You can’t beat a soup-and-bread supper on a fall evening – unless that includes also taking home a handcrafted ceramic bowl – which is what will happen at Moab’s first-ever Soup Bowl Fundraiser and Ceramics Silent Auction.
The event, which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 4, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Moab Arts and Recreation Center, 111 E. 100 North, is sponsored by the Clay Artisans of Moab. Calling themselves “a loosely organized group of mostly introverted ceramicists who come together to bring their craft to the community,” members donated bowls for the event.
Attendees choose one from a table full of ceramic soup bowls, then proceed to help themselves to soup prepared by different Moab restaurants. (You can go back for seconds.) The meal also includes desserts and drinks.
“There will be 10 different soups, from chili to pho – whatever restaurants want to showcase,” said Barb Gregoire, who initiated the event along with other members of Clay Artisans. “All the potters in Moab came together to make this happen.”
Large ceramic bowls filled with bread will be set on the tables. The bread bowls, along with a side table full of other pottery, including mugs, cookie jars, planters, and various artworks are included in a silent auction that evening where people can bid on the pieces. Or, you can buy the pottery outright for a set price.
Gregoire, who owns Desert Sun Ceramics, had attended similar soup bowl fundraising events in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where she lived before moving to Moab roughly a year ago.
“It’s a fun event,” she said. “I remember everyone was walking out with these precious treasures in their hands – the soup bowls they had eaten out of, while enjoying supporting (a good cause).”
The Moab Soup Bowl fundraiser is a benefit for the Youth Garden Project and its Summer Camp Scholarship Fund.
Children who attended the YGP “Artrageous week” camp in June learned to make bowls, some of which will be included with the Clay Artisans pottery. Gregoire and another potter, Joanne Savoie, spent a week with the kids teaching them to hand-build pots with clay. The children each made two bowls: One they got to keep; the other they donated to the Soup Bowl event.
“Once (the Clay Artisans) asked us to be the beneficiary of the Soup Bowl Fundraiser, we thought it would be a great way to bring in that medium to our art week,” YGP Associate Director Kate Niederehe said.
Youth Garden Project Program Director Julie Zender expects some parents might come to the soup bowl fundraiser seeking the bowl their child made that week.
“I do remember one mom who came back the next day, asking, ‘Where can we buy these bowls?’” Zender recalled. “I know making the bowls was one of their favorite activities of the week. Many of them wanted to keep both of their bowls.”
The Youth Garden Project offers nine weeks of summer camp, including activities in which kids learn where food comes from by working in the garden, and/or learning to cook using produce harvested onsite. Niederehe said she is thankful for the support of CLAM and local businesses that will help YGP provide more scholarships for qualifying families to send their children to spring and summer camp programs.
While the soup bowl event starts at 5 p.m., not all of the bowls will be set out at once – to ensure a wide variety of colors, textures, and styles are available throughout the evening. A couple of potters have made bowls with dividers so diners can try two or three different kinds of soup, Gregoire said.
Participating businesses that are helping to make this fundraiser happen include Allyssa’s Cheesecake and Desserts, Canyonlands Advertising, City Market, Eddie McStiff’s, Eklecticafe, Kaki’s Kitchen, Moonflower Community Cooperative, Moab Brewery, Moab Grill, Red Rock Bakery, Sweet Cravings Bakery and Bistro, Sheri Griffith River Expeditions, Singha Thai Cuisine, The Spoke on Center, Village Market, and Wake and Bake Café.
Eat soup, take home a handcrafted ceramic bowl, support local nonprofit on Nov. 4
What: First-ever Soup Bowl Fundraiser and Ceramics Silent Auction
When: Saturday, Nov. 4, from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Moab Arts and Recreation Center, 111 E. 100 North
Cost: Adults and children 13 and older, $20; $10 Children 12 and under
Information: 970-819-7938; www.youthgardenproject.org
