The Pottery Club hosted its chili bowl sale Wednesday. Students displayed and sold their handmade ceramic bowls in Heuser Art Gallery throughout the afternoon, and the purchase of a bowl included a serving of hot chili.
“We do four [sales] like this each year,” senior studio art major Mary Huether said. “Later, we’ll have mugs with hot chocolate, popcorn in bowls and ice cream, as well.”
The chili bowl sale was paired with a ceramic art auction as well.
“Faculty art is in the auction area, usually,” senior studio art major Conor Alwood said. “We have [faculty art] and art from advanced students.”
Bowls were sold for $10 each, and proceeds from the chili bowl sale as well as the ceramics auction will be collected for the Midwest Food Bank in Peoria.
“At first, it was kind of a random choice to pick them,” Annastasia Calvert, a graduate studio art student, said. “But last year, we took the money there and they were really awesome to work with. They gave us an hour-long tour, they gave us food. They’re just a really great place to donate.”
According to Huether, each sale the Pottery Club holds goes to a different philanthropy.
“It used to just be a normal sale [for the] department,” Huether said. “But last year, we had a grad student who, during her undergrad, used to donate to charities. [The department] had one sale that was an auction, and it was kind of her idea to donate the proceeds to a charity. We had just never thought of it before.”
The Pottery Club is planning three more events of this kind for the upcoming year.
According to Huether, there are no set dates, but the hot cocoa event usually occurs the week before study day. Additionally, the popcorn event will be a week before spring break and the ice cream sale is the week before study day in May.
