Students don’t have to travel far to get their holiday shopping done.
The ceramic arts students of The University of Memphis are setting up shop and offering exclusive hand-made pieces of work at affordable prices.
“It’s a great place to get Christmas gifts,” said Molly Kennedy, a student majoring in art education.
Of the proceeds from sales, 20 percent goes to helping the art students go to Kansas City, Mo., for the National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). NCECA is a convention consisting of eight shows where works from different artists are displayed. This workshop-oriented convention allows ceramic art students to learn more about ceramics and meet the different artists who contribute to the show.
“I really think it will be fun and educational to see artists from around the country and see what everybody else is doing,” said Alisha Wall, a junior majoring in art major whose work will be for sale at the event.
Art students will be trying to raise as much money as possible to send at least ten people to the convention.
Last year, the ceramic art students could not attend this convention as a school-sponsored group because they were unaware they had to submit a proposal to get funding from the school, and also because their timing and itinerary were off.
This year, Michael Tucker, president of the Clay Club, is working on a proposal packet to submit to the SGA for the March convention.
According to Tucker, the club can receive anywhere from 10 to 70 percent of the funds from SGA.
Students who attended last year paid their own way to the convention.
“Last year, we almost raised enough to send students,” said Nancy White, art professor and organizer for the sale. “New things will be added as we go along, so stuff should change.”
Not only will there be ceramics, but prints, painting, sculptures and photography will be available for sale Wednesday from 9 a.m to 4 p.m and Thursday from 9 a.m to 3 p.m. in Jones Hall room 207.
White says all the work that is done by students for the sale is done entirely outside of the classroom. Student artists have been working since the beginning of the semester to prepare for the sale.
“It took a while to make everything I want to sell,” Wall said.
