Soup Socials

In 2010, St. Catherine University launched the St. Kate’s Empty Bowls Project in response to the fantastic work of the larger National Empty Bowls Project that aimed to raise money and awareness for food insecurity. What has followed is eleven years of partnership between St. Kate’s Empty Bowls Project and Open Arms of Minnesota, which helps raise funds to deliver nutritious meals for their clients who live with chronic conditions and their caregivers and family members. All of which are made possible through our ceramic bowls. But what happens to all of those bowls after being made, glazed, and fired?

If you’ve never enjoyed attending one, allow me to introduce you to the St. Kate’s Soup Social and silent auction. Of course, after all of the excitement and hard work of the making and glazing events, you definitely wouldn’t want to miss out on this delicious event! On the day of the soup social, you turn up at the visual art building (perhaps with a few a couple of friends in tow) and make your way inside. You’ll be greeted by student volunteers who will help direct you to where you need to go. One short walk down the stairs to the ground floor and around the corner, you’ll find yourself standing in the large ceramics studio. Neatly laid out on multiple long tables are countless finished bowls handcrafted by students, faculty, and community members. Every bowl is unique in its color, shape, design, and intention of the maker. This studio is where attendees can select a bowl of their choosing in exchange for a donation which goes to Open Arms of Minnesota. It may seem a bit daunting with so many options, but once you start perusing, you’re sure to find something to your liking. With a bowl in hand and a happy feeling in your chest, it's time to make your way back upstairs to the first floor where you’ll be ushered into the lecture hall. Situated along the room's front wall is a table with large crockpots filled with hot, delicious soup waiting to be scooped into your newly acquired bowl. Once you’ve served yourself up some soup, you’re welcome to make your way into one of the two galleries located on the first floor, where you can take a seat and eat while surrounded by art and the company of others. 

Last month I had the opportunity to interview Nicole Watson, the Gallery Director at the Visual Art Building and Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, and Kim Roth, the previous art department technician. Nicole and I sat across from each other in her office that overlooked the lawn of the VAB and chatted for nearly an hour about the soup social. Since the summer of 2016, Nicole had played an integral part in the St. Kate’s Empty Bowls when ceramics professor Monica Rudquist came to her with the idea of finding a way to strengthen the connection between the soup socials and the art building. Together with Monica, the pair decided to begin hosting the soup socials in the art galleries. Prior to that, the soup socials had been held elsewhere on campus like the Rauenhorst Ballroom located in the Coeur de Catherine. This intentional switch aimed to allow students and staff to visit and interact with the exhibitions while also being in community. Building on that, Nicole expressed that the location switch was a tremendous opportunity to “invite community members to be a part of the VAB space, especially those who may have never stepped foot in [that space] before.” Accessibility, when it came to art and art-centered spaces on campus, was a recurring theme during our meeting.

Kim and I met via Google Meet, with her tuning in from her office at the University of Minnesota while I joined from the comfort of my home studio. As the previous art department technician for twelve years, Kim did many things, from taking care of equipment and ordering supplies to working with gallery directors and setting up gallery exhibitions. When it came to the soup socials, she worked to set up tables, heat crockpots of soup, direct attendees where to go, and overall help to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere. She also worked the “Art at St. Kates” art fair on campus over the summer months. A tent was set up for a small making event where visitors could stop by and make or decorate clay bowls that would later be carted back to the VAB and fired in the kiln. Kim recalled that it was a popular stop for families with young children. Throughout her twelve years of employment here, she admitted that her favorite part of the job was working with the other department members.

Although with the global pandemic, the last in-person soup social was held back in the fall of 2019. That happened to be the first of those events I’d attend as a freshman student. I was curious about Nicole and Kim's memories from that time (unbeknownst to any of us, what world-altering events would happen the following year). Nicole recalled with great joy, “I remember that every seat had someone in it. I was so happy that everyone could view the art. I took it for granted, how special it was that so many people attended. It felt very gratifying to be together with everyone in that way.” She continued to describe the “wonderful buzz of activity [and] hum of conversation.” It was indeed a space for community members, whether inside or outside campus, to come together and enjoy the company of others over hot bowls of soup and friendly chatter. As an art major, I think hosting the soup socials in the VAB is an excellent way to, as Nicole mentioned, welcome a broader audience to the space. Funnily enough, both Nicole and Kim shared the same memory of the sometimes hectic nature of preparing for a soup social. Preparations for the event would start around 8 am, and they’d need to begin heating the soups, but there was often an issue with keeping the soup hot enough in the crockpots (they didn’t have industrial ones). There would be multiple crockpots littered around the lecture hall as the number of pots overwhelmed the number of available outlets, and as a result, there would be blown fuses because of the number of pots plugged in. It was a hectic but funny situation of frantically switching between crockpots whenever they ran out of soup. 

And as the St. Kate’s Empty Bowl project celebrates its 11th anniversary this year, there is much anticipation about how the project will continue to grow in the coming years. Nicole hopes that the project and soup socials will grow and evolve in various ways. Monica’s spring Global Search for Justice class has been putting in a lot of work towards the two projects, which is the first time Empty Bowls has been included in a GSJ course. The students get the opportunity to participate in and shape the making and glazing events and the soup socials. Their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed in facilitating making/glazing events, ice cream social preparations, spreading the word about the project, writing articles, and creating a brand new website. This was indeed a valuable experience for the class in Nicole’s eyes. Kim believed that the students who do the work in class reap the benefits from the projects and “can see how their work and commitment help benefit a greater community.” Some things that we hope stay constant no matter how the St. Kate’s Empty Bowls project evolves are the commitment to serving the clients of Open Arms, engaging the campus community in service-learning, creating accessible art-making spaces, and continued practice of our mission of caring for the dear neighbor as well as social justice.