Pottery Studio

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Several weeks ago, the premises of the Radcliffe Pottery Studio were put up for sale by the officers of Radcliffe College. Harvard has first right of refusal to purchase this property. Harvard should exercise this right, and guarantee the continuation of the studio as a vital part of the college's extracurricular art program. If action is not taken soon, the studio will be gone, and Harvard will have shown a disappointing lack of commitment to the arts. Further, Harvard will irrevocably lose a thriving, established community of ceramic artists that has long been a hallmark of our college's commitment to excellence in the arts.

Located in a former maintenance building near the Harvard Observatory, Radcliffe presently offers the finest program for studying ceramic art in the Cambridge-Boston area. A unique interaction of students, professionals and outstanding instructors at the studio is a model for art education; an excellent and successful program that deserves to continue. The courses are accessible and inexpensive for Harvard students and offer the opportunity to study with some of the finest ceramic instructors in the country.

It is true that not enough Harvard students take advantage of the pottery studio. It needs to be better publicized, and the facilities could be better utilized by the V.E.S. department. Funds for the upkeep of the studio could be drawn from a variety of sources, but action must be taken soon. Harvard students of the 1980's have unfortunately not taken advantage of the pottery studio in the numbers that preceeding generations did. But the studio does not exist for our generation alone. It is a resource that must be protected and maintained as an outstanding opportunity for students in the future, and for those at present, such as myself, who have found the studio one of the finest educational experiences at Harvard. Amy Werbel '86