Brand-new kiln awaits ceramics students

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

Last school season, in the middle of a ceramics art class, Sartell High School teacher Deb Rollings had to call local artist Melissa Gohman to report the class’s kiln had broken down again. Gohman was kind enough, again, to come to the school to fix the kiln, free.

A kiln, sometimes pronounced “kill,” is a very high-temperature oven of sorts that “bakes” (fires) wet clay into a very hard substance (ceramic).

At the time of the repair, Gohman suggested Rollings should apply for a Central Minnesota Arts Board grant for a new and larger kiln.

So Gohman spent an afternoon with Rollings to prepare the grant proposal, which is a 50-percent matching grant.

Later, Rollings received the good news – her grant request for $2,258 had been accepted, and she and her students will receive a new kiln. Rollings is excited for the new school year when a brand-new kiln will be in operation.

It is a Skutt-brand production kiln with a capacity of 30 percent more for each load than the previous one. Since it’s a very high-quality kiln, it will need less repair, which means less down time. And since it’s large and will require less firings, it will save energy costs.

“I am thrilled to be a recipient of this grant to help purchase a larger, more productive kiln,” Rollings told the Newsleader. “This will last for many years.”

A good durable kiln is vital for Rollings and her many students. She teaches four to five ceramics classes each year in addition to three to five independent-study ceramics students. What’s more, the kiln is also used for Rollings design-elements classes (about 11 of them yearly), sculpture class (one or two per year) and mixed-media classes (two to three a year).

The Art Club and Ceramics Club members also use the kiln, and in the past two years community-education classes have sometimes involved ceramics and also used the kiln.

The number of students per year who have their ceramics pieces fired in the kiln is 600 or more from all high-school grade levels. And since each piece is fired twice, the number of pieces fired is more like 1,200.

The first firing removes all water from the clay and strengthens it. The second firing is to bake in the glaze application with an astonishing temperature of 2,300 degrees. The two other schools that received CMAB grants are Paynesville Area High School, $3,500, for updated staging sections to elevate student performers to better see the conductor; and Talahi Community School in St. Cloud, $442, for a clay cart to better handle clay-art projects up to the final kiln firings.

Unlike some states in America, art is a required subject in Minnesota. All Minnesota students, in order to graduate, must complete the art requirement, which can be accomplished through a variety of disciplines, such as visual arts, musical arts, dance or theater.

“The arts teach many skills, including important transferable skills,” Rollings said. “Students who embrace the arts begin to express their diversity, reflect upon their creation, participate in cooperative groups and learn to work through mistakes. Students who excel in the arts are taught to see another viewpoint, envision solutions, self-evaluate and have an original opinion. These are skills that are not easily measurable, but you will find them in creative students.”

There are four art teachers, including Rollings, in the Sartell High School Art Department. They are currently planning an art-related trip to Beijing, China to see the Great Wall and to participate in many cultural activities in that ancient city. The ancient Chinese, incidentally, were innovative geniuses in ceramics and the art of kiln firing. The trip is planned for June 2019, with art teacher Angie Heckman as its lead coordinator.