Take part in the art of giving with M State’s 17th annual Empty Bowls fundraiser.
Hosted by the M State Fine Arts Department, on the college’s Fergus Falls campus, Empty Bowls pairs locally made art with a local food-related charity to fight hunger in the community. The M State event is one of many held around the world as part of the international Empty Bowls project.
Happening Thursday, April 20, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Legacy Hall, this year’s Empty Bowls event at M State will feature an array of over 450 one-of-a-kind ceramic bowls, handmade earlier this year by a mix of about 50 M State students, alumni and other area artists.
For a suggested donation of $20, community members can come and fill the bowl of their choice with hot vegetable or chicken and wild rice soup for lunch, and then bring the bowl home with them. Proceeds go to the Fergus Falls Salvation Army’s food program.
Empty Bowls has raised over $71,000 for the Salvation Army over the event’s 17-year history, with the yearly fundraisers usually generating more than $4,000 each.
“Empty Bowls seems to be an event that people look forward to every spring, and we’re so appreciative of the community’s support for it,” said Lori Charest, ceramics instructor at the college and organizer of Empty Bowls. “Helping the community through art is important. And personally, I really love the days we get together and make bowls; it’s a fun time to reconnect with former students and pottery friends, who are so good about coming and helping for this.”
The annual “Bowl-A-Thons,” as those bowl-making days are known by Charest and the other potters, take place over two days in late January or early February. The artists get together at M State to make hundreds of bowls in one day, and then go back the next day to trim them. The bowls are later glazed and fired by Charest and her students or other helpers. Everyone volunteers their time and talents.
Volunteers are vital on the day of the Empty Bowls event, as well, with student volunteers helping to serve the food, collect donations and wash dishes. The food is mostly donated by local businesses; this year, the college campus food service is donating one of the soups, and Falls Baking Company is donating the bread. Creative Handmade Goods, a Fergus Falls-based shop, is providing sample-sized bars of handmade soap for people to take home.
Everyone who visits the M State campus for Empty Bowls is encouraged to peruse the campuses’ two art galleries while they’re there, to see more examples of local artwork. M State’s 49th Invitational Art Show, featuring 119 pieces of work by many area artists, is on display in the Charles Beck Gallery, and paintings by Fergus Falls artist Tom Rieschick are showing at the Waage Gallery.