Good (Art)Works
Students and volunteers at Lincoln Square Pottery Studio - Learning Center have always had strong connections to charitable foundations. Using art as a vehicle for fundraising or as a prize during a silent auction is an inventive way to support a cause. The artist’s collectors, friends, family and art lovers see it as an opportunity to own something they want to display as well as support the maker. Over the years we’ve noticed that when an artist hits their creative stride, organizations start inquiring for donations. The effect is twofold; a proud artist and a grateful non-profit with extra cash to advance their mission. Here are a just a few of the people at LSPS-LC that create and donated artwork in the name of goodwill.
Richard Zeid and a few of the 50 mustache mugs he’s created for the Movember Foundation this year. Check out his Instagram for more information: HERE
Richard Zeid: Movember Foundation
A great example of using artwork to encourage and excite people to support a cause is LSPS-LC’s Richard Zeid. The multi-talented artist has been creating pieces for the Movember Foundation for more than a decade. Each November, supporters raise money for the organization, which is a global charity that focuses on men’s health. They raise awareness around testicular and prostate cancer, as well as suicide prevention.
Zeid has raised more than $26,000 over the years by offering his letter press prints, pins, and ceramic-based items. The artist piggybacks off of the foundation’s concept of growing a mustache to raise awareness (a fun thing to do for a good cause) by creating work around the theme. This year, he’s utilizing a new technique he picked up during his recent sabbatical. Toner Litho is a way to use your own drawings and transfer them to leather-hard clay surfaces. Zeid used a whimsical collection of mustache drawing and placed them at the lip of 50 mugs he created for the event. When sipping a hot beverage, the mustache looks as if it’s on the face of the drinker. The choice of ’staches are vast; the Fu Manchu, Petit Handlebar, The Chevron and the Dali. The majority of the sale of each mug goes to the organization (the rest goes back to Zeid for material costs), which will be used to fund breakthrough research and support programs.
Zeid has fine-tuned his work to appeal to his base of long-time collectors, as well as to folks who just appreciate a good mug. Either way, the artist is especially proud to take part of this event, which has even more meaning now since he went into remission after a battle with Lymphoma three years ago.
Zeid’s mustache mugs will be available all of November (or until they run out) on his shelf at LSPS-LC. They will also be at the Andersonville Galleria in Chicago. Neither the studio or Galleria is taking a percentage of Zeid’s sales for this special fundraiser.
Alice Huang Hollowed with one of the pieces she created as part of her 100+ mugs for the Edge of Orion Theater. Check her out HERE
Alice Huang Hollowed: Edge of Orion/Thousand Waves Martial Arts Center
LSPS-LC student, volunteer and artist Alice Huang Hollowed is no stranger to creating and donating her artwork for a good cause. Over the years, she’s shown her appreciation for a variety of organizations, mostly linked to her children’s education and growth.
Huang Hollowed gladly created beautifully thrown and designed mugs as part of the “thank you” gifts given to donors at the Spirit Challenge fundraiser. This annual event benefits the Thousand Waves Martial Arts Center on West Belmont Avenue in Chicago. The money went to nearly half of the organization’s budget. These funds help keep class costs down, but also assist in providing free self-defense resources to the public, class scholarships and courses in public schools.
The artist has also set some high bars for herself. Not once, but twice did she buckle down at the studio’s pottery wheels to create 100+ mugs for the Edge of Orion. This theater provided classes in the dramatic arts for home-schooled children and youth with intellectual disabilities. Each year a gala fundraiser put on by students and staff would raise most of the yearly operating budget. The 100 mugs were a personal thank-you from Huang Hollowed to each of the donors who helped keep this establishment thriving. Tragically the theater had to shutter its doors after the Pandemic made it nearly impossible to hold classes or performances.
Paul Schultz with one treehouse tumblers, along with one of his Pottery of Protest pieces (which always tie into his fundraising endeavors). Check him out HERE
Paul Schultz: World Wildlife Fund/Patchwork Farms
Each year LSPS-LC hosts a Pottery of Protest exhibition in its space. Students create work that carries their views and passions on subject matter like the environment, politics, violence prevention and more. The studio raises money for a local cause through its Buy-A-Cup Benefit. Student and volunteer Paul Schulz loved the art-as-vehicle for fundraising so much he does his own mini-drive within the exhibitions.
The artist, who is well known for spending hours on his train commute evolving his concepts, comes up with an incredibly unique projects each year. Slab-built pangolins (dozens of them), each came with an up-cycled Chinese food container, bio-degradable packing material and info card. Schultz also rolled Milkweed seeds into wet clay to create balls for a gumball machine. POP participants spent a quarter to receive a seed “bomb” to help propagate native plant life for Monarch butterflies in their own community. Schultz also labored over tiny extruded clay planters (decorations by Melanie Liss) with individual seedling for garden transplanting. This is just a small sampling of creative dreams that the artist actuates in clay.
Along with these small, unique works of art that were for sale, Schultz matched them to like-minded causes. The World Wildlife Fund and local Patchwork Farms were recipients of his hard work. Schultz is forever devising new and fascinating works of art to tie into meaningful action, and part of the excitement surrounding the annual POP event is seeing what he comes up with.
Melanie Liss with her charming mugs, and a Mary Meyers stamp mug for fundraising. Check her out at www.storytimeceramics.com
Melanie Liss: Mary Meyer Preschool
Melanie Liss, a LSPS-LC Independent Study student and prolific maker of mugs, also loves to make work for a cause. The artist is a long-time studio art teacher at the Mary Meyer Preschool in the East Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. She’s put both her skills and connection with the school to good use. Liss, who has been collecting unusual retro stamps (originally used for ink and paper) for many years, started using them on clay slabs. By layering imprints of animals, flowers and off-beat subject matter, she created mugs with funky narratives. People are attracted to the images and her sense of humor. She merged her aesthetic with that of the school’s official stamp and has been raising money for their scholarship and benefit funds.
Anneliese Moy with one of her stunning bowls. Check her work out HERE
Anneliese Moy: Equality Illinois/Human Rights Campaign/Eckhart Park District
Anneliese Moy is a long-time student, volunteer and teacher at LSPS-LC. The artist is incredibly versatile with clay. She creates sets of dishes with minimalist swoops of black, earth-toned air plant holders, rainbow-colored bowls and cups and small anime-inspired characters. Her range makes it easy for her to donate work to a variety of causes, and she has. Equality Illinois, the Human Rights Campaign, Eckhart Park District and Jackie’s Cancer Recovery Fund are just a few of the organizations she’s donated to. Making art with heart is easy for Moy, who takes fundraising and bettering her community with great seriousness.
Meg Biddle/Too many to count
Meg Biddle, Instructor and founder of LSPS-LC, is no stranger to donating her artwork to good causes. Since the opening of the studio in 2003, she has never turned down a chance to gift a piece. Mostly the work she gives are the pitchers she creates as the demonstration piece. Each one is better than the last, and she’s evolved her glaze treatments to reflect the new techniques she continuously picks up. Biddle has lost track of just how many of these vessels have gone out the door and into the arms of a happy fundraiser- but she humbly puts the number at least 200!