Super Art Sunday
Get your hands dirty and your creativity flowing at this art-filled playdate for kids and their favorite grown-ups! Inspired by A Shared Journey: The Barkan Ceramics Collection, Clay Date invites families to come together for a joyful day of making. Explore the magic of ceramics through hands-on activities, unexpected materials, and live demonstrations, learning alongside local artists and RISD students as ideas take shape in clay through creative play and shared discovery.
Reserve FREE admission tickets for Sunday, February 15
Community Clay
11 am – 4 pm, Common Room
Work alongside artists from Anyhow Studios to transform large ceramic vessels at different stages of the process. Paint, carve, and build side by side in a shared, hands-on experience.
The Big Build
11 am – 4 pm, Grand Gallery
Get hands-on with paper and cardboard as we cut, stack, smoosh, drip, and repeat our way toward a collaborative sculpture. Using everyday materials like tubes, boxes, scraps, streamers, and tape, participants will work together to assemble a spectacular, larger-than-life figure inspired by ceramic forms. Designed and facilitated by Andrew Oesch (RISD MFA 2002 Furniture).
My Special Vessel
11 am – 4 pm, Danforth Hall
Inspired by Nicole Cherubini’s Vase, create a clay vessel and decorate it with colors, textures, and materials that make it uniquely yours. Facilitated by artist/educator Xiao Gou (RISD BFA 2024 Textiles, MA 2025 TLAD).
Making Long Ago
11 am – 2 pm, Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek & Roman Galleries
Museum docents share how clay has been used across cultures, what it has meant over time, and why it remains beautiful, using hands-on materials and visual prompts inspired by objects in the galleries.
Feelings & Forms
12 – 3 pm, Fain Gallery
Get hands-on with the materials and techniques used by RISD Ceramics students, then become a decorative arts detective as you search for those same techniques in the Museum’s collections. Organized by Katherine Fu (RISD MA 2026 TLAD, 2025 BFA Ceramics).