Holiday Ornament Happening, a fundraiser for students attending the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, will be held at the Auburn Ceramics Studio Saturday, Nov. 14 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 15 from 2-6 p.m.
Guests can stop by the studio to make and decorate ceramic ornaments, which will be fired by ceramic students to be picked up in the coming weeks.
Canne Holladay, senior in fine arts with a concentration in ceramics, said she attended the conference last year, which is held in Kansas City, Missouri, and this year will mark its 50th anniversary.
"It's just like a big convergence of a lot of ceramic artists and people of all sort of different interests in ceramics, and so you get artists, you get teachers, you get students in all different skill levels and they have a variety of ... demos and artists talks and different discussions on different themes," Holladay said.
She said last year she went to a discussion on social media.
"It's a really sort of eye-opening experience for people that want to go into the ceramics field, because you can see, you get a broader scope of what is out there in the field," Holladay said.
Holladay said she attended the conference with Taylor Robenalt, her professor, and said this year they want to make it more feasible for other students to go.
So far, Holladay said they have a couple of students interested in going, who will be putting in the time and effort to help fundraise.
Holladay said they are on the waitlist to have a booth at this year's Holiday Art Sale, another fundraising opportunity, Dec. 12 at the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center.
Ceramic art will also be sold at the art department salon sale, which will be held during finals week at Fieldwork Projects, the University's satellite gallery, and the proceeds from ceramic purchases will go toward funding the trip, according to Holladay.
This spring, Holladay said they are planning to coordinate pottery date nights where guests can visit the studio and learn how to hand-build or throw pottery.
"People would be able to come in, and you might want to bring a date," Holladay said. "People could try their hand at throwing, like make some pinch pots and some simple little things you could do in a couple of hours."
Holladay said in having these fundraising events, she hopes to open the studio to the public and fundraise as much as they can.
"With the event (Holiday Ornament Happening) we're just opening our studio up to people to do kind of an extracurricular, just a fun afternoon or activity if they want," Holladay said.
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