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Badger High offering public pottery program

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Lake Geneva Badger senior Diana Ruzga turns the second half of a vase on one of the 20 potters wheels at the school.

LAKE GENEVA — Have you ever wanted to throw pottery on a wheel?

Mold clay between your fingers?

Arrange tiles into a mosaic?

Here's your chance: Badger High School is offering a six-week class for participants to create their own masterpieces in a state-of-the-art studio.

"It's so much fun it's ridiculous," said visual arts instructor Don Hammon.

The class starts April 15. Friday is the deadline to sign up.

Hammon said the class will have an "open studio" format.

"Any direction you want to go in, you can go in," he said. "You can try a little bit of everything, and if you find something you like, you can move in that direction."

Participants can come and go at their convenience; get as much or as little instruction as they need and try as many of the arts as they wish.

The class is part of Badger High School's community education program, which includes dozens of art, computer and exercise classes for children and adults, said Marie Collins, community education director.

A pottery class was offered for a few years until the studio became too crowded to accommodate students and community members working on projects, she said. But the opening of a new addition—which includes a studio that rivals those found at most colleges and universities—is allowing the school to again offer a class to the community, she said.

Collins said the community education program is about giving back.

"It's a philosophy called 'social capital,'" she said. "We've asked the community to support us … and then we turn around and give back to the community."

Hammon said the upcoming class is an opportunity for people to move slowly, think clearly and feel invigorated—a challenge for people busy with work, home and play.

"Yeah, you're busy, but you have to ask yourself what you're doing to rejuvenate your soul," he said. "This is an avenue to do that."