For three days in early November, Northern Colorado Potters’ Guild hit the holiday pottery market at Northside Aztlan Community Center, with 40 local potters selling their pieces and over 90 members of the nonprofit pottery guild benefitting from the fundraiser.
About 25% of the event’s earnings went toward general maintenance of the guild: fixing kilns, obtaining glazing materials and whatever else the guild requires to maintain operations.
The guild is composed of volunteers, with a board of community members overseeing facility assistants, running the kilns and handling the chemistry of mixing the glazes along with other general participants.
Stephanie Hope, who is the office manager, bookkeeper and lead facility assistant, spoke of her role in the guild. Hope said she has been a potter for around 12 years and came to the guild to make art and meet new people.
“(The guild) allows me to do my art and be around a bunch of other artists and be inspired by them and get ideas from them and just have additional community here in Fort Collins,” Hope said. “It’s like a built-in big friend network, mostly. What it means to the community. I mean, I think having local artists is really important, just to kind of reflect the culture here and just keep art alive.”
Jamie Holmberg, marketing chair for the NoCo Potters’ Guild, shared the same sentiment.
Holmberg said she has been in Colorado for the past five years and found community within the group. After starting out as a member, she sought a more involved role. As marketing chair, she said she runs social media accounts, advertisements and local outreach.
“This place to me is just like a really nice, welcoming community, and it’s great having that support and being able to work with other artists and bounce ideas off of them and show each other our work and being able to come together and do these big pottery sales and be involved with the community in that sense too,” Holmberg said.
A glaze facility assistant and guild member Jana Jokerst shared her love of the space, community and all the guild offers. In the early 2000s, as a graduate student, Jokerst was a member of the guild. Then, she said, she took 10 years off to get a job, have a family but has found her way back to the guild around two years ago.
“The community is huge for me,” Jokerst said. “I just love the creative energy and how people help each other. There’s a lot of troubleshooting in ceramics, and people just have a lot of creative ideas and support each other.”
Jokerst touched on the Holiday Pottery Market, saying they provide something for everybody due to the range in talent, ability and style of the members. Multiple members said the sale was the perfect space to buy gifts for the holidays, especially with December just around the corner.
The guild also holds a large sale leading up to Mother’s Day in May. In the time between markets, the guild offers classes in throwing, hand building and occasional workshops open to the community.
The guild is accepting new members, with their usual application having an extended waitlist, but the current membership application has a very short waitlist for potters wanting to get involved in this Fort Collins guild.
“We’re actually hoping to bring more people in, and it’s great too if those people are willing to volunteer and help out at the guild, be involved and be involved with the sales, as well,” Holmberg said. “We love people to come in and support us and help us support them.”
Reach Abby Barson at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
