Kent State’s School of Art ceramics program sold their “Mugathon” products on the second floor of the Student Center on Wednesday.

The Mugathon, which will take place today as well, included work from alumni, graduate students and local artists. 

All of the mugs are handmade by the participants and required a two-step creation process. Peter Johnson, assistant professor of art and coordinator of the event, said the process to create them is timely. 

“We started at five in the evening and worked until about five the next day,”  Johnson said.“It was about 10 hours in making the bodies for the mugs and at least 10 hours in making the handles and those are pretty difficult. Not to mention a couple of hours for cleanup.”

After the Mugathon concluded on Wednesday, the mug sale count was more than 400.

Proceeds of the sale will go toward the Ceramic Club’s upcoming trip in March to the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference in Kansas City.

“There’s about 25 to 30 expositions, so almost all the galleries in that city are taken over by ceramic shows and there’s a whole series of lectures over contemporary issues,” Johnson said. “There are also demonstrators that are nationally recognized artists (who) make artwork in this big hall and then they field questions.”

Johnson further explained that the conference will help current ceramic students by allowing them to see the artwork from other colleges, according to Johnson.

“This way, they know what they’re up against for the competitive graduate programs,” Johnson said.

Vice President of the Ceramics Club and junior Phaedra Scherl is excited for the national conference and the different artwork exposure she will experience.

“I feel like it’s hard to make art when you don’t know what else is going on in the world,” Scherl said. “So going somewhere specifically for ceramics and meeting people for networking is really important.”

Another reason why Johnson wanted to put on the mug sale was to increase student’s awareness that they don’t have to be an art major to take the courses.

“We really believe that getting exposure to art is good and a lot of us wouldn’t be art majors if we haven’t had taken a class that changed our mind,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to also spread the word to take a ceramics class. Don’t be fazed by the prerequisites, we want you to come and experience it and we think you’ll be converted.”

The sale will continue in the Student Center today rom 12:30 p.m. till 5:00 p.m.

For more information about the ceramic sale, visit https://www.kent.edu/art/event/mugathon-ceramic-cup-sale-0.

And for more information about the ceramic courses offered, contact the School of Arts Administrative Office by visiting https://www.kent.edu/art/contact.

 Raeanna Hertz is the arts reporter for The Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].