BECCA MARTIN-BROWN
bmartin@nwaonline.com
Every day, inside the Community Creative Center, someone is making art.
“Located in the heart of Fayetteville’s arts and cultural district, [CCC] is a visual and studio arts organization providing hands-on studio classes, workshops, and camps in a variety of art forms including clay and pottery, painting, drawing, printmaking, sand casting, sewing, leather working and mixed media for children and adults of all ages and skill levels,” touts Anita Cowan, director of community partnerships.
But one day a year, the CCC packs up and goes outdoors for Pottery on the Patio, “a free block-party style community event, making all feel welcome and included while showing Northwest Arkansas what happens daily inside,” Cowan says. For 2023, Oct. 7 is that day.
Cowan rattles off a list of activities that surely has something for everybody.
People will be able to have their turn at the pottery wheel, she begins. They can paint their own watercolor picture. They can listen to Funk Factory from 5 to 8 p.m. They can make their own sidewalk chalk mural, check out the mobile van that takes pottery wheels around the community, watch metal sand casting demonstrations by local legend Eugene Sargent, eat free ice cream from Hiland Dairy, design their own button and enjoy Elby Mann’s exhibit, “Song of the Sea,” made up of “large, colorful ceramic creatures with embedded lights, each a player in an undersea music band,” from 4 to 5 p.m.
And they can shop for fall decorations while raising money for the CCC.
“Local artists at the Community Creative Center have been hard at work creating various ceramic jack-o-lanterns for purchase just in time for Halloween,” says Cowan. “All proceeds benefit CCC and its programming.”
And, she adds, “there are always things to buy at the Community Creative Center. CCC’s gallery always has a Handmade Gift Market and an exhibition inside the McCoy Gallery.”
The Community Creative Center started life as a division of the Walton Arts Center’s visual arts programming, according to a history on their website. When the hands-on studio arts program was dissolved in 2007, local artists founded the Community Creative Center, designated a 501(c)3 arts organization in 2008, with a permanent home in the WAC’s Nadine Baum Studios.
“Our 6,900-square-foot space includes a fully equipped clay studio, glaze room and outdoor kiln yard, a drawing studio, two multi-purpose art studios and gallery exhibition space in the building’s lobby,” the website states.
“In 2013, Community Creative Center was awarded a three-year capacity building grant from the Walton Family Foundation to support the expansion of programs and services,” the website continues. “This transformational funding launched us on our current path of growth and impact. In 2019 we served more than 4,600 students, families and community members (a four-fold increase over 2013) with direct, hands-on classes, workshops and arts experiences and an additional 10,000 with community outreach events, art exhibitions and art sales.”
“We work closely with area schools to provide curriculum-enhancing arts programming, provide specialized art workshops for community groups and exhibition and retail opportunities for local and regional artists,” Cowan adds. “We hope this event unites our community and educates all about the programs, classes, art and opportunities available at Community Creative Center.”
FAQ
Pottery on the Patio
WHEN — 3:30-7:30 p.m. Oct. 7
WHERE — Community Creative Center, 505 W. Spring St. in Fayetteville
COST — Free
INFO — communitycreativecenter.org or 571-2706
