PRESS RELEASE: The Pasta Dinner Returns! Hand-made Plates-to-Go Offered at Benefit for the Worcester Center for Crafts

 Worcester, MA – HAND OVER THE PLATES! The Worcester Center for Crafts announces its Pasta Dinner, on Saturday, March 2, 2019. The event was so successful, selling out its VIP tickets, that it has been expanded.

Plates right out of the Glaze Kiln!

The premise of the Pasta Dinner is simple: come for good food and good company and go home with a hand-crafted ceramic plate—all for a good cause. Pre-paid reservations are a must. A VIP Early Entrance ticket ($65) gives patrons the opportunity to enter at 5:30pm and get first choice of the handmade plates, festive appetizers and a libation. Regular admission commences at 6:15pm; tickets are $45 per person/plate and $10 per child/paper plate. Local Italian restaurant Ciao Bella is catering the dinner which will include pasta, sauce, meatballs and salad. Vegetarian and gluten-free options will be available. Beer and wine will be available for purchase. Tickets are available 24/7 online at www.tinyurl.com/WCCPASTA19 or by calling 508-753-8183, x 301, Tues-Fri, 10-5.

All diners have the opportunity to bid on a selection of food and craft-related items in the Center’s NOT SO SILENT AUCTION which will be displayed in the Lobby. Included in the Not So Silent Auction will be a Pasta-Making class at Volturno’s, 72 Shrewsbury Street in Worcester; 2-tickets to the Worcester Wine Festival happening in September, 2019 along with a generous gift certificate from Julio’s Liquors in Westborough; a private behind-the-scenes tour of the Ecotarium for six; a basketful of Swedish delights including a Kosta Boda crystal candleholder; a handwoven bag by internationally known Saori weaver, Mihoko Wakabayashi with a complimentary guest pass to a weaving lesson; and a surprise cooking experience with Chef Alina Eisenhauer in your home.

Community committee members working on the 2019 event include Birgit Straehle, Tina Zlody, Tracy Dill, Scott Erb, Donna Dufault, Honee Hess, Candace Casey, and Tom O’Malley.

Diners can expect the unexpected after dinner, including handmade desserts and, well, who knows?! Also available this evening is the last viewing of the Worcester Center for Crafts’ current exhibit, PORTRAITS IN MASCULINITY (Photography by Eric Nichols) which closes after dinner is done. These larger than life portraits might have you thinking someone is looking over your shoulder at your plate selection!

Dynamy Intern, Amanda, color coordinates her plate selection.

“The Pasta Dinner is a way that we can show off the Center’s great Ceramic talent while providing a good time for a good cause,” says Candace Casey, Director of the Krikorian Gallery and Gallery Store. “Plates from the Pasta Dinner become collectible and prized possessions by the people who attend.”

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PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: The process that creates all of the plates is very photogenic and lends itself to video as well. Plates are being made on the potters’ wheel (“thrown”) and hand-built. For both, the clay first is wedged and made suitable for throwing or shaping. A thrown plate begins with a lump of clay centered on the potters’ wheel which is then pulled into a plate shape. It is dried slightly and trimmed—at this point it is called greenware (see photo of greenware plates drying). Hand-built plates are shaped by hand, sometimes through pinching, sometimes by rolling out the clay much like rolling out a pie crust. Once shaped, it is dried and decorated. Both thrown plates and hand-built plates are put into an electric kiln and fired to bisque stage—hard but not impervious to water. It is at the bisque stage that glazes and slips are applied. The glazed plates are then placed in the kiln again, but this time at a higher temperature and the glaze fuses with the clay producing the final plate. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PHOTOGRAPH OR VIDEO THIS PROCESS, PLEASE CONTACT US.

(Photo by Erb Photography) Making Pasta Dinner Plates

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About the Worcester Center for Crafts:

The Worcester Center for Crafts (WCC) is one of the oldest non-profit institutions for craft study in the United States. Founded in 1856 as the Worcester Employment Society to help immigrant women produce and sell hand-crafted wares to support their families, the Center evolved over the past 155 years into New England's leading center for craft education, exhibition and entrepreneurship. In 2004, the organization expanded and opened the New Street Glass Studio - an off-campus, 8,000 square foot, state-of-the-art, multi-studio glass facility. The WCC offers the only comprehensive glass studio program in New England available to the public. Through an affiliation begun in 2009, the WCC is home to the Worcester State University visual arts studios and partners in community outreach.

The Craft Center's mission is "to inspire and build a creative community" by providing high-quality craft education and training, by supporting craft artists in their professions, and through advocacy and public education initiatives including adult education classes and workshops, exhibitions showcasing the work of established and emerging artists, artist residencies, lectures, family events, studio rentals, Gallery Store, its Youth Craft + Creativity program and major events. The WCC is a member of the Worcester Cultural Coalition and receives funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.