The Clay Teacher is
branching out of the classroom and into video. We have put some of our
workshops on DVD in workshop format and sell them in a kit, www.funclayprojects.com.
These kits are for home use and anyone with the kit can make two complete
sculptures. All our workshop kits use the Air Dry Method of finishing. We want to
continue making the videos and include in our product line a complete data base
with all our workshops and much more information for students K – 12 all
available through on line streaming. I think it would be wonderful for teachers
and students to have access to clay workshops and all the information about
using clay they want anytime they like. We have decades of experience working
with clay www.outofthefirestudio.com
and years of experience presenting workshops as The Clay Teacher so I thought
that the school districts would jump on the chance to have clay workshops
available for their students for pennies a workshop, however, I was wrong.
As The Clay Teacher we go
into the schools and work the students and charge $7.50 per student for a one
time Air Dry clay experience. If the same school had access to our videos and
could stream the content, that same workshop would cost that same students
pennies and they could have the workshop as often as they like. When I
approached some school districts today over the phone, they did not see it that
way. Most said they had our type of in school field trip and/or the Artist in
Residency Programs and it would not be necessary. Schools, with the help of
grants from the provincial government, pay artists for a residency thousands of
dollars for a one or two week program. The last number I heard in passing was
$7,000 for a 2 week workshop. For a school of 200 students that would be $35
per student for a once a year program. A streaming licence would sell to a
school of 200 students for $200. If the same school streamed the program,
picking and choosing from a large selection of information, that same
exploration in clay would be cost $1.00 per student, not for two weeks, but a
whole year of play.
I spent most of the
afternoon talking the people in purchasing for a number of school districts and
got basically the same response. They did not see the value in online streaming
when there is the Artist in Residency and in school field trips. I simply don’t
understand how, with all the cuts in education, they don’t see some value to on
line streaming, getting the information for pennies instead of big bucks and
putting clay back in the class room on a daily basis. I had one woman say flat
out “Oh I would never buy that”, as if I was promoting dead spiders or
something. I bet the students in that district would like her to buy that.
We have always wanted to
make every day Clay Day. We started
making these videos with that in mind but I had no idea how hard it would be to
sell the idea to others. I wish they
could see the faces of the students who do get to play in the clay and how much
the process of creating three dimensional art fills them. Not only does it help with the fine motor
skills, it touches and nurtures the artist that is in everyone. Almost everyone has an artist hiding inside that
is wanting and waiting to be free. Everyone, with the exception of the lady
that said she would never buy it. I am
not sure what happened to her inner artist, perhaps if she got to play more in
the clay as a child she would not have let it go.
Until next time.
Cindy
The Clay Teacher
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