Empty Bowls on the way
Nov. 13—Partnering with as many people as possible and giving them a chance to create bowls has made Empty Bowls the success it has become across communities.
Empty Bowls, entering its 23rd year, benefits the West Texas Food Bank.
Students at the 18+ Transition Learning Center and many other schools across Ector County ISD and in Midland, plus community members, participate in making the ceramic bowls for the event, which is set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Jan. 28 in the McCormick Gallery in the Allison Fine Arts Building at Midland College.
The cost is $15 per bowl.
Students and families at Crockett Middle School will have a chance to make bowls with Pots-n-Prints at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 15 in the school cafeteria. All bowls will go to the Empty Bowls project.
University of Texas Permian Basin Associate Professor of Art Chris Stanley said with more people involved, more people could turn out to the event and it adds more actual bowls.
Stanley said he doesn't know how many bowls they will wind up with, but there are always extra.
"Those always find other homes. They go to other places sometimes. But right now, the way it is is that the main players, and that would be MC, OC and UTPB, are making about 300 bowls apiece. Every year, that gives us a minimum base load of about 900," Stanley said.
"I still think we're recovering from COVID. Those years in there ... about three of them where people were hesitant to come out. But last year when it was at UTPB, it was beautiful. What we saw which was cool was just people coming back together again to have soup," Stanley added.
He noted that it's getting close to the 25th year of Empty Bowls.
"To me, therein lies the magic is that the community has put their faith and trust in us and supported us for almost now a quarter of a century as we're headed toward that mark," Stanley said.
UTPB has finished its bowls.
"Now the nice thing is that the stress is off. This is all potentially for the next year, or it can be for things that maybe we try but we weren't willing to risk because we don't want to risk the inventory on experiments that might not work," he added.
With the longevity of Empty Bowls, Stanley wants to see it continue and so he's looking for "believers that want to make pottery."
"I think that's why the hope of spreading it out so that we have more partners means that whatever happens that we'll have people who understand the process and that as long as the community continues to support, we'll continue to make," he added.
