Art Club Uses Ceramics to Support the Community

Elizabeth Lange shows off her creation at the Art Club’s benefit for Empty Bowls. Photo by Kim Sleeper.

By Paige Uzzell

Students from every major gathered on Wednesday, Sept. 26 in Brommer Hall to try their hand at making ceramic bowls. Concordia’s Art Club hosted and directed this year’s Empty Bowls project in support of a local charity.

Empty Bowls helps support the Kiwanis Empty Bowl Soup Luncheon, a fundraiser for the BackPack Program, a community program aimed at helping children get enough food to eat when they are not at school.

The ceramic bowls are more than just art pieces created by students at Concordia.

“(T)hey don’t actually serve soup in these bowls, but people can buy them and take them home, and eat out of them,” senior Art Club member Jordyne Vanselow said. “They don’t need to just put them on their mantle because that’s just sad, seeing a functional bowl on a mantle.”

Students at the event made an impact on others’ lives and on the community of Seward.

“I’ve always enjoyed helping kids, so it was a great opportunity,” freshman pre-nursing and biology major Lyric Allen said. “Helping kids has always been a passion of mine, so I enjoyed this fun opportunity of creating bowls to help put an impact on children’s lives and the community.”

Helping the community was only one reason why students came to Brommer that night.

“I think it’s really nice that people are able to get into the building, and just see the community that we have in here. Because it is very closed, it’s nice that other people can see the work that we do in this building,” Vanselow said.

The final projects will all be available to see and to buy at the Empty Bowl Soup Luncheon on Monday, Oct. 15, at Harvest Hall, located at the Seward Fairgrounds, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“It feels like Seward is becoming my second home,” freshman psychology major Britney Lewis said. “Since I’m not from Nebraska, getting to help out in the community is just what I needed to help me adjust to living in Nebraska, and I’m so glad I got to do good for the community of Seward.”