TWENTY YEARS OF CREATIVE COMMUNITY: VALENTINA’S EXPERIENCE

Valentina Gil Girón’s first steps into her Clayworks internship were filled with the same anxieties as many of our first-time students. Uncertainty, nerves, and new surroundings intimidated her. Immediately those fears were melted away by the warmth of a community that has spent two decades crafting a welcoming environment. “Within the first 10 minutes I was like, ‘No, I’m okay. This is going to be very fun!’” she recalls. For the Queens University Studio Art major, this moment marked the beginning of a transformative internship during the Clayworks 20th anniversary year.

What struck Valentina first was the sheer difference from her academic studio at Queens. Instead of a small cohort of students working at the same skill level, Clayworks hummed with energy and a range
of experiences. Classrooms were filled with music playing, conversations flowing, and students crafting tiny pinch pots beside others throwing massive sculptural pieces. The volume of students utilizing the space was also a learning experience. “The number of students is very different from what I’m used to in a classroom setting where it’s 15 people max and it’s very quiet. Here it’s bustling and there’s music and people are talking and it’s very lively.” The different atmosphere from her college classroom surprised and inspired her.

In our Clayworks community, Valentina found that without grades and rigid deadlines, everything changed. She loved the freedom of the community setting: “You get to experience more, enjoy it more, and experiment more. You don’t have to be afraid to fail. You can always just take another class.” At Clayworks, she watched people take risks, try new techniques, and embrace failure as part of learning. Observing the variety of techniques at play in the studio, she found that “Here you see people doing things in so many different ways and you’re like, ‘Oh, I never thought to do it that way!’ It makes you want to experiment more.” This creative freedom, she realized, is what community arts offers in a different way than academia.

While Valentina observed experimentation in the studio, she also learned the structure of studio classes and procedures. Valentina immersed herself in the kiln room, tested glazes, taught Culture Blocks classes, workshops, and private lessons, and discovered the reciprocity and magic of our arts community. She saw first-time wheel students end up throwing the tallest piece in a class. She led team building sessions for organizations like Despierta, a Charlotte non-profit that transforms the lives of Latina youth and women through mental health and educational programs. In free community Culture Blocks sessions, she taught beginning artists handbuilding

projects based on the work of contemporary clay artists. With each experience leading students, she noted, “It’s getting people into a field that they might not even know that they’re good at until they try it.” Our community not only taught Valentina, she began to share her knowledge and passion, too.

Returning to Queens University for her final year, Valentina carries more than technical skills from her time with Clayworks. She’s excited to apply what she’s seen and learned, from re-working the test tile board
in her school’s studio to expanding her use of glazes in her own work. The freedom of the community at Clayworks makes her want to explore more in her own practice. Moving beyond her usual functional work with clear glazes, she’s inspired to try new things: “Since I usually make a lot of utilitarian stuff that can be used, I tend to stay with a lot of clear glazes.” The influences of artists and pottery she’s seen at Clayworks make her curious to transition away from strictly functional work. She’s now eager to explore what kinds of sculptural work she can create and what more experimental glazes might bring to her work.

As for her connection to the Clayworks community, Valentina sees herself returning to the studio again and again. She’s excited to plug into our First Fridays, lend a hand with kilns, and teach more workshops. In our 20th anniversary year, she represents the continuation of our mission: welcoming the nervous newcomer, offering freedom to explore, and building a tight-knit ceramics community. As she puts it, for students considering arts internships: “I had fun. To me, even if it’s in a very hot room, loading and unloading kilns is fun. It didn’t feel like I was doing a job.” That’s the passion that the creativity of our Clayworks community inspires.