Spring 2020 Ceramics (All Levels) During Pandemic!
Art 315 (Ceramics II): April 22, 2020
Luckily many ceramics students were allowed to take home pottery wheels when the pandemic shut down the campus at midsemester. 2,000 pounds of clay was purchased with Clay Club funds (later reimbursed by the Art Department), and I delivered this clay to my students on the Eastern Shore, around Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
One of the unforeseen advantages of working at home during a quarantine – many of my students were able to produce more work than I would usually expect on-campus (our studio at SU is under 1,000 square feet, with very little storage). Students also enjoyed unlimited access to their home ‘studios,’ and I heard many stories of students practicing and working all night on their ceramic projects.
We also arranged an area where students could drop-off work to be fired, on the enclosed patio behind the Student Art Center.
This was the scene I encountered on April 22, 2020 – all of these are Dan’s pots, about 2 weeks of work. Learning how to make good pottery is one of the exceptions to the rule ‘quality not quantity’…..in the case of pottery, students learn about quality by creating an enormous quantity!