Ceramics – Office for the Arts at Harvard

Came here for clay all night with a couple of friends. Really great place to learn about pottery and used a wheel for the first time! The staff here really enjoy their job and do their best to have a good and responsible operation that is both educational and fun. The facilities a seem quite new and clean.

If you’re looking for a place to use raku kilns, soda kilns, reduction, and oxidation firings, you’re in luck. The Harvard Ceramics Program has great facilities. They also have a huge main studio area with lots of wheels (maybe 20 or so), an extruder, slab roller, and table space. Shelf space for those in classes is limited, but if you’re not working big, you can usually find a spot. They also make their own glazes in the studio, and if you’re advanced enough you can make some, too.
Why only 3 stars? This is a very difficult studio to come into if you’re experienced and want to get involved. There’s red tape to be able to use the studio outside of paying $ 840 per semester’s tuition. You pretty much have to take one of their classes until you can take the test to use the kiln and get approved for independent study (which still costs the same!). It’s a very busy studio with lots of rental space for serious artists, so they’re not doing any begging to get people involved. You do get free clay and a decent amount of free firings with the class, though. Bummer that you have to be enrolled in a workshop to use the soda kiln.
All that said, this place is great for the serious artist who wants to invest some time and $ into a studio. If you’re a Harvard student, this is the best deal out there, as classes cost next to nothing! But if you’re in the general public and you have lots of time to put into a studio, get ready to pay the big bucks because this is a great studio to be a part of. You can work almost all the time (though never on Sunday evenings) and you can get a lot out of your time there.
PS. no easy parking, but you can park on N Harvard St or on Western Ave and walk, it just seems a little sketchy at night time to walk through all the parked maintenance vehicles and the warehouse-​y area – never had any issues, though.