Becky Vandermalle, a potter, moved to Oregon from the East Coast four years ago, but it took another two for her to discover a place to re-indulge her longtime hobby – the Willamette Art Center.

“I hadn’t really found anywhere to work until I found this place,” said Vandermalle as she readied her latest project, a birdhouse, for the kiln. “They’ve got great people, great kilns and it’s just a great space.”

While Willamette Art Center (WAC) has been one of the area’s best-kept secrets for amateur and professional potters, officials have been planning an expansion of its services into a whole new medium – glass blowing.

Karl Knudson, WAC’s executive director has been putting in time behind the furnaces prepping for the first glass blowing classes slated to begin in April.

“It’s been great to start working in a new medium, because I quickly found out how many of the skills I learned doing pottery were applicable to glass blowing,” Knudson said.

Knudson’s eagerness to jumpstart the program is tangible. He spends every spare minute honing his glass blowing skills and his excitement is carried in his voice as he discusses the pieces that came together to make the expansion possible, and what it means for the Salem arts community.

The new glass blowing furnaces and equipment were paid for with a combination of funds from a grant by Meyer Memorial Trust and tourism money WAC qualified for through the City of Salem.

“It’s going to be Salem’s first and only glass blowing program,” said Knudson.

Chemeketa Community College has a glass working program, but it does not include glass blowing. WAC is starting its glass blowing curriculum with two beginning and two intermediate classes this spring.

While the glass program has WAC buzzing, it’s been host to a wide variety of pottery programs and events for years.

Instructors like Knudson and WAC President Karin Putnam spend much of their time passing on the knowledge they’ve learned over the course of a lifetime.

One specialty is raku pottery, a Japanese form that Putnam described “instant gratification.”

“You build it, and it can be baked in about 30 minutes,” Putnam said.

The resulting pieces are meant mostly for decoration and only withstand light use. Raku is unique because the pieces are fired in raku ovens and then put into metal cans filled with newspaper, twigs and other combustible materials to finish the work.

“Raku originated as a way to produce unique serving sets for Japanese tea ceremonies. The pieces are fired specifically for the single ceremony and then discarded or enter into collections,” Putnam said.

WAC instructors offer classes in traditional handbuilding and wheel throwing techniques as well.

“The important thing people should remember is that no previous experience is required,” said Putnam.

Doug Dacar, a local potter with many pieces in the Mary Lou Zeek gallery in downtown Salem, teaches WAC’s sampler class, an eight-week survey of clay work from handbuilding to wheel throwing along with firing and glazing.

“We make everything including bowls, plates, cups tiles and plaques,” said Dacar, who also teaches the Center’s garden art workshop.

A perennial favorite at WAC is Family Clay Sunday. For $10, a family of four can work on special projects each week between 1-4 p.m. Animal rattles, picture frames, luminaries, coil vases and boxes are just a few of the projects slated for Family Clay Sunday in April and May. Projects are fired after they dry and may either be picked up and painted at home or families can return for Glaze Day to finish the project with supplies in the studio.

For those with more experience in the medium, WAC offers monthly studio passes for independent work and access to kilns.

With so many points of access, Knudson takes a great pride in WAC’s efforts to reach out to the community – raising about $300,000 for other organizations, such as the Marion-Polk Food Share – and in growing local talent.

“We’re kind of unique that way, almost every instructor has come through the center as a student at one point or another. To watch people blossom like that gives us a real sense of accomplishment,” he said.

For more information about Willamette Art Center programs, visit willametteartcenter.com, or call 503-365-3911.