Raku Workshop Fires Up Green Dragon Art Students

Toward the end of the 2024-25 school year, LAHS art students enjoyed participating in a workshop to experience Raku, a Japanese clay pottery firing technique. Funding from the foundation's Quasi Endowment for High School Art supported the visit of a mobile Raku studio and guest artist. From bringing the work to the kiln, observing the loading, manning the metal trashcans for the reduction, quick cooling with water, to washing their pieces and taking them home at the end of the day - students were involved in all of the steps.

LAHS Art teacher Hillary Cree thanked the foundation saying, "Bringing Mobile Raku to LAHS greatly inspired my students, and in some piqued a curiosity in ceramics that they hadn't yet experienced. Many of them asked me if it was a once in a lifetime experience and my response was: 'yes, for most of you it is.' The day was incredibly energizing for me and my students."  Students reflected saying that the hands on workshop was unlike anything they had done in class and many expressed their desire to continue their study of ceramics.