Kids Love Clay

"From the Summer Youth Programming Intern"

This past weekend the museum hauled one tent, three tables, and fifty pounds of fresh clay up to Jacumba for the Healing Waters and Arts Festival. If there is one thing to be taken from the whole experience it is this: kids love clay. Despite the searing heat, kids at the festival passed up water-slides and bouncy-castles to come to the museum booth and attempt to make a coiled clay pot. We literally had kids who stayed at our booth for more than 2 hours.

Our coiled program was not grant funded this year. We have been smashing up pots and reusing clay for all of our last ten 4th grade field trips. This week, however, we ran out of clay.

The Jacumba festival would not have been possible except for Lorraine Pritchett, who saw our need and donated $400 for clay. We picked up 400 pounds of clay in San Diego on Friday and on Saturday hauled it back up to Jacumba.

It was the perfect day in California's "rejuvenation adventureland". The wind was soft and carried the sound of multiple violins and singers across the festival grounds. With good food, good weather, and good company, there was not much more to ask for. Not only did we have a great time at the festival, but it produced some of the museums most dazzling pieces of coiled clay art to date.