The Ceramics Studio is typically filled with students immersed in a wide range of creative projects throughout the school year. On Tuesday, January 27, that creative energy extended beyond the classroom, as faculty, staff, and students gathered for the annual Empty Bowls Open Studio to craft ceramic bowls in support of a meaningful cause.

“Empty Bowls is a worldwide community event that different art studios and organizations host,” said Nell Yates, ceramics teacher and visual arts department chair. “The whole mission is using local art to support food banks and to support this idea of outreach for hunger and for people who are food insecure.”

Empty Bowls is a global grassroots movement of artists addressing hunger, with events hosted by schools, potters’ guilds, and studios around the world. Yates brought the initiative to Viewpoint eight years ago, weaving it into the ceramics curriculum as a service-learning project. Each ceramics student creates at least one bowl, and often several, as part of their coursework, while also reflecting on what it means to use art as a form of service.

“It’s not just about their ability to make a bowl,” Yates said. “They do a reflection and think about what it means to give art in a different way. To have art benefit people they haven’t even met and to understand this idea of art for service is a whole new concept for them.”

In addition to ceramics students, the school’s CORE (Community OutReach for Everyone) program plays a key role in bringing the event to life. CORE students earn service hours by helping sell tickets, scoop ice cream, and support event logistics, while also gaining exposure to service in a creative context.

“Service can look all different ways,” Yates said. “Making art isn’t necessarily something students would link to being an act of service, so it’s powerful for them to see that connection.”

Sadie Kieffer ’26, a board leader of CORE, said the Open Studio highlights how widely the event brings people together.

“I think this aspect of the open studio is so wonderful to see, everybody from the community coming together,” Kieffer said. “Alumni, parents, faculty, usually some admin will come. And also people who aren’t necessarily super involved in the arts get a chance to do something fun for an afternoon. And it’s for a good cause.”

The Empty Bowls project culminates in a campus-wide ice cream social and fundraiser, scheduled for March 17. Tickets will be sold in the two weeks leading up to the event, with all proceeds benefiting West Valley Food Pantry. 

For those who were unable to attend the Open Studio on January 27, Yates encourages community members to reach out.

“It’s all I want in the world for people to come and feel like they can try it,” she said. “Especially if they come with a student who does ceramics, it’s so meaningful to have that role reversal and let students teach something they care about.”