FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas — The Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Arts and Crafts Studio hosted a free fall welcome event Aug. 22, 2025, to celebrate addition of a pottery/ceramic studio and highlight some of the other Arts and Crafts offerings.
Beth Forrey, Arts and Crafts Studio director, said many patrons have requested a pottery option.
“I very quickly saw the demand for it, and I said, it is time — we need to add a pottery and ceramic studio,” she said. “We have a beautiful new kiln and four beautiful wheels, and we’re here to offer this to our community and hopefully serve them the way they need us to be here for them.”
Patrons can buy pre-made ceramic items, paint them, and then pick them up after kiln firing. Wheel-throwing and hand-building classes are also offered, as well as studio time for patrons wishing to work with clay on their own.
Forrey said in addition to showcasing the new pottery and ceramic studio, the fall welcome event was intended to let the community know about all of the center’s offerings.
“We wanted our new (Command and General Staff Officer Course) class and community that have come in for this school year to know what they have as resources,” she said, noting that sometimes the CGSC students’ first introduction to Arts and Crafts is at the end of the year when they are getting their diplomas framed. “We’re trying to inform and enlighten our community at the beginning of the school year.”
Fall welcome event attendee 12-year-old Elizabeth Naramore painted a picture of a sunflower, painted a pre-made ceramic flower shape to be fired in the kiln and picked up later, and made bracelets and necklaces out of beads. She said she was somewhat familiar with the offerings of the Arts and Crafts Studio, having taken a “Hello, Sunshine” doormat-making class with her mother, Rachel Naramore, and some of her mother’s friends.
“I love art, and I have a whole art area in our basement at my house,” she said. “I like to paint. I really like sketching, too — that’s usually what I do. I love flowers, and I like drawing people, and I love drawing eyeballs for some reason.”
Elizabeth said she enjoys drawing detailed images, and she wants to try to draw even more realistically for her next art project.
She said when she creates something exciting, she sometimes shares pictures.
“I think I’d share if I really, really did something that, like, ‘Whoa, I did not know I could do that.’ Then that’s usually what I share with my friends and my family members and stuff that really interests me,” she said.
Forrey said the frame studio and engraving services are Arts and Crafts’ most in-demand offerings. Throughout each month, the Arts and Crafts Studio offers a variety of classes in watercolor, calligraphy, framing and crafts — making things like the birthday calendar board offered Sept. 16 and 26 — and various programs for children, including art history for ages 7 and older and Color Me Happy for parents and toddlers. Multi-craft, painting, framing and pottery/ceramic open-studio options are available as well, with all supplies available and an hourly fee charged.
“We really want art to be present in our community because we know that art brings a lot to our lives,” Forrey said. “It brings a lot of resiliency into our lives where we can express ourselves and find peace inside, because life is messy sometimes and we have all these ups and downs, but if we can have a place of refuge to come and create and express ourselves, that’s a big contributing factor to our community and a big need for all humans. And that’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to offer wonderful things to our community to help us be a good community together.”
Arts and Crafts Studio class calendars are published in the Post Notes section of the Lamp each week and are also posted at https://leavenworth.armymwr.com/programs/arts-and-crafts-center. For more information or to sign up for a class, stop by 310 McPherson Ave. in the Old U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, call 913-684-3372 or e-mail artsandcraftsfortleavenworth@gmail.com.
