Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sweet Home High School art teacher Gelindo Ferrin wants to make the arts center at the high school more than just a high school function.
To that end, he is offering classes in wheel-throwing pottery through Linn-Benton Community College, based in his art classroom at the high school.
The School District’s facilities bond purchsed new wheels and kilns for the art class, Ferrin said. “I only use it a couple hours a day for students. I thought, ‘let’s use it for the community.'”
The current session is under way, but a new session starts on Jan. 10. It is not offered for credit, but Ferrin is hoping to begin offering it for credit in the future.
“We use the potter’s wheel to help you create wonderful pottery,” Ferrin said. “We do mostly functional pottery. I think it’s important for people to at least attempt to create something with their hands.”
What a budding artist makes depends “on your imagination and creativity,” he said. The curriculum explains how to make things on the wheel and glazing and firing techniques.
Students can take the finished pieces home and use them, he said.
“When you’re beginning it takes a lot of patience and practice,” he said. It takes persistence to get good at it. “It’s not an easy craft. I’ve been making pottery for 15 years. I’m still learning stuff.”
Ferrin received his training in ceramics and art education at the Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. He is in his second year as a teacher at SHHS.
The school had no facilities for ceramics, so he decided to start building up the art lab, to create something more useful for school and something the community can use.
“For people in the community, (pottery’s) a good outlet for them,” he said. “It’s good therapy.”
He would like to get more people out for the class, helping build a larger arts focus in the community.
LBCC requires 12 to continue offering sessions, he said. His current class has nine students.
“Hopefully, if enough people are interested, we’ll continue it,” he said. “I just think it’s a neat thing to be able to offer it.”
From there, he would like to expand his art room with new kiln styles and eventually offer ceramics, with transferable credits for high school students.
“I want it to eventually be a place where people can come and utilize their skills,” he said. As he develops the high school arts program, “if there’s interest, we could offer a whole range, an art curriculum for credit.
As a final piece of his vision, he would like to develop a cooperative art gallery where artists would be able to get together and share their work in one location.
A strong artist community could build up tourist traffic from visitors who come to Sweet Home to see its art, he said.
“This is a great little community. I think it has potential to become an artist (community). One of the things small towns offer artists is the ability to create and get their art out in the open.”