Derby High School ceramics teacher Natalie Brown walks into a clean room with 24 throwing wheels. Shelves line two walls by the door. A third wall is all windows. The last wall has doors to other storage, office space and kiln rooms.
“As we come in, we still have one of the things that's unique at Derby … a true black and white dark room; that's our first class,” Brown said. “And then we're going to go into K3, which is my main home, and it is primarily the wheel and sculpture room.
“We are able to mix our own glazes, as well as use different commercial products.”
Brown continues down a long list of skills and knowledge learned inside these walls, and mentions that she is not the only ceramics instructor.
“One of the things that's unique about Derby is we have multiple teachers teaching clay,” Brown said. “We have essentially two and a half positions teaching just clay. When I came into the program, we had a really strong clay program. Brian Knott, who was my predecessor over 20 years ago, had developed the clay program.
“They built a new clay room, but the old room wasn't getting utilized. I said, ‘Well, if we can, utilize both rooms.’”
Because she provided a space, Brown said she had such high demand that her schedule was always full and overloaded.
“We actually had the numbers to justify another position, so we had some staffing changes,” Brown said. “The administration actually added another position, and then about five years ago, we actually had another art position.”
Interested students respond deeply and build on what Derby offers year after year, with some electing to spend a good chunk of their day there.
“My seniors are really dedicated to working in art,” Brown said. “I have kids that are here, honestly, their senior schedule maybe most of one of their days of the block schedule, and they love it.”
As much time as Brown spends building and teaching classes, she still prefers to be another tool at their disposal. She said she’s just as much of a resource as wheels, books or anything else.
“If you're going, 'Hey, I saw this, can we do this?’ In most cases,” Brown said, “because of my background, I go, ‘Oh yeah, we could do that. I think we have the stuff for it.’ You know, we'll go and find materials.”
Brown thinks the arts are essential to people right now and that creativity is what will set us apart well into the future.
“If you have that desire to do something artistic, do it,” Brown said. "Make something handmade. I think with everything right now heading towards technology, this is one of those areas that I really think is important to our humanity — the ability to create.”
