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Class of 2024 Menlo-Atherton High School alum Peter Koren, 18, and the school’s ceramics teacher, Rika Hirata, have paired up to host summer pottery workshops for the community.
Koren was inspired to start Menlo-Atherton Pottery Workshops, a private business, with the help of Hirata, who was his high school ceramics teacher. The business aims to provide the community with short-term workshops for beginners to try out pottery.
During Koren’s junior year, he took Hirata’s class and despite not being an artistic person, he really enjoyed ceramics. Koren found the art form as a “way to to relax” and a “good social medium” for talking with friends during class.
“I was thinking that there’d be people in the community who either are artistic or aren’t artistic but were curious, in ceramics, and would be interested in doing something like this workshop,” said Koren.
When Koren was 8 years old his mother hired his elementary school art teacher to hold lessons for him and his siblings in their garage. They would work on art pieces every day. This was one of the key childhood memories that sparked Koren’s business idea for a pottery workshop.
While always thinking about doing something like a workshop, Hirata said she always pushed it off. It wasn’t until Koren came up with the idea that she realized this could work.
“Initially, I was a little skeptical,” said Hirata when Koren pitched his business idea. “But Peter has really good ideas and he has a vision.”
She began to think, “what happens to you when you become an adult, and you don’t have time to learn these things?” Hirata felt inspired by the idea of a workshop that provides the community with a learning experience without any long-term commitments.
Peter Koren and Rika Hirata glazing plates in Menlo-Atherton’s ceramics classroom. Photo by Jennifer Yoshikoshi. 
Partners Nate, left, and Kyuhee Voorhies took Rika Hirata’s ceramics workshop together at Menlo-Atherton High School on July 24, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Kyuhee Voorhies makes a bowl in Rika Hirata’s ceramics workshop at Menlo-Atherton High School on July 24, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Kyuhee Voorhies makes a vase in Rika Hirata’s ceramics workshop at Menlo-Atherton High School on July 24, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Nate Voorhies works on the bottoms of a bowl in Rika Hirata’s ceramics workshop at Menlo-Atherton High School on July 24, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Rika Hirata, left, helps Kyuhee Voorhies, right, during ceramics workshop at M-A High School on July 24, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
“We’re giving people the option to pay less money for a short period of time, so they can just try out ceramics, so it’s not so daunting and such a big commitment if you’re just a beginner,” added Koren.
Prior to holding workshops for the community, Koren and Hirata hosted two classes that fundraised for the Menlo-Atherton High School Foundation for the Future. They received positive feedback from the community and this served as the launching pad for the summer workshops.
Hirata is impressed with how her former student has taken up teaching others. Koren said that he uses the same style and teaching format as Hirata and feels that teaching others comes easily to him.
“You can learn a lot when you have to teach someone else the same information and I think Peter has been really good at being able to take that information and say ‘hey, this worked for me’ and he’s been good at figuring that out,” said Hirata.
The duo have hosted three-day wheel throwing workshops and one-day classes making plant implant dishes and mugs. One-day workshops are priced at $85 per person and three-day wheel workshops are $350 per person. They set prices lower than workshops in the area.
Most of the classes have already sold out but openings are still available for the windchimes workshop on Aug. 3 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. A new family pottery workshop has also been added for Aug. 4 from 10 a.m.-noon. Family workshops are priced at $85 per adult and $70 per child 12 years and under. Classes are held in the ceramics room on M-A’s campus.
Future plans for more workshops will be on hold until next summer as Koren will be leaving to attend Amherst College to play lacrosse in the fall.
“I’ve really enjoyed working with Peter. He’s got a really great work ethic, he’s a hard worker, he is really good at communicating and we’ve worked together pretty well,” Hirata said.
Sign up for workshops online at tinyurl.com/m-apottery or email mapotteryworkshops@gmail.com for more information.
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