MHS art students, staff use pottery skills to support local causes

Olivia Zellner | The Chronicle

Photo by Olivia Zellner Senior Alena Schneiderman demonstrates bowl-making process to Art Club members at first club meeting incermaics Karan Witham-Walsh’s classroom.

Mason High School’s (MHS) Art Club is taking creativity beyond the classroom walls this year, using ceramics to spark unexpected connections in the community.

MHS extracurriculars are vast, but rarely do they allow students to apply skills learned in the classroom to their personal endeavors. The MHS Art Club, an organization based upon students using their artistic talent to better their community, is different. 

Art Club, which co-presidents Alena Schneiderman and Eliava Li have decided will be ceramics-focused this year, gives members the opportunity to apply the skills they pick up in their daily art electives to outside-of-class creations. However, unlike many school organizations, Art Club members don’t congregate solely within the walls of MHS.

This year, the group strives to take their talent into the community and travel to various nursing homes to teach art lessons and create art with residents. Alena Schneiderman, co-president of Art Club, said the opportunity isn’t just about ceramics, but being an active part of her community.

“I think it’s so important, finding that happy medium between connecting with the people around you and doing art,” Schneiderman said. “I want people to leave [Art Club] knowing there are always things you can do to give back to the community, even through your hobbies.”

Although she has been involved in MHS art electives for many years, Schneiderman said the newfound purpose of the Art Club stemmed not only from her love for ceramics but partly from her personal life as well.

“I grew up around ceramics,” Schneiderman said. “My aunt was a potter for a living. She passed away, but the two art centers she started are still around today.”

Now, Schneiderman takes the inspiration from her aunt into everyday life. Her creativity is put to use not just in the classroom, but at her job.

“I work in a nursing home, and I used to go to nursing homes with my family to do arts and crafts with the residents,” Schneiderman said. “Seeing how much young kids and teenagers make their day is huge.”

Schneiderman is not the only one passionate about using her talents for the good of her community. Karan Witham-Walsh, an MHS ceramics teacher and potter of over 35 years, enjoys doing much of the same work. Witham-Walsh belongs to the Cincinnati Clay Alliance, an organization that works closely with Empty Bowls. A grassroots movement aimed at fighting food insecurity across America, Empty Bowls takes ceramic donations from local potters and food donations from local restaurants to serve at a community-wide event. Customers buy a ticket and receive a homemade bowl, which they get to keep, and a hot meal. The proceeds from the event are then donated to homeless shelters and local food banks. Witham-Walsh said the opportunity to help her community through pottery is vital to her. 

“My pottery — it’s not nearly as expressive as, say, a painting, but I feel like it does have meaning when I can make a contribution and a difference through the art,” Witham-Walsh said.

As much as Witham-Walsh enjoyed helping empty bowls herself, she wanted to involve her students as well. The opportunity wasn’t something they could do in day-to-day class, but rather in an after-school club.

“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat if I could have kids make bowls as an agent to contribute to making it a success?’”

The Art Club began working with Empty Bowls during the 2019-2020 school year and fired numerous pieces when the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world. Empty Bowls Mason shut down, school shut down, and as a result, Art Club shut down. The student’s unglazed pieces sat in Witham-Walsh’s ceramics studio for four years, and finally, the creations are being finished. The Art Club will spend their first few meetings glazing and preparing the old students’ bowls for donation, and they will ultimately find their way to the tables of Empty Bowls.

“I had all these bowls, and I kept them because I thought that maybe we could use them someday,” Witham-Walsh said. “I’m so excited to finally have that opportunity.”

Art Club members and advisors will work together over the coming months to donate work to the cause. But for Mrs. Witham-Walsh and many of her students, it’s not work at all.

“I love being able to make a difference with something that I’m passionate about,” Witham-Walsh said. “That’s one of the best things about being a potter.”