The Wellesley community gathers to celebrate sports, to celebrate music, but tonight it unites to celebrate ceramics.
Empty bowls is an international project to end hunger personalized by artists around the world to fit their community. In 2016, Ms. Amie Larson, a ceramics teacher at the high school, held the first Empty Bowls event at Wellesley High School bringing the community together to celebrate art alongside helping those in need. This year, the Empty Bowls event will be held for the second time on Monday, November 19.
The fourteen intensive ceramics students and Larson dedicated their time to creating approximately 85-100 bowls from which guests will eat dinner. The artists hopes to spread awareness of hunger around the world by making a point to address the empty state of the bowls at the end of the meal. They will make the guests aware that these empty bowls are what a large percentage of the world sees.
Ultimately, this event not only serves to raise money to help fight hunger, but also to raise awareness and bring communities together to fight the problem together. Certainly, this has been the case in Wellesley.
“One of the core values is commitment to community and I would say that in this ceramics room, this is what I focus on the most,” said Larson. “Whether it be the 9th-12th grade community or the community of the art students within the Wellesley High School, I really wanted to find a way for other departments in the high school to come together and form a greater community.”
This event pushes students as artists and as humans to grow and learn. “It’s a wonderful way for students to use their creativity and what they’ve learned in ceramics to give back to the community,” said Director of the Art department Mr. Thom Carter. “Instead of making a bowl for an assignment, [but for this event] makes it more special because they realize, it isn’t just going to be for me or to answer a question for a project.”
This event is an enlightening experience to all, even for the students who are donating their time and skills to this event. “I have been inspired by this event by seeing that a passion of mine can not only benefit me by making me happy, but benefit others through events such as this,” said Sofia Fauza ’19. “I hope that this event will impact the Wellesley community by inspiring others to come together and recreate something like Empty Bowls in order to help others.”
“It is so important to give back to the community and art is a medium that allows me to make a change while helping,” said Serelle Carr ’19. “It will inspire artists like us to use our art for good.”
This year, the 80 pre-tickets were sold out in less than two hours, resulting in more than $1600 being raised before the event. The immense support for this event has encouraged the many people who are organizing and helping to partake in this event.
“Art can be used for things other than for adornment. It can be used to help, it can be used to highlight a social cause,” said Carter. “It also helps them see that they can do something for the world. Making a bowl doesn’t seem that big of a deal, but yet it’s helping immensely.”