Empty Bowls

Empty Bowls Festival is an annual fundraiser to support the Community Cupboard, as well as art education in local schools. Every year, hundreds of Upper Valley residents participate in this unique event, which is coordinated almost entirely by local volunteers.

Participants buy one of the unglazed, undecorated bowls made by local artists, then paint them with a design of their choice. The bowls are then fired and returned to the people who painted them at a community dinner in March.

The artist bowl auction features larger bowls which are painted by local artists and auctioned off prior to the community dinner.

The Story of Empty Bowls....

There is a story about a man who left this earth and was taken on a tour of the inner realms.  He was shown a room where he saw a large group of hungry people trying to eat dinner, but because the spoons that they were trying to eat with were longer than their arms, they remained frustrated.

"This," his guide told him, "is Hell."  "That's terrible!" exclaimed the man; "Please, show me heaven!"  "Very well" agreed the guide, and on they went.
 
When they opened heaven's door the man was perplexed to see what looked very much like the same scene; there was a group of people with spoons longer than their arms.  As he looked more closely, however, he saw happy faces and full tummies for there was one important difference: the people in heaven had learned to feed each other.

The Empty Bowls Project started in 1991 in Michigan and has spread to arts groups in nearly every state.  Originally, Empty Bowls focused on hunger in the United States.  The project has grown beyond expectations, and is already underway in several countries.

Two local potters, Jeff and Nancy Hilton, began the Upper Valley's version of Empty Bowls in 1996.  It was their idea to combine an art experience for novice artists with a fundraiser/soup supper.  The first  Empty Bowls happened in Carl and Sheila Bergren's garage and has evolved into an event that includes over 500 Upper Valley residents each year.

Check out photos from this year's festival!

Artist Bowls Gallery