BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Clayworks is preparing for the annual Empty Bowls Dinner with a Bowlerama event on Saturday, April 30.
Bowlerama offers an opportunity for those who have little or no experience in clay to create a bowl to donate to the dinner, held each Columbus Day weekend at Landmark College as a fundraiser for the Groundworks Food Shelf.
Bonnie Stearns, Alan Steinberg, and Annie Lauterbach will be available to help bowl-makers get started, provide basic instruction, and troubleshoot if assistance is needed. Participants are invited to pinch, make coils, or roll out slabs of clay into bowls, and to decorate their creations with stamps and other textured objects.
Because they are expressive and unique, hand-built bowls are often the first to be chosen at the Empty Bowls Dinner.
Space is limited, so Clayworks asks interested parties to sign up in advance for the morning or afternoon sessions: 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Call Brattleboro Clayworks at 802-254-9174 to reserve a place for your party. Children age 10 and older are welcome, accompanied by an adult. Clayworks is donating instruction, clay, glaze, and firing costs. There is no charge to participate, but financial donations are welcome.
The Empty Bowls dinner is a collaborative event. Local potters contribute bowls, local eateries donate home-cooked soups, and musicians share their talents. For a $25 donation, participants will enjoy live music and a delicious meal in a handcrafted bowl they take home afterward.
The 2016 Empty Bowls Dinner will take place on Saturday, Oct. 8, with all proceeds to support the Groundworks Collaborative Food Shelf, which serves roughly 1,000 individuals in 220 households each month.
Groundworks Collaborative is the agency created by the merger of the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center and Morningside Shelter last June. The organization continues to operate the region's largest and busiest food shelf, a 30-bed shelter for families and individuals, the Seasonal Overflow Shelter and Day Shelter, housing case management, and a Representative Payee service.