Are you in need of a relaxing and creative outlet? Have you ever wanted to get your hands dirty, learn a new skill and create something practical to use or pleasing to look at? The Mudslingers Ceramics club is a student organization run by students and ceramics majors with membership open to all students of any skill level.
Kennesaw State Mudslingers hosts open studios for its members that feature hands-on art making to create and sell pottery on campus. These open studios are one of the only hands-on creative arts opportunities available to most students on campus.
The club currently has more than 25 members spanning a variety of majors and art disciplines, and new faces appear at almost every meeting. The program is currently run by co-presidents Aubrey Davis and Hope Limyansky, both senior fine arts majors.
“Our ultimate goal is to expose those who would normally not get the opportunity to experience the ceramics world a chance to do so in a positive and professional environment,” Davis said. “We also help prepare bachelors of fine arts majors with a ceramics concentration on interacting with others in a teaching environment and how to price and sell their work.”
With a focus on education and fun, while exploring clay as a medium, ceramic masterpieces are molded by hand on the wheel, trimmed, painted and fired in a kiln before making their way to an event. The group organizes events both on and off campus including field trips, open studios, pottery sales and attendance at conferences.
A couple times each semester, KSU Mudslingers hosts sales to teach its members how to price and sell their work.
“They are always great experiences for the students to bond with each other, as well as learning to interact with potential buyers,” Davis said.
Founded many years ago, KSU Mudslingers continues to reach further into community service opportunities on campus and in the local area.
In 2017, the club took part in the Empty Bowls event, a national movement among the arts community during KSU’s 10th annual Homelessness Awareness week. In service to the international grassroots movement, members of KSU Mudslingers handcrafted more than 70 clay bowls while Kroger and members of university dining provided soup for the attendees.
The event helped raise funds for KSU CARE services, a program that offers support to students who have experienced homelessness, food insecurity and the foster care system. This event raises awareness of issues with hunger, homelessness, food wasting and access to food. CARE is in partnership with groups in the community such as KSU Mudslingers.
“We’d love to see the KSU Mudslingers be involved in more charity events and in the community,” Davis said. “We already plan on having the Empty Bowls event for later this year to be even bigger than it was last year.”
With the Empty Bowls event set to become an annual event along with other events in the future, the co-presidents want to emphasize that KSU Mudslingers is a student organization, so the future of the club lies on the shoulders of upcoming members and fine arts students.
If you want to get involved, the club can be reached through OwlLife, Facebook and Instagram.
