- Belger Crane Yard Studios is a ceramic studio that caters to locals here in the Kansas City community that are at every range of level, whether that's people who are just trying to find clay for the first time or that individual who's a professional.

We have multiple forms of education that is catering to not only adults, but also catering to children.

We have summer camps, four to six week adult classes, we also have date night programming on weekends.

So if anyone wants to just decide whether they want to jump into ceramics and maybe not make a full commitment for a full four week course, they can try our date night programming.

But then our studio itself also houses a lot of people who are just trying to have their own practice here, renting full-time, coming in here and just trying to provide themselves the time to just really develop their ceramic practice.

And we also have an international residency program.

We have people coming from, predominantly the United States, but also elsewhere from other countries coming and seeking our studio out to make all of their contemporary work.

This is a great ceramic studio that actually facilitates a lot of different types of clay.

So we not only have a litany of pottery wheels that allow people to really get practice in making their pottery, but we also have a plaster making facility.

And so that allows people to take a different approach to clay.

Allows them to think more of mold making, whether that's press molding or slip casting.

But we also have a lot of tools and facilities here that allow you to investigate processes like coil building, hand building, using all the different types of clay bodies as well.

So we try to make sure that people are not only just focused on wheel throwing, but we have all the different clay processes available, here on the studio floor.

I think that clay always depends on the person and the process depends on the person, too.

I always just think that a cup is the perfect place to start.

I am biased and I'm a potter, and so I find there to be a really wonderful, beautiful human history within pottery.

And I know that our studio has a really great reputation of being a part of the really incredible Kansas City pottery history here.

And so I always suggest, if anyone really wants to get into figuring out what they want to do with ceramics, to come in here and figure out a way that they can make a cup for the first time; it's the perfect place to start.

So we have four and six week adult courses here at Belger, and so it's really great.

It's a time for adults who want to have a longer extended dive into developing not only their practice, but learn more about the ceramic medium.

They could jump into a wheel throwing course, they can go into a course that's maybe more specified and past the beginner level.

You have everything from hand building and sculpting.

For instance, with Gina Pisto, she'll be going over how to hand build flowers and how to do more sculptural elements when it comes to the clay.

But when it comes to things that will be happening tonight, there's gonna be not only the hand building and sculpting, but we'll have beginners who are on the potter's wheel who are just jumping into clay for the first time.

And so it's a really great opportunity for them to see what it's like to be a potter and what it means to have all the skills to create one.

- [Instructor] But if you put your hand here, - I think there's a lot of things that are really alluring about pottery and ceramics in general.

I think that there's a tactility with ceramics and with clay, actually, more specifically.

The plasticity of clay allows you to have this immediate record of touch that I find really important.

I love that I can find my fingerprints within the clay.

I also love that it gives people a platform to tell stories.

I think that storytelling is one of my favorite things about clay and I am constantly and incessantly writing words on my own work, but it gives everyone in their own way the ability to tell their story, another story, or engage with, all in all, just engaging with other people.

Everyone recognizes ceramics for being this beautiful utilitarian object that provides sustenance to us as human beings.

But it's great when you think about it past that point of sure it can hold liquid, it can hold food, and those are things that sustain us as people.

But it can also sustain ideas and history and a lot of what we are as humans.

So anything from a Greek vessel to a beautiful Mayan pot that shows, in great detail on the surface, the story of everyone that came from that period of time.

I mean, we find that throughout all of pottery and all of history.

And so it's not only just this incredible record keeper, but it's also this great platform to not only show visually how wonderful everything is influencing your day to day, but also just all the stories that you're developing together.

- And this is kind of the ending.

- The Artist in Residency program that we have here at Belger is a wonderful opportunity for individuals to come here to Belger and to Kansas City, be a part of this art studio and really expand their practice.

And as they're here developing their body of work, it's also a time for people here at Belger to get to know that artist and talk with them.

And we all get to exchange information, have this wonderful dialogue that begins to just blossom up in the studio.

Everyone starts trading notes, saying, what clay body can I use to improve this sculpture?

What colors will maybe activate this surface a little bit better?

And so not only do we have this great breadth of knowledge that's coming from the residents, but we privileged here at Belger get to see the passing of all these wonderful artists coming through our studios here.

And so it's just this constant learning through conversation between us, the studio members here and the residency program.

It's a really special opportunity to really get in on this ceramic material.

- Now, the first way, - I think one of my favorite things about working here at Belger, is the ability to have so many conversations that you don't expect.

I feel that it doesn't really matter how long you've been in clay; there's individuals here who are just starting and then there's others who have been here for one, two, three, five decades long.

And there seems to always be an opportunity and a new moment for someone to learn something new.

And I have never had a place before where I get to learn something new and be surprised so consistently.

And so that's a really great thing that I think that we get to experience here.

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