The Community Outreach Program broadens the range of the Clay Center's service to the community. Outreach activities are scheduled with groups on a per-project basis. They include public art projects, collaborative murals (five to date), birthday parties, and specialized classes for organized groups.
Over the past ten years we have worked closely with groups such as Mountain Valley Developmental Services, Youth Zone, The Buddy Program, Aspen Camp School for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing, Homeschool Network, and Youth Recovery Center, a statewide substance abuse treatment program for teens. Outreach activities have also brought in scores of individuals, and hundreds of visitors to the Clay Center. This program fulfills our mission to build community through clay related activities.
Project C.L.A.Y. (Connecting Learning and Youth) is a unique collaborative effort between the Carbondale Clay Center and schools in the Roaring Fork School District, including Carbondale Middle School, Carbondale Community School, Glenwood Springs Middle School, Basalt Middle School, and Basalt Elementary School. The main objectives of Project C.L.A.Y. are to reinforce topics taught in the classroom through the use of ceramic arts, while exposing students to the world of ceramics by relating it to their classroom studies. Project C.L.A.Y. is designed to compliment the established curriculum of elementary, middle and high school students.
Led by Clay Center director and instructor Lauren Kearns, the initiative began in 2005, thanks to a grant from the Colorado Council on the Arts (CCA). The Center created a new community outreach opportunity for teachers and youth of the Roaring Fork Valley. Project C.L.A.Y. will forge ahead, thanks to a grant sponsored by TARGET.
To learn more about Project C.L.A.Y. or other community outreach programs at Carbondale Clay Center, please email director Lauren Kearns.
One of our most popular public art projects, a series of four murals at Carbondale Elementary and Sopris Park, was completed Spring 2004.