinghouse Clay Center will fill a niche. There are no resident artist spaces for ceramics on the Cape. That sweet spot for when you’ve outgrown a classroom setting, but are not in the position to build or house a full fledged ceramics studio of your own. As well, the nearby Cataumet Arts Center does not offer ceramics classes, and has lists of artists who need work space that we can help accommodate. Our instructors are professional, working clay artists, and experianced teachers who will deliver top notch instruction to students of all ages and abilities.
My goal is to have artist spaces ready to occupy by November, and I hope to start offering classes in January. Please visit www.meetinghouseclay.com to sign up for our newsletter and learn as soon as classes are posted!
My landlord assures me there is plenty of time to accomplish this if I get cracking. Whatever you can contribute will help bring this dream to life.
Thank you!
Sarah
Organizer
Sarah Caruso
Organizer
Bourne, MA