A Post-Election Message from Emily Peck, Executive Director

Finding positive ways to process life through clay.

In 2017, as our Country reckoned with division and anger, I re-discovered my love for clay. I had grown up in schools with well-funded creative arts education and my parents nurtured my interest in the arts by sending me to Buck’s Rock, an arts-focused summer camp. Once I tried wheel throwing, I was hooked, and I spent many summers immersed in pottery. My interest in the arts led to an art history degree and years of working in arts administration, but I spent very little time making art. That all changed in 2017 when I needed to put down my phone and find a way to process everything that was happening in the world around me. Brickhouse in Long Island City became my clay home. With my hands in clay, I was able to find focus, creativity, and community.

Now as the division in our Country is once again front and center, Clay Art Center strives to provide a place for you to find your center. As we wrote in our Community Guidelines, we aim “to foster a safe, inclusive, and inspiring environment at Clay Art Center. Our goal is for all community members to experience a positive and respectful space where creativity can flourish, collaboration can thrive, and people feel respected and supported.” As a Country, we have a lot of work to do, but our hope is that at Clay Art Center we can offer our students, artists, community partners, and visitors a place to reflect, create, and connect.

See you in the studio,
Emily Peck

Executive Director