Ceramics finds home

Author: Kelly Janis

As a child, Jason Sanford '10 was "mesmerized" by ceramics. When he began practicing the art as a high school sophomore, his passion was confirmed.

"I was so hooked on it," he said. "That was basically what I did during my free time."

By the time he came to Middlebury, making pottery was integral to his life.

"It was something I definitely wanted to continue, at least as a hobby," he said.

There was, however, a problem: the College offered none of the supplies or facilities necessary to support this endeavor.

So Sanford joined forces with Ben Kunofsky '09 and Ben Winter '10 to attempt to start a student organization devoted to ceramics on campus - a process which, by his account, turned out to be "pretty arduous."

"Going in, I was pretty na've about the whole thing," Sanford said. "I thought, well, they don't have a program, but we can change that. It was a little more difficult than that. Actually, it was a lot more difficult than that."

Sanford approached official after official at the College with the idea, and was continually passed on to someone else.

"I met with a lot of people telling me that I should just give up, that it wasn't going to happen," Sanford said.

After repeated meetings with then-Dean of the College and current Acting Provost Tim Spears, they won a victory at last: Spears introduced them to Director of Cultural Activities Barbara Doyle-Wilch.

"Barbara was literally a godsend in the process," Sanford said. "She was on our side. We could not have met a better person for what we were doing."

At first, the Old Stone Mill was considered as a possible location, but ultimately a home was found at 75 Adirondack View - a building previously slated to be torn down, where the club opened its doors on Jan. 7. No set schedule has been agreed on, but monitors have agreed to preside over the space at various intervals throughout the day, depending on need. Interested students can purchase memberships for $50 for Winter Term, $125 for Spring Term or $150 for both.