Cortney Moses, Fine Arts agent and Fine Arts council members sensed a need in the community for a pottery program. The Fine Arts program has been building the pottery studio, working with local artists, training volunteers, and offering classes since the donation of 2 kilns and a pottery wheel in 2013.  It was now time to take it a step further.  Our first, Open Pottery winter session began December 2016 and ran through February 2017. Once a week for 11 weeks participants of all ages where encouraged to explore, teach and learn from others through techniques of hand building, and wheel throwing. Participants could come and go as they pleased during the three-hour period and the only fee was $1 per pound of clay.

We continued the same model in our Open Pottery summer session June-August 2017, but moved the time to 11am-2pm to cater to a different demographic. In this 14 weeks session, our participants included children and families and adult day centers. We increased our participation from 96 individuals to 138, and now have grown to 5 pottery wheels and a new larger Kiln.

Running a pottery studio involves a lot of behind the scenes work. And the process to complete a piece of work is about 3 weeks. Cortney worked with many volunteers and local artists who dedicated their time, teaching, learning the processes to load, unload, and fire the kilns and learning hand building and glazing techniques to help guild individuals in their creative process. Whitley County Fine Arts now has a Pottery Group that meet monthly to share ideas learn new techniques with demonstrations of hand building and wheel throwing. The group members volunteer to support the Open Pottery Program.

Evaluations of both Open Pottery sessions showed 98% increase in knowledge regarding basic clay techniques, glazing, the 4-step process to complete a finished product, and the identification of tools and equipment, and 98% of the participants say they gained a higher appreciation for this art form and the artist. From the summers session %85 noted improvements in their mental and emotional wellbeing, over 750 completed pieces of art were created, and 75% of participants recognizing they would travel out of the county to find a comparable experience.

The mission of the Extension Arts Program is to create and support opportunities for Whitley County residents to stimulate creativity, promote participation, and to nourish relationships with artists, arts educators, and arts supporters at all levels and mediums. Cortney Moses, Arts Agent, establishes a place for community residents to gain positive community building experiences and increase personal quality of life by expressing and exploring their own creativity.