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Teeka Duplessis '26: Sharing Her Love of Ceramics

Life can be unpredictable, and for Bard College’s Teeka Duplessis (’26), this means a joint major in Studio Art and Chemistry and a position running ceramics classes at the nearby Red Hook Community Center.

Before she came to Bard, Duplessis volunteered with summer camps doing ceramics at Artshack in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She wanted to stay engaged with community service after she became a college student, but she wasn’t sure how. 

During Bard’s MLK Day of Engagement this January, she signed up to work at RHCC. There was a chili bowl-making workshop going on, but no one specialized on the pottery wheel. They wanted someone to help out, and she volunteered. She ended up leading a workshop on throwing clay. Her ceramics work ended up inspiring her to add Studio Art to her studies, something she never considered. 

Teeka runs a couple of ceramics workshops at RHCC on Saturday afternoons, working with children from seven to 15 years old. The first of her workshops happened recently. It went well - she enjoyed working with the younger kids the most.

“They seem to be very excited about the clay, and excited to touch and squeeze stuff and make a mess.” Duplessis said. 

Her favorite part about teaching ceramics?

“The uncertainty,” she said. “I never know what to expect in terms of how the kids interact with each other and how they interact with me. I never know what they’re going to create. That’s what surprises and delights me the most… they make some really fun things. Some of them are very determined and it’s really really cute, it’s lovely to see those qualities in youngsters.”

Duplessis credited the community center for offering such programming.

“It’s important, what they’re doing,” Duplessis said. “It’s really good for these kids to have a place to express themselves, and to make art for free because pottery classes are so expensive.” 

With the budget cuts in the arts in public schools, children are losing access to art education. Studio membership, instruction fees, and materials costs are huge barriers to participation in ceramics. Free classes are one way to make the arts more equitable and let people explore their interests at a young age. 

Bard students are too old to join the classes at RHCC, but there are still opportunities to participate in ceramics for free. Teeka and Aleda Rosenblum-Katz are co-heads of the Clay-ub, which meets on Fridays at The Bard Exhibition Center/UBS Gallery in the village of Red Hook. They also run events throughout the year. On April 5th, their cup-making event helped produce more than 300 mugs.  

The Red Hook Community Center is a great place to start with civic engagement outside of Bard. They’re about a 15-minute walk from the shuttle stop in Red Hook, or a seven-minute drive if you carpool with a friend. They’re looking for artists to help run workshops and use the facilities they have. There is a crafts space and a maker space available.

Duplessis says she “wouldn’t discourage anyone from reaching out if they would want to work with RHCC and create with people.” You can sign up to volunteer at the makerspace on the website." 

For now, Teeka plans to keep doing ceramics work at the community center, since she’s able to bring her passions into her community service - but who knows what the future holds.

“I’m taking it one day at a time,” she said. 

Post Date: 04-14-2023
Bard College Center for Civic Engagement
Bard College
Campus Road, PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York 12504-5000
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