Artists gather to start preparations for Empty Bowls event
by Jeremy Stewart, staff writer
Oct 08, 2012 | 2130 views | 0 0 comments | 8 8 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Sarah Baker (left) and Jessica Turner make pots for the Empty Bowls event. (Photo contributed by Lisa Ingram)
Sarah Baker (left) and Jessica Turner make pots for the Empty Bowls event. (Photo contributed by Lisa Ingram)
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Potters made more than 65 bowls at the annual Earthworks Throwing Party in preparation for the Empty Bowls event. (Photo contributed by Lisa Ingram)
Potters made more than 65 bowls at the annual Earthworks Throwing Party in preparation for the Empty Bowls event. (Photo contributed by Lisa Ingram)
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Tesa Dupree (sitting, left), John Johnson, Val Featherstone (standing, left) and Earthworks owner Janda Canalis make bowls for the Empty Bowls event. (Photo contributed by Lisa Ingram)
Tesa Dupree (sitting, left), John Johnson, Val Featherstone (standing, left) and Earthworks owner Janda Canalis make bowls for the Empty Bowls event. (Photo contributed by Lisa Ingram)
slideshow
The biggest show of caring can start with the smallest lump of clay.

That’s the message that local artists personified during the annual throwing party for the Rome and Floyd County Empty Bowls Benefit hosted by Earthworks Pottery.

The benefit is scheduled for Nov. 13.

A group of potters created more than 65 bowls Friday to donate to the annual charity event that is locally driven by area potters and community members with a passion to bring positive change to Rome and surrounding areas through arts and education.

“We got a pretty good stock of bowls,” said Lisa Brown Ingram, an artist who is also on the board of the Empty Bowls Benefit. “It was a fun time for potters to get together and do something good for the community.”

Earthworks donated all of the materials and the studio space for anybody who didn’t have a place to work, and will be firing the pieces and glazing them in the coming weeks.

The public is invited each year to the Empty Bowls Benefit at the Rome Civic Center for a meal and a handmade bowl. This year’s proceeds will go to Hospitality House for Women.

“Everyone is so generous and we always seem to have everything we need each year,” Ingram said. “Nearly all of our supplies are donated to us and it is truly a community effort to pull it off.”

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the event in Rome. An international project aimed at fighting hunger, Tesa DuPre first brought the Empty Bowls initiative to Rome in 2002.

Since then, Hospitality House for Women, the William S. Davies Homeless Shelter and Rome Action Ministries have been the major beneficiaries.

Special T-shirts have been commissioned and will be on sale at this year’s event to mark the occasion.

The Empty Bowls benefit raised more than $9,000 last year and Ingram said they hope to match that this year. That appears to be a safe bet, since the event has been sold out in recent years.

Tickets will go on sale soon at Harvest Moon and the Last Stop Gift Shop inside the Rome Visitor Center on Jackson Hill. They’re $20 each and cover the meal and the take-home bowl.

For more information about the Empty Bowls of Rome Benefit visit its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/EmptyBowlsRome or email Ingram at potterybylisa@gmail.com.
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