Giving Rye is a feature series highlighting non-profits and community groups in and around the City of Rye. Today meet Emily Peck of the Clay Arts Center.
Your Name: Emily Peck
Name of your organization: Clay Art Center
Your role: Executive Director
MyRye.com: Tell us your organization’s mission
Peck: Clay Art Center is dedicated to education, creativity, and community engagement through clay by providing an inclusive space for learning, studio practice, exhibitions, personal growth and professional development in ceramic arts.
How long have you operated in or around Rye?
Peck: Clay Art Center was founded in Port Chester in 1957 as a communal studio for ceramic artists. Since then we have expanded to provide classes for adults and youth, exhibitions, a shop, and artist residency program. In 2007, Clay Art Center became a non-profit to better serve the community through classes and workshops for local schools and community organizations.
What programming or work is the organization best known for?
Peck: Clay Art Center is best known for our ceramics classes, exhibitions, shop, artist studios, and community programming.
- Our popular classes for adults and youth in wheel-throwing and hand building functional and sculptural ceramics
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- We offer classes for students of all ages and ability levels, from one-time classes for families to weekly classes for beginners to advanced adult students.
- We showcase 11 free gallery exhibitions and Shop Features throughout the year
- Our gallery exhibitions range from juried shows of salt and pepper shakers to solo exhibitions of sculptural ceramics.
- We are committed to exhibiting a variety of work from artists around the country with unique and diverse backgrounds, as well showcasing our Clay Art Center artists and students.
- We present a permanent collection of pots from our founder Katherine Choy
- Community Arts outreach programming has a lasting impact locally and regionally by putting clay into the hands of those who need it most.
- We develop meaningful programs that bring the power of ceramic arts to individuals who may not otherwise have access, collaborating with organizations to offer clay as a tool for healing, self-expression, and enrichment.
- We partner with schools, assisted living facilities, social service organizations, and community groups in Port Chester, Westchester County, and beyond.
- We offer over 1,000 scholarships to youth and adults annually
Looking forward to 2026, what will be your top initiatives?
Peck: In 2025, Clay Art Center is excited to continue providing opportunities for the local community to be creative and engage with clay.
- We have an upcoming exhibition of our historic ceramic collection, which features examples of work by many significant mid-century potters.
- The exhibition will raise awareness about the impact of Clay Art Center on the national development of ceramic art.
- Our biennial Empty Bowls fundraiser will raise both money and awareness in the fight to end hunger.
- For more than 20 years Clay Art Center has mobilized hundreds of community members and artists to create thousands of handmade ceramic bowls.
- Together with Rye Presbyterian Church and a host of volunteers, we have raised over $80,000 for non-profits in Port Chester in the fight to end hunger in Westchester County.
- We continue to expand our grant- and donation-funded community arts programming to provide programming to local schools and community groups.
- We offer free after school classes for Port Chester public school students, classes at local senior centers, and programs in partnership with other local organizations, including Don Bosco Community Center, SPARC, and Cancer Support Community Greater NY & CT.
- We are launching a program funded by the NEA’s Creative Forces program to develop clay programs to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military service members, veterans, their families, and caregivers.
Tell us about the population you serve and how they can get involved with your programming and services.
Peck: There are so many ways for our local community to get involved with Clay Art Center from taking a class, taking a tour, volunteering, attending an exhibition or Opening Reception, attending one of our community events, visiting our shop….and so much more! Our story has been evolving for over 65 years and we continue to be a part of the Port Chester community and history. If you are looking for something to do with family, friends, or visitors, we have plenty to offer!
Are you a 501(c)(3) non-profit with tax exempt status?
Peck: Yes, we have been a non-profit since 2007 and are proud to bring arts education and access to Port Chester, Westchester County, and beyond.
Looking back across 2025, what were your organization’s top achievements?
Peck: We made a 20% increase in free afterschool clay classes in Port Chester — reaching more students and strengthening our community’s access to enrichment.
- 3,269 adults and 1,722 youth students engaged with clay through hands-on classes and workshops at Clay Art Center, with plans to expand that reach even further with the development of new classroom space.
- 1,153 scholarships were awarded to students of all ages in afterschool, summer camp, and adult programs.
How can local residents support your organization?
Peck: You can support Clay Art Center by taking classes, visiting exhibitions, and shopping. Financial donations allow us to increase our free programming for the Port Chester schools, community programs for local non-profits, artist residencies for emerging artists, and exhibitions that are free to the public. Volunteers can help us at events and exhibition openings. Information about our programs, donations, and volunteer opportunities is on our website.
What local Rye residents and area businesses have been the longest, steadiest supporters of your organization?
Peck: Robin Henschel has been a longtime Clay Art Center artist, teacher, and exhibitor in our shop. Robin lives in Rye and is inspired by ancient myths and medieval manuscript marginalia. Visit Clay Art Center to see Robin’s studio and bring home one of her creative sculptures or imaginative mugs.
Reena Kashyap, a former Rye resident, is responsible for expanding Clay Art Center into a non-profit and initiating the artist in residence program for emerging artists and the community arts program. You can purchase one of Reena’s innovative Shino mugs, bowls, and more in the shop.
Tell us about you:
How long have you been in your current role?
Peck: I started as Executive Director at Clay Art Center in 2019 and am excited to begin my sixth year at Clay Art Center. Clay Art Center is a vibrant arts center bursting at the seams with activity. It is fun to walk into a classroom and see students from Port Chester High School processing clay they dug up at Edith G. Read, while an artist loads a kiln with artwork for an upcoming exhibition, and a senior group tours our recent gallery exhibition. There is always something creative happening here!
Is the role full time or part time? Paid or volunteer?
Peck: This is a full-time paid position.
How would your friends and family describe you in one word?
Peck: Innovative
Where did you grow up?
Peck: My passion for the arts started as a kid in Rye. I was inspired by the many creative arts teachers that I was lucky to have at Midland School, Rye Middle and High School.
What principles guide you when you have to make a difficult decision?
Peck: I started my leadership journey at Clay Art Center just before the pandemic. From that experience, I learned that there is always another solution so I just need to take a deep breath and be creative.
Can you share a time when failure taught you more than success ever could?
Peck: Potters know that you need to expect failure. A piece can crack while drying, a glaze can run, or something won’t turn out like you expected. However, sometimes the glaze that didn’t turn out like you expected gives you an idea for how to achieve a different effect or a cracked piece lets you try out a new idea. I try to take these lessons into the office and be prepared to go with the flow and expect mistakes and learn from them.
What excites you most about the future—for yourself or for the world?
Peck: I am excited for the future of Clay Art Center as we are in the early stages of planning for an expansion which will allow us to increase our classes, community programming, exhibitions, and artist spaces. As one of the only non-profit visual arts organizations in Port Chester, we are excited to grow alongside this community.
Thanks Emily!
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