By Patricia Fontejon

Granada Hills Charter (GHC) faculty and staff embarked on a new project this year emphasizing community through pottery and ceramics. The project, headed by ceramics teacher Julie Neumann, started in November, as part of the celebration of GHC’s 20th year as a charter school. 

Neumann started by inviting teachers and staff to come to different ceramics sessions. She started by teaching those who attended the historical background of the pinch pot and their original use of storing food and water in Native American culture. Then the group made pinch pots together. After making pinch pots, teachers decorated ceramic tiles by adding stamps and other details.

Though the teachers will take their pinch pots home as a reminder of their fun time, the finished tiles will be installed into a series of benches around campus. These tiles will showcase the faculty and staff’s community art project. The bench’s structure was first chosen to serve the greater GHC community, allowing anyone to sit and enjoy the benches. Overall, the intention of the artwork is to be interacted with, not merely to be looked at. The goal is to install the benches during Spring break, but no later than Summer break. 

“I’m exploring opportunities for community-based arts both with my students and the greater community of Granada Hills Charter,” Neumann said. “Community is a big part of the person who I am. I thrive because I have a community of teachers and friends and so any opportunity to build those are things I like to do.” 

Earlier this month, faculty and staff gathered again to paint their pots with different glazes, varying from Jade to Cobalt. 

The environment in the ceramics classroom was inviting and gave a variety of teachers, from computer science to English, the chance to interact with faculty outside of their departments. Neumann did an excellent job of making the atmosphere happy-go-lucky, with constant chatter and laughter filling the room. Rather than making it seem like an obligation, the project allowed teachers to catch up with one another and meet new people.

As teachers focused on their pots with messy paint on their hands and fanned their pots with cardboard to dry the different layers of paint, they were engrossed in a project they did just for fun.

“It’s really therapeutic and it’s great work,” English teacher Kate Bryan said. “We get to talk to people we don’t get to talk to, or at least people I don’t know because our school is so big.”