There aren’t many opportunities to eat a delicious meal and then go home with a beautiful piece of pottery.

Orcas High School Senior Luke Bronn has organized a fundraiser featuring local soup in hand-thrown, hand-glazed bowls he created over the past year. All proceeds from the meal will go to the public school art program.

“I have grown up in the arts program, and I am planning to be a math or art teacher,” said Bronn. “For my senior paper, I wrote about why art programs need to be saved from budget cuts, so that was the inspiration for this.”

The “Bowls for the Arts” soup dinner is on Friday, May 5 from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Madrona Room of Orcas Center following the Orcas School student art show. After dinner, guests can bid by table for delectable sweet treats during a dessert dash. At the end of the night, guests will get to take their bowls home.

Tickets are $45 and only 75 will be sold. Tickets are available at Crow Valley Gallery in Eastsound.

Bronn is hoping to make $5,000 for the school. An anonymous donor from the Orcas Island Education Foundation will match all funds raised at the dinner.

All of the soup, bread, salad and desserts have been donated by Mijitas, The Kitchen, New Leaf Café, Enzo’s, Deer Harbor Inn, Rose’s, Inn at Ship Bay, Clever Cow, Teezer’s, Catkin Café, Brown Bear, Red Rabbit Farm, Rosario, and a handful of special guest dessert chefs.

“It’s become a community effort, and it has been super fun to connect with all the restaurants, chefs and organizations,” said Bronn.

Bronn accompanied his mom to a pottery class 10 years ago when he was 8 and was instantly hooked. He received lessons from Right Place Pottery until he was 13 and since then has taken private lessons from artists at Orcas Island Pottery. He has a studio at his house where he makes bowls, mugs, vases, pitchers, teapots, dinner and pie plates. In addition to pottery, Bronn paints, does woodworking and paper crafts and makes jewelry. In the fall, he will be attending Whitworth in Spokane, majoring in art with an emphasis on pottery, sculpture and glass.

“Art is a way to escape and express myself. I’ve been doing it all my life and in all my spare time,” said Bronn.

Student art show

Kindergarteners through Senior High students will be inspiring the community with their creativity during the student art show.

“Our goal is to show one piece of art from every student on Orcas Island,” said Geri Turnoy, coordinator of the A*OK Art for Orcas Kids Program. “We have invited all the schools on Orcas to participate, and home schoolers too.”

The show will hang at the Orcas Center for the month of May. The opening reception will be Friday, May 5 from 3 to 6 p.m. and includes performances by student musicians and actors.