Students, local artists, and other members of the Powderhorn community have been crafting bowls for months in anticipation of this year’s Empty Bowls event, which will take place for the 6th year in a row at Powderhorn Park on November 2nd.

At the beginning of last November, over a thousand community members came, ate soup and bread, and left with a ceramic bowl. Attendees donated as much or as little as they want for the bowl, and last year the event raised over $27,000 to split between several food shelves.

Last year was also the first year that South High ceramics students participated in the event, and ceramics teacher Denny Sponsler is happy to have his students contribute once again this fall.
“It’s such a cost-effective way to get food into food shelves, and it’s just a great event,” said Sponsler, who alerted all of his students at the beginning of the year to the option of making bowls for the event.

Monica McDaniel, the lead organizer of the event this year, emphasizes how much the event has grown over the past six years. “It started out with six neighbors, potters from the neighborhood,” she said, going on to say that the overall attendance of the event has risen from 600 to 1600 people.
McDaniel stated that her tentative hopes for the event this November were to raise $30,000. “It’s always above what we expect,” she said. Even though the profits from the event are important, McDaniel emphasized that “whatever we make, it’s fun.”
Although he does give credit for the bowls, Sponsler does not make Empty Bowls a specific assignment for the class. Rather, it is simply another way for young artists to get more practice. “It’s just a constant thing in here,” he said, emphasizing that “making a series of bowls is as good a practice as you can get. For a teacher, it’s a no-brainer.”
Senior Clara Schultz is in her fourth year of ceramics, and has been almost exclusively throwing, a ceramics term for “crafting on the wheel”, bowls for the past few

weeks. “We’re exempt from the visual project,” said Schultz, referring to herself and Senior Zoe Hartman, who is also throwing bowls for the event.

Though Schultz describes herself as fairly limited in term of creativity (“I hate art,” she says), she fi

nds solace in throwing bowls. “I threw over the summer at Powderhorn,” she recounted. “I sell most of my stuff, but I saved some of it because I knew I could donate it to Empty Bowls.”
Senior Nyambura Njenga, a 3rd year ceramics student, is also throwing bowls for the event. What motivated Njenga is the pure joy of throwing bowls. “It’s relaxing,” she said, “It helps focus my mind… I would definitely keep doing it in college.”
All profits from the Empty Bowls event are split between food shelves and Powderhorn Park. Last year, proceeds went to Division of Indian Work food shelf, Sister’s Camelot mobile foodshare program, Youth Farm and Market, Powderhorn Park, and the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association.

Even though students might just be throwing bowls for fun, the event is beneficial for students’ involvement in the community. “It give them the chance to volunteer for something that’s really important for people,” said Sponsler, “and it’s right here in the neighborhood.”