In an effort to connect people through the act of making art together, Rowan College of South Jersey’s (RCSJ) Clay College is hosting “The Community Clay Project.”
Area residents, including groups, organizations, and students, are invited to “build” a tight-knit community connection creating art on manufactured, unfired bricks. Participants have the option to paint, sculpt and/or carve the bricks with a message. The bricks, themselves, symbolize “the act of building.”
“The purpose of the Community Clay Project is to bring as many groups and organizations together using the vehicle of art for positive expression,” Jacqueline Sandro-Greenwell, RCSJ director of Fine Arts and Clay College said.
A series of free workshops have been offered to the community to decorate the bricks since October and will continue throughout the months of January and February 2022.
“I am happy with how everything has progressed so far,” Sandro-Greenwell said. “That is the event I am so looking forward to, seeing all the members who participated coming together and taking pride, as a diverse group, knowing that although there are differences in every way, for this project, everyone came together to create one beautiful and meaningful piece.”
The finished decorated bricks will leave a lasting memory for the participants and community members and will be used to build a public sculpture, in Millville, for everyone to enjoy.
The free bricks, Sandro-Greenwell noted, were donated by Ryan Rutherford from the Diener Brick Company and are available for this program through “The Building Communities Clay Project” grant, funded in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Cumberland County Board of County Commissioners, through the Cumberland County Cultural and Heritage Commission.
For more information about how to sign up for a brick decoration workshop, call or email Jackie Sandro-Greenwell at 856-776-2381 or jgreenwe@rcsj.edu. You can also contact Randolph Wilfong at 856-765-0988 or rwilfon1@rcsj.edu. For more information about RCSJ’s Clay College, visit RCSJ.edu/ArtsInnovation/Clay-College.
