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Project/Program <br />Summary <br />Passmore Senior Center has been offering pottery classes to Orange <br />County seniors for 10 years. Before the pandemic ended gatherings <br />at Passmore, three pottery classes were offered each week, attended <br />by a total of 25 to 30 women and men. Jody Eimers, ceramic sculptor, <br />and Russell Knop, potter, are proposing to collaborate with the <br />Orange County Arts Commission, the Friends of the Jerry M. <br />Passmore Center, and Passmore Senior Center to offer a 4-week <br />session in ceramic sculpture to 12 students. By offering a ceramic <br />sculpture class, seniors will learn another craft and yet another <br />means of artistic expression. <br />Since early 2019 pottery students, instructors, and Passmore <br />administrators alike hav e been frustrated by an unreliable kiln. The <br />kiln has been repaired time and again, draining the discretionary <br />Passmore budget for pottery classes. The kiln can no longer reach <br />the desired firing temperature so students’ pottery doesn’t reach its <br />desired strength or appearance. The proposed project includes <br />funding from the Orange County Arts Commission, the Friends of <br />Jerry M. Passmore Center, Passmore Senior Center and students to <br />teach the first ceramic sculpture class at Passmore and to purchase <br />a new electric kiln for the Passmore studio. Replacing the broken kiln <br />with a new kiln will ensure that Passmore is able to offer pottery and <br />ceramic sculpture classes for many more years. The students will <br />also play a significant role in funding the ceramic sculpture class, as <br />each student will pay a class fee. Eighty percent of student fees will <br />be used to pay the artist instructors Eimers and Knop, and twenty <br />percent will go to the Department of Aging, a funding mechanism <br />which allows the Department of Aging to prov ide class scholarships <br />to those who can’t afford afford the class fee. <br />If this proposal is funded, the project will kick off in February 2021 <br />with purchase of a kiln. Then in March 2021 Passmore staff will <br />adv ertise the class in The Senior Times and on their website, register <br />students, and collect student fees. In four two-hour sessions ov er <br />the course of four weeks, Eimers and Knop will instruct students in <br />techniques of building small to medium-size ceramic sculpture. <br />Students will hav e six hours of open studio each week to practice <br />and refine techniques. Local ceramic sculptors will be inv ited to <br />speak with the students and share tips. Eimers, who has three <br />decades experience managing projects, will manage this project. <br />The project must be executed by June 30, 2021. W e hope that <br />Orange County residents hav e reached herd immunity by spring of <br />2021, and that students would gather at Passmore for this ceramic <br />sculpture class in May 2021. Howev er, if circumstances do not allow <br />seniors to gather at that time, then we propose to hold the class <br />using the combination of a v irtual Zoom classroom, instructional <br />v ideos av ailable upon demand, and a conv enient means of prov iding <br />drop off and pick up of clay, glaze, and sculpture. <br />DocuSign Envelope ID: 48E09958-2136-42C3-B8A2-43048EFE0CCD