SGA Funding Bill: Ceramics Empty Bowls

SECTION 1. TITLE.

This Act may be referred to as the JHU Ceramics x Empty Bowls Initiative Funding Bill.

SECTION 2. DEFINITIONS.

1. SGA — The term “SGA” shall refer to the Student Government Association of The Johns Hopkins University.
2. JHU, Hopkins — The terms “JHU” and “Hopkins” shall refer to the Johns Hopkins University.
3. CC — The term “CC” shall refer to the Ceramics Club.
4. SVDP — The term “SVDP” shall refer to St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore.

SECTION 3. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

1. This academic year (2026-27), JHU’s Common Question is “What is art?”JHU has made artistic engagement, and the building of artistic spaces, an institutional priority this year, as exemplified by the awarding of 22 Artistic Lens Awards of up to $15,000 each for JHU’s Sesquicentennial (its 150th anniversary).
2. Yet, as Hopkins seeks to “support ideas that engage the Hopkins community with artistic and creative offerings exploring the university’s past, present, and future”, the student artistic community remains fractured across and within campuses.Note only 1 of the 22 grant awardees was a student – at the School of Medicine.
3. Hands-on academic engagement with the arts (i.e. classes) is limited to the Center for Visual Arts on North Avenue. As a result, casual non-academic engagement with less conventional mediums can be especially difficult.
4. Though the new Bloomberg Student Center is a community hub by definition and design, the nascent space(s) dedicated to the making of art within it have not yet catalyzed the coming-together of existing student organizations in the visual, literary, performing, and other-media arts (e.g. fiber, jewelry, and ceramics).
5. JHU students working in the arts lack opportunities/spaces for interdisciplinary engagement with artists of other mediums, but also for civic engagement with the local community and for service, deploying the societal and cultural power of art.
6. For 20 years, SVDP has led a local instance of Empty Bowls in Baltimore,“a grassroots effort by artists and crafts people in cities and towns across the country and around the world to feed the hungry in their communities”.Through this initiative, ceramic artists, students, and community members make and donate handmade bowls, which are then used to serve meals and raise funds to fight food insecurity. As SVDP transitions away from the Initiative into a new Empty Bowls Campaign next year, CC has the opportunity to maintain and bring the Initiative to Homewood in spring 2027 in coordination with SVDP and CC’s partners including Baltimore Clayworks, The Potters Guild, and MICA Ceramics as well as SVDP’s local partners providing food and shelter (e.g. Beans & Bread).
7. This bill takes a first step towards bridging both of these gaps – in cross-medium exchange and civic engagement – by investing in permanent infrastructure and equipment to jumpstart the CC and a long-term arts culture on campus. This investment would be anchored by the Empty Bowls Initiative in partnership with SVDP, rooted in the Bloomberg Student Center, and supported by untapped interest in the handmade (ceramic!) arts as a uniting force for civic impact.

SECTION 4. FUNDING OF ITEMS

1. The total amount funded by SGA would be $4,691.00.
2. Additional supplies have been/will be purchased by Student Affairs.

SECTION 5. SEVERABILITY.

Should any provision of this Act, an amendment made by this Act, or the application of such provision or amendment to any person or circumstance be held to be unconstitutional or, the remainder of this Act, the amendments made by this Act, and the application of such provision or amendment to any person or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

NOTE: CC is a prospective student organization, and has not yet been approved (decision known after Nov. 20, 2026). Thus CC currently operates as an interest group under the umbrella of Student Affairs staff. Action items, second reading, and any event funding are, of course, contingent on approval by LEED. This first reading is simply being undertaken prior to approval, within the guidelines on pending organizations,in order to hit the ground running (if approved) as a provisional RSO in spring 2027.

SECTION 6. ACTION ITEMS.

1. To be done by Visual & Performing Arts RSO Senator before Nov. 21, 2026: Organize meeting with SVDP to discuss 2026 iteration of Empty Bowls Initiative.

The Bill is hereby ADOPTED/LOST by a vote of X to X with X abstentions.

Upon passage, we have hereunto set our hands and caused the seal of the Senate to be affixed to this bill indicating the Senate’s assent and thus officially designated the bill’s adoption as law.