Greenwich House Pottery — Attraction in New York

GHP is my favorite pottery studio in NYC. I’ve been coming here at least twice a week for almost 3 years now, and will continue for as long as I’m in the area (or as long as I get lucky with registration 🙂).

The staff are all excellent, and the community is really wonderful. I’ve met people who have been “students” for over 10 years.

The pottery offers wheel throwing, hand building, and slip casting, among some other classes, but the wheel throwing and hand building are definitely the focus. For wheel throwing, I think there are roughly 30 pottery wheels in the building, split across 2 studios.

GHP is over 100 years old, which, in addition to the fascinating history, means they have access to grandfathered Cone 10 gas firing kilns (not allowed in new studios). There is only 1 other studio in Manhattan that has a Cone 10 kiln.

You will need to be a member of a semester long class in order to use the studio — there are no studio-only membership options. Though they have started offering “Sunday Samplers” which is probably the way to go for most beginners interested in trying things out.

The only catch — the semester-long classes are extremely competitive to get in to. There’s no preference for previous students, and it’s not uncommon that every class sells out within minutes of registration opening.

But if you can get in, this is the best studio in NYC and I can’t...

Nice instructors but good luck getting your pieces fired or even finding them in the end. Every class I’ve taken has resulted in missing (or stolen?) work which btw you PAY in advance to be fired and then end up with nothing?? Additionally the place seems highly disorganized—- maybe they need a new system? I believe part of the problem is that many ‘students’ sign up for classes just to use the studio as their professional workspace and put hundreds of pieces through the firing process which burdens the system and makes it difficult for regular students to get their work fired (how are you supposed to learn???). Open studio should not be $10 a day ($25 seems to make more sense to me). They should either have less students or limit the number of pieces you can fire in a semester. I don’t think I’ll be taking classes...

What a wonderful experience at Greenwich House Pottery! I just completed a 12-week beginner wheel course taught by the amazing Taylor Stone. I learned so much, and felt so comfortable in this class. Wheel basics, centering clay, proper tool use, handle making, lid making, slips and glazing -- plus so much more! I am definitely signing up for...