From August 25th to this past Friday, the Owens Community College Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery hosted Interconnected, a selection of art pieces from the Community Clay Studio from the Fine and Performing Arts Center.
The gallery displayed many unique and dazzling pieces all made in the medium of clay, and each one was made by a member of the Community Clay Studio, spearheaded by Lindsay Scypta, a professor here at Owens.
Along with Scypta, many of her fellow members of the Clay Studio entered their own work into the show to display.
Along with showcasing her class’s art pieces and her own, Scypta also had a moment to speak about the Clay program here at Owens and how it got started. Before working here at Owens, Scypta attended the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, where she went on to get her BFA in Ceramics. She then went on to get her MFA at OSU.
“In 2014 I was finishing up an artist residency just outside of New York…and I was trying to decide where my husband and I wanted to settle, and we decided that Toledo was a good location. And so we started to look for jobs and there was a post for a job here at Owens. When I started in that fall of 2014, I found out very quick that the studio had been empty for two years. So I really started with a clean slate, [I started] developing my own studio policies and practices. Initially, I was teaching an academic class, and then we started adding community classes. And in the last 7 years we’ve added the Mature Citizens program, which is being showcased in the galley today.”
Scypta also teaches ceramics at BGSU, where some Owens Students will go onto polish their skills in Ceramics to a finer degree, so she spoke about the advantages of starting here at Owens.
“Ceramics 1 is where you learn your technical skill set. I think that… taking a class here at Owens allows for a lot of one on one instruction, and it also allows students to engage with our Mature Citizens who have been here in the studio for 7 years, who know the glazes and how things work, since they have careers in fields that students may go into in the future. So I think it’s an incredible advantage for them to be able to be here in our studio with us when taking an introductory level course, and then to take what they learn with us into the next program.”
Lastly, Scypta spoke about what she hopes her student and community members experience when taking Ceramics here at Owens.
“Ceramics is one of the most challenging materials…because it’s not gonna wait for you. If you start on a piece on Monday, but don’t come back till next Monday, that piece could be hard and dry, and you’re done. Students learn really quickly about failure, repetition…and being able to shift gears into a new project or idea. And so I think a lot of what they learn in the studio translates into their life, whether it’s in ceramics or just these life lessons that are hard and not fun, but a reality, right? I feel for students when those things happen to them, but I also think that there is a wonderful opportunity for them to grow and rebound. It’s been really special, and it’s been the joy of my life to be here, doing this work. I didn’t come here to build a community, but that’s what happened. And, I’m really proud of it, and I hope I get to continue to grow the community into the future.”
With the Spring Semester right around the corner and class enrollment now open for students, if ceramics has ever piqued your interest, be sure to enroll for a beginner class or continue your ceramics journey next semester.
