A conversation with Brook Johnson about the new pottery studio at Depot Hill Creative and the community he hopes will grow there.
By Kara Kasten-Olson, Director of Depot Hill Creative
Brook Johnson once went looking for more room for pottery and ended up owning a bar.
“It’s like finding a bar in your couch cushions,” he says. “It just happened to be there.”
The Old Firehouse Lounge was an unexpected addition to a life already full of clay, chocolate and things to teach people about. The search for pottery space continued.
Now, at Depot Hill Creative, he’s helping create a dedicated community studio. The plans include classes for different experience levels and memberships with round-the-clock access, giving people more ways to make pottery part of their lives.
Pottery, chocolate, LEGO robotics. What connects all those things for you?
I’ve always been interested in teaching people about the things I like. I learned a lot about pottery and ended up wanting to teach it. I learned about LEGO and ended up teaching that, too.
The chocolate started because I loved it. Once I had a storefront, I could get a wholesale account, so I ordered some of my favorite bars and put them in a tiny corner of a shelf. I’d tasted them, I could tell people about them, and I started running little chocolate-tasting classes. By the end of 2017, that little area was outselling everything else in the shop.
I throw things I like against the wall, and if they stick and people gather around, I do more of them. The problem is that I run out of space.
You’ve been making pottery since you were young. What helped you stick with it?
My school had a pretty robust art program. In high school, the pottery studio got its own room in the basement, so we didn’t have to clean everything up for a drawing class the next period. My teacher created a class for me before school so I could come in and use the studio.
I studied biology in college, but I spent a lot of time in the art building. I took pottery and did independent work. When I graduated, my dad gave me a pottery wheel.
Over the years, I’ve had a studio in a shed, a garage, a basement and a warehouse. Eventually, I bought the building in Stoughton because I wanted a teaching studio where I could reach more people.
What made Depot Hill feel like the right next step?
Kara came around to the arts businesses when she first started at Depot Hill, asking what we did and how we might collaborate. Later, she asked me to look at the building on Sixth Street as a possible pottery studio.
What appealed to me was the chance to help create a dedicated community space. There are resources behind it that let us do things I couldn’t do in my own shop. Pottery can have its own space to breathe and grow.
The vision is to give back to the community through teaching. I want it to be a place where people get personal attention, where we can bring in other teachers and make use of their different skills. I also want those teachers to be paid for their experience and expertise.
The hope is that people start to feel this is their place to make things, too.
What would you say to someone who has never tried pottery?
You can make something functional in your first class. What takes practice is making it look like the thing you pictured. That’s what surprises people: it can be harder than it looks and more accessible than they expected, at the same time.
Handbuilding gives you so many possibilities. You’re shaping the clay by hand rather than using a wheel, and you can make a bowl to eat your cereal out of, a vase, an incense holder or a little garden gnome. There’s a wide variety of things you can make and use.
With the wheel, I tell people to make the same shape 20 times. But depending on who you are, it’s plus or minus 19.
How do you help people who are at different stages?
You meet people wherever they are. I’d prefer a mix of experience levels in a class. With eight wheels in the new studio, I can spend more hands-on time with beginners while observing and helping people who are further along.
Sometimes finding what works takes a few tries. I had a student who was really determined to learn the wheel. The first three ways I thought would help didn’t work. By the fifth class, I thought we weren’t going to get what he wanted. Then he succeeded. He really wanted to do it, and it was his determination that got him there.
Even when you have experience, you can still use instruction. But once people reach a certain level, they often stop asking for it. I’m hopeful this space will make it easier to ask without feeling self-conscious.
And if someone wants to keep making between classes?
The plan is for memberships to begin in January, with 24-hour studio access. Members would be able to come in and practice without having to fit their time around a class or an instructor’s schedule.
That’s a big change from my current space, where membership has been full for five years. I’ve had people take a class and want to continue, but I haven’t had room for them.
I’m also planning weekly office hours, listed on a calendar members can see. If you want to ask me something or get help with what you’re working on, you’ll know when I’ll be there. We haven’t set those hours yet.
I want people to have room to work independently and a way to get help when they need it.
Come see the new studio
Visit the pottery studio at 209 S. 6th St. during Depot Hill Creative’s Grand Opening on November 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free.