Britt David Cultural Arts Studio: a sanctuary to make friends along with art

The significance of the Britt David Cultural Arts Studio goes beyond its three annual events.

Sure, local folks know about the studio through its Christmas and Spring sales, as well as the Empty Bowl fundraiser, which sells handmade bowls full of soup to benefit the Kids Café for the Feeding the Valley food bank.

But for others, the studio provides more. It offers regular respites from life’s stresses, a sanctuary to make friends along with art.

And out of approximately 120 members and the attendance of 20,868 in the program’s various classes during fiscal year 2015, perhaps nobody embodies that impact more than Barbara “Bobbie” Corman, 85, the last active potter from Britt David’s original group 45 years ago.

“It’s the cheapest psychiatrist I have ever found,” she said with a smile.

‘It’s not the clay’

The studio dates back to 1971, when the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department housed it in a Quonset hut at Britt David Park. The current building opened in 1988.

To dabble in pottery, Corman took off one day per week from the Dunkin Donuts store she and her late husband, Bob, opened the same year as the studio. Now, with neither her husband nor the store in her life, she usually goes to the studio at least three of the four days it’s open each week.

“When I walk through that front door, my life is entirely gone,” she said. “I only have to enjoy and play.”

Corman laughed as she admitted trying to shape clay into a satisfying piece can be frustrating, but it more often relaxes her.

“My mind is totally clear of my life around me because I don’t have to think about anything,” she said. “… I just use the clay and it comforts me. Truthfully, I am in another world.

“But it’s not the clay; it’s the people that are surrounding me. I mean, the friendships I have out here, they are just fabulous.”

Friends such as Mary Killough and Joan Magoni.

“We have a lot of fun,” said Killough, 77. “We might be ugly to each other, but we know we’re not serious. It’s like, ‘What are you doing with that?’ We can rib, and nobody goes home mad.”

“We come here to insult each other,” Joan Magoni, 84, added sarcastically.

Then she continued in a more serious tone.

“Being creative and being around all these people, such a variety of personalities, it’s just good,” Magoni said as she worked on a pot for a poinsettia. “It keeps me out of trouble. It keeps your hands busy. You’re thinking about what you’re going to do next.”

‘Wonderful staff’

Whatever you do at the studio, Killough noted, “You can create at any level, if you’re a professional or if you’re a beginner like I was.”

And whoever you are, Corman noted, a “wonderful staff,” comprising a director and three part-time workers, is available to help you.

Studio director Lisa Castille calls such praise, “the best part about this job. I know what this place means to me, and I know to a lot of people it means even more.

“As much as I’d like to say that pottery is the best part of this, it’s not. People come in whether they are going to be creating something or not. They’re going to come in and talk to each other.”

Castille has worked at the studio for 20 years, the first four as assistant director and the past 16 as director. Since then, the number of classes has grown from eight to more than 30.

“The clay is important,” she said. “It’s brought everybody together. But when something happens to somebody, everybody is there to support them.”

Corman can attest.

After her husband died in 1989, she said, “this place was a Godsend. It was a place for me to come. I was extremely comforted. There were so many of my friends from here that attended the funeral. … It was because of this place that I was able to get past a great deal of the grief that I had.”

‘Going in the garbage’

Using numbers Castille supplied, Corman has made an estimated 5,000-plus pottery pieces in her more than four decades at the studio. She turned some of those objects into gifts.

“I hope they liked it as much as I enjoyed making it,” she said.

One morning last month, Corman showed visitors some of her projects. She held up an unglazed dish, designed as a leaf with an orange.

Asked for its purpose, Corman cracked, “It will be used for whatever anyone who would like to buy it for.”

Then she chuckled and added, “Everything I make now goes to the pottery sale. My children are tired of my pottery.”

But if she doesn’t like it, Corman emphasized, “I’m not giving it away and I’m not selling it. It’s going in the garbage.”

Asked how often that happens, she simply answered, “I break up a lot of pots.”

This story was originally published April 16, 2016 at 1:45 PM with the headline "Britt David Cultural Arts Studio: a sanctuary to make friends along with art."