Rain City Clay
“Building a sense of community helps us really see each other. When we foster our creative side we show up more fully in the world, whether it is at work, with family, or just for ourselves.”
~ Deb Schwartzkopf, Founder
About Rain City Clay
Follow: on Instagram @rain.city.clay
4208 SW 100th Street, Seattle, WA 98146 (Learn more about visiting)
Rain City Clay offers classes for all levels, skill-building workshops, & hosts several community events each year. Located in West Seattle, we are a vibrant creative community passionate about working with clay. Our offerings aim to cultivate imagination, bring people together, and facilitate a space where everyone has a place to foster their creative side.
Mission
Rain City Clay & Rat City Studios are sister studios located in West Seattle and White Center. They are vibrant, creative communities that offer everything from beginning pottery classes to firing services for local potters. RCS & RCC bring people together with shared experiences and engage and build community through clay. Explore our community by taking a class or stopping by for an event!
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Access Statement
As a small business, we recognize our essential role in dismantling unjust and inequitable systems within our community. We are committed and dedicated to this lifelong process.
We believe that a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community is a better community. We recognize our position of privilege in an inequitable, racist, and non-inclusive system. Through this lens, we are committed to making measurable and lasting changes that will foster racial equity, encourage diversity, and cultivate a more inclusive community.
Rat City Studios & Rain City Clay stand in solidarity against racism in the clay community and the systemic inequities and injustices that our BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities face. We endeavor to actively use the resources of RCS & RCC to facilitate sustainable change and foster a creative community that is safe, inclusive, and equitable.
Rain City Clay offers:
Multi-week classes at various levels
One-night experiences
Individual lessons
Skill-building workshops
Firing Service for Organization or Partner Schools
Youth Clay Club - Bringing clay to schools
An annual holiday show and sale of handmade ceramics made by participants and local artists!
About Rain City Clay:
Rain City Clay offers clay classes, skill-building workshops, rents artist studios, and offers yearly community events featuring handmade ceramics for show and sale. We also bring clay to schools through out “Clay Club” and have a firing service for partner organizations or schools. Our offerings are aimed at cultivating imagination, bringing people together, and facilitating a space where everyone has a place to foster their creative side.
Rat City Studios, our sister studio, will continue to offer monthly studio access to independent study participants, skill-building online clay workshops, and a firing service for local artists.
My goal is to support more artists at many levels through experiential learning and shared experience. I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to build on this purpose but I can’t do it alone. I need your help as we launch this exciting endeavor.
"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about."
– Margaret J. Wheatley
About the Founder, Deb Schwartzkopf:
Seattle local, Deb Schwartzkopf is a potter, instructor and active community member. She uses her unique skill set to offer educational opportunities - creating bridges to cross-pollinate communities both locally and nationally. Deb has a Master’s in Fine Arts, has been an instructor collegiately, and has established a successful pottery studio.
The studio practice she has established provides a vehicle for her to continually learn about material, connect with the community, and create intersections between ephemeral ideas and functional forms.
“Your support means that I have your vote of confidence and trust. It also means that I am pledging to try my best to create a space that fosters the next generation of ceramic artists and that knits our community together through shared creative experience.”
~ Deb Schwartzkopf, Founder
What People Are Saying:
“The environment here is so supportive and I am surrounded by other artists that ask me questions that help me grow.” ~ Anika Major
“The sense of community here is apparent,
it is clear that it is a core value. I can’t wait to see how this wonderful community will grow” ~ Denise Carillo
“My husband and I took ceramics through the continuing education program at our local community college until the studio closed, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We've been married for 31 years and doing art together is a way we enrich our personal lives and marriage. I looked online for other spaces and found Rat City Studio. I was thrilled when we moved up the waiting list and into the studio as independent study members. We have been so happy to be back with clay. We are also really happy with the community, which Deb has mindfully and skillfully built. I am excited about the expansion of this community to Rain City Clay. I look forward to class offerings and I am eager to see how this space helps put more art in the world.” ~ Elizabeth MacKenzie