Community Arts Teacher Spotlight | !Artes comunitarias– ¡Enfoque del profesor!

Meet a member of the Community Arts teaching team, Emily Maldonado | Les presentamos a Emily Maldonado, un profesor de Artes comunitarias. 

Emily Maldonado and Denis Licul at Hand in Hand

Through Community Arts programming, Clay Art Center partners with community-based organizations in the surrounding area like local schools, community centers, and assisted living facilities in order to achieve our mission to make clay accessible to everyone. The amazing instructors who teach these programs guide their students through the ceramic process, all while allowing them to explore their own ideas and express themselves. We caught up with Community Arts teacher Emily Maldonado to learn more about her journey to Clay Art Center and what it has meant to her.

Emily Maldonado holds two Community Art pieces, fresh from the kiln

Emily’s first experiences with clay were during an afterschool program with long-time teacher and Clay Art Center Artist Denis Licul. This was when Emily was a middle school student, and that afterschool class laid the foundation for a future in clay. Emily continued with ceramics a few years later: ”I got reintroduced to clay in my freshman year at Port Chester High School. I was part of Around the World in Clay with Sarah Coble. That was basically the whole journey - I fell in love with clay, I fell in love with the community. My friends and I found this center as a second home for us, especially during our high school years.” After high school, Emily remained connected to Clay Art Center, first completing an internship, and then joining the team as a Community Arts teacher. Today, she leads afterschool classes just like the ones that sparked her own passion, where she encourages students to run with their ideas and express themselves. Emily shares that, “It’s actually very special for me because I feel like I’m giving back to the community, especially working with kids, I feel like I’m giving them an experience that I had when I was their age.”

Even as Emily observed the continuous part that Clay Art Center has played in her life, she also pointed out how much Clay Art Center has evolved. “It has changed drastically in a positive way,” Emily noted, “I feel like there’s more of a sense of community, I feel like Clay Art Center is now more known in the community. When I started, a couple people would have heard about it, but I feel like Clay Art Center really expanded themselves, and I love what they do to provide opportunities and scholarships for other kids to have that experience, just like I did.” Clay Art Center continues to expand its reach with the help of our community and dedicated teachers like Emily!

Around the World in Clay is grant funded in part by the Common Sense Fund