Press Release
For Immediate Release
Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018

Prepared by
Steve Wong
Just4Wong@Gmail.com
864 316 6559

Hub City Empty Bowls’ first public bowl-making event for 2019 will be on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 21, at Wofford College. This free community event -- that allows non-artisans the opportunity make pottery bowls -- will be presented in two sessions: 10 a.m.-noon and 1-3 p.m. in the Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts.

For past 10 years, Hub City Empty Bowls has hosted free bowl-making events for the general public. During several of these events, the unfinished bowls are gathered and fired by professional ceramists, and then used to raise funds to feed the food-insecure citizens in Spartanburg County. Food-insecure citizens -- about 40,000 in Spartanburg County -- sometimes have to go hungry in order to pay medical and housing bills. This charitable effort is headed by Carolina Clay Artists, and the proceeds of the fundraiser benefit TOTAL Ministries. Both are non-profit agencies.

“Normally, we don’t start public bowl-making sessions until the late spring or early summer,” Chairman and potter Bruce Bowyer said. “But the popularity and the demand continues to grow, and, this year, we are starting in January at Wofford College. We are extremely pleased to have now partnered with Wofford College in our fight against hunger in Spartanburg. And we are most excited that we’ll will be using the pottery studio in the new Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts. This will be a great opportunity for people to see this new art center. Also, there will be plenty of parking: In addition to parking on campus, you can park in the lot at Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, which is just next door.”

For each of the past three years, Hub City Empty Bowls has raised more than $30,000 for TOTAL Ministries, a faith-based charity that helps local citizens in dire financial straits. Most of the money is raised at Soup Day, a day when local restaurants donate gallons of gourmet soup to people who buy the pottery bowls that were made during the previous months.

Empty Bowls is a worldwide social movement that has no central control, oversight, or headquarters. At the core is always potters and cermanists who want to alleviate hunger in their community by involving the public in making pottery bowls. Each effort is unique, but in many cases, the bowls are sold to patrons who attend a fundraising food-related event.

For more information about Hub City Empty Bowls, please visit online: HubCityEmptyBowls.com or call Bowyer at (864) 706-3739.