A Profile of Jennifer Martin –
What it takes to shape clay and community

We just had a festival that we call Clay Fest, and it required about 70 volunteers. We asked our students and staff to volunteer and invited anyone who wanted to walk through the doors to join us for free hands-on activities. About 700 people came through in a few hours, and they were able to talk to professional artists while making their own work. Everyone helped set up a space to talk and create with each other.

I think it’s the material that everyone can really relate to the most. There aren’t many barriers to just touching the clay. It’s very malleable; you can move it around. We sometimes say that it’s the great equalizer because whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re still learning from the material and challenging yourself to create something new and different.

I’ve been here for many, many years. I’m originally from Georgia, and my wife wanted to relocate to Philadelphia because her family was in this area. Her selling point was that our new apartment would be a mile down the street [from The Clay Studio]. That was her way of tempting me to move to Philly and get involved.

I have a ceramics background, and they were hiring a studio technician. I started working in the school and really thinking about the educational side of it. I had taught adjunct classes at colleges in Atlanta and developed a passion for teaching and education. I never really thought I would be involved with nonprofits, but here I am many years later, having been named executive director in 2018. I love it.

The organization was founded in 1974, so we celebrated our 50th anniversary two years ago. Five alumni from Moore College of Art here in Philadelphia needed studio space. The thing about ceramics is that the material might be approachable, but the equipment is not.

Grants are very important because the equipment can be expensive, making it costly to get started. Those five artists came together and wanted to share studio space and equipment. They quickly realized, “Okay, well, we know how to teach,” so they started teaching. They also wanted to show their artwork, so that’s how they started a gallery and grew from there.

Over the years, the programming within the organization grew organically from the work of those five founders into what it is today.

We still run The Clay Studio like the scrappy organization it was 50 years ago, and we focus on growing the parts of the organization that have the most demand. I’m a firm believer in “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” We haven’t canceled any programs, which is something that can happen when you’re talking about expansion, but we saw that all the programs we had were working. It was about focusing on which programs needed room to grow and expand.

The organization can be divided into artistic programs, educational programs, and community engagement programs. Most of our expansion came through what I would call our educational programs. I feel like when we’re doing it right, all three of those programs overlap in a very beautiful way, so we made room for growth in our classroom space. We spoke with residents in the area about how we could be a good neighbor and asked them to welcome us into the neighborhood. One thing we heard from them was “Kids need a safe place to go after school.” That’s how our after-school program grew. Again, it was about letting things happen organically.

I think that listening and learning from each other to build a flexible organization that can respond to what’s happening in the field or to the needs of the community makes things better for all of us.

Grant funds and participation are what we rely on most. We always focus on creating a welcoming environment and having people think of us as their third place, where they can be creative, relax, and tune out the rest of the world.

There’s also the clay itself; we use thousands of pounds of clay a week. I see the electric bill, and I know how many of our 23 kilns have been firing each week to process all the work being created in the building.

When I walk through the building, I look around and see all these people who are just happy to be here. They’re being creative, enjoying themselves, and sharing these really meaningful experiences. In those moments, I’m like, “Okay, this is worth it; we’re doing what we should be doing.”

I give advice almost every week to people who call me about starting a new studio. I tell them to start small, figure out the needs of their community or the artists they’re going to serve, and leave room for growth.

Our projections showed that it would take us two years to reach the size we expected after moving into this building, and we hit those numbers in six months. You just never know what your demand is going to be.

The Women by Kristin Hannah

There’s something about the book that stuck with me, about the work we do in our fields and how important it is to us. While we’re all doing important work, there’s something odd about stepping out of that space and into another bubble where other people don’t have any idea what we’ve done or what’s being accomplished daily.