Why You Should Join Us for our Hand in Hand Benefit & Auction!

Letter to our Community:

Next month, we will be gathering for our annual Hand in Hand celebration. My first time attending Hand in Hand was in 2019. This was also my first day on the job. You all welcomed me into the community with open arms and immediately shared with me your passion for Clay Art Center and what we needed to do to make Clay Art Center the best it could be. Together with an amazing staff, a dedicated board, passionate artists, engaged students, and informative teachers, we have been working towards making Clay Art Center a welcoming, creative, and vibrant art center serving everyone from experienced artists, to people touching clay for the first time, to arts admirers viewing us online or in-person. The past two years haven’t been like any of us envisioned, but together we have persevered through COVID, flooding, and other obstacles to ensure that Clay Art Center not only survives, but that it thrives.

Now is our chance to envision who we want to be in the future. But in order to get there, we need all of your support to help fund the staffing, Artists in Residence program, Community Arts teachers, and other programs that will allow us to continue advancing our mission and strengthening our position as a valuable community resource. Hand in Hand is our biggest single fundraiser. The tickets you buy, auction items you bid on, and donations you make to Hand in Hand support everything that makes Clay Art Center great.

Next Sunday, we will be hosting our Clay Coming Together workshop for the Port Chester community. This free class, taught by a teacher who graduated from our Port Chester High School afterschool program, will include participants from the Port Chester community, including staff from the Department of Public Works, Port Chester Recreation, Port Chester schools and more. Each participant will make something for themselves and will also create a piece that will be used as part of our décor for Hand in Hand. We are able to run this program because of your past support. Your support this year will allow us to offer more programs that reach adults and youth who don’t always have access to our programs.

During this past year, when we couldn’t be together physically, we gathered online for clay classes, met virtually for happy hours and learned from artists around the globe in our artist talk series. As soon as we opened our doors, our students and artists eagerly put on masks and got back to creating. As I have welcomed the return of new and old students alike into our studios, I have been inspired by your stories. You have shared with me what Clay Art Center has meant to you. I have heard about the friendships you have made, the creativity you found in yourself, the feeling of relief you have found in escaping from the stresses of the world by making something, and the inspiration you have experienced viewing an exhibition and more. Hand in Hand will be a chance to gather together to celebrate all of these achievements as a community. Even if you can’t attend on October 16, we hope you will support Clay Art Center as we continue to grow as a community.

Best,
Emily Peck
Executive Director

Learn More about our Hand in Hand Annual Benefit & Auction
Saturday, October 16, 4 - 7pm
A tented outdoor event at Clay Art Center where you will enjoy an evening of good company, great food, cocktails & music as well as a chance to view the auction items in person before bidding online.

Learn more about the past, present and future of Clay Art Center in a video from last year’s virtual Hand in Hand.

Share with us why you love Clay Art Center in either a 60 second (or less) video or a written testimonial. We would love to hear from you and share the love with our community. Email them to Wendy Weinstein (wendy@clayartcenter.org).

Images from Hand in Hand 2019