Explore. Create. Connect.

10:00am - 1:00pm in the Wonder Garden

Class size is limited; please register in advance

Stone can be an astonishing element in a coastal garden. Akin to a well-pruned tree or an alluring planting, it has the power to evoke feelings, create atmosphere, quiet the mind.

Used poorly, stone can be distracting — even nonsensical — as when boulders erupt without context in front yards. (Yes, what IS that about!). But used with intention, stone can unlock the imagination and transform even the smallest outdoor space. “I want stones to feel settled,” says garden designer Jacob Knapp, “and discovered passively, as part of a composition. Their beauty and presence are best when subdued”.

In his workshop, The Art of Placing Stone, Jacob Knapp will celebrate the many facets of stone itself and ways in which to integrate into a garden. Drawing on a career steeped in the principles and philosophies of Japanese gardening, Jacob’s approach to choosing, designing and placing stone is suffused with respect and enormous care. “Stone carries a deep sense of geological history', he says, symbolizing resilience and permanence. Each stone has a face, a top, a root and often a direction that speaks to its placement and effect”.

Jacob’s class begins with a lecture inside the Hoffman Center, then moves to the Wonder Garden for the heart of the workshop: learning to place and set stone. We’ve arranged with him to bring two considerable stones for installation, giving participants a chance to apply a range of on-site experiences, particularly one close to the instructor’s heart: safety. “Safety for us gardeners when handling stone is number one,” he says, “but safety for the stone itself is a close second!”

If you love rock but at a loss how to effectively use it, this class is for you!

Scholarships available https://www.hoffmanarts.org/scholarships

About the instructor:

Formerly senior gardener at the Portland Japanese Garden, Jacob Knapp is the owner of Pacific Pruning LLC. In his work, he blends technical horticultural expertise with a design approach rooted in observation, nature and spatial restraint. He can be reached at pacificpruningllc@gmail.com.

Sunday, October 4th

2:00PM - 5:00PM

OFFERING A 20% DISCOUNT!! USE CODE CLAY20 DURING CHECKOUT

Learn to make and use texture stamps and sprig molds out of clay. Create your personal maker’s mark!

Artist Brad Menninga will demonstrate how he makes and uses stamps and molds in his own work. Students will make their own stamps and molds, play with some of Brad's texture tools, and use objects found nearby to texture clay. Students are encouraged to bring seashells, pinecones, or other objects they want to use for texture.

Your creations will be bisque fired and can be picked up 2 - 3 weeks after the class. Shipping can be arranged if necessary; shipping costs are the responsibility of the student.

Instruction, materials and firing included.

Open to ages 16+

Scholarships available https://www.hoffmanarts.org/scholarships

About the instructor: Brad Menninga received his BA in politics from Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio) in 1992 and his MFA from California College of the Arts (San Francisco) in 2010. He has published with Ceramic Arts Daily and Pottery Making Illustrated, and facilitated activist art-making workshops through the Portland, Oregon, chapters of Jobs with Justice and Art and Revolution. Menninga has created solo installations at the Mall of America in Minnesota and at the 2019 National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts Conference (St. Paul, Minnesota). He is the recipient of a 2020 Minnesota Artist Initiative Grant and 2020 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Ceramic Artists. Brad is currently the Ceramics Instructor at Clatsop Community College in Astoria, Oregon.

Website

October 7th - October 21st

6:00pm - 8:30pm

Week 1: Wednesday, October 7; Thursday October 8

Week 2: Wednesday, October 14; Thursday October 15

Week 3: Wednesday, October 22

Instruction, materials, and firings included

The natural world around us is constantly creating objects to be admired. From the smallest pebble to the largest mountain, we could stand in awe of their inherent perfection and effortless beauty. 

As the weather cools and our lives slow down, let us take time to closely examine a natural object and, with our own hands, play at capturing what it is we see and feel.

The Hoffman Center Clay Studio is hosting a contemplative ceramic workshop led by Brooke Hua two nights a week for three consecutive weeks. These cozy gatherings will be a place to unwind and enjoy manipulating clay to uncover its potential to become something else... perhaps a mushroom, a pinecone, something washed ashore... think about what delights you in the natural world. 

Please bring an inspiring object or objects that fit inside an imaginary 6”x 6”x 6”x 6” box.

The first week will provide time for working with the clay in its wet and leather hard phases. The following week will be set aside for applying color to the bisque-fired surface. The final week we will be creating unique displays of your finished work. 

No experience required - we welcome you to Explore, Create, Connect

Scholarships available https://www.hoffmanarts.org/scholarships‍ ‍

Open to adults 18+

About the instructor: Brooke is excited to share her love of creativity and discovery with the students of the Hoffman Center for the Arts. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Ceramics and a minor in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee where she studied under Deborah Rael-Buckley, Christopher Davis-Benavides and Karen Gunderman. There she focused on large ceramic sculpture and wheel-thrown porcelain.

In 2015, Brooke and her husband moved to Nehalem from Portland. She delighted in being the Librarian at the North Tillamook Library in Manzanita before embarking on the adventure of motherhood. 

Brooke enjoys spending time with her family, climbing coastal mountains, and experiencing peacefulness.

Saturday, October 10, 2026
5:00-6:30pm
HCA Main Room

Manzanita Writers Series presents with free admission supported by a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation

Please register in advance; walk-ins welcome as space allows

Join us for a riveting reading and Q&A discussion with Emma Pattee, climate journalist and fiction author of the debut novel TILT.

Set over the course of a single day, Tilt follows Annie’s intense journey through a transformed cityscape of Portland, OR, after a devastating earthquake strikes while she is shopping for a crib for her soon-to-arrive baby. Alternating between Annie’s present-day experience and her past, Tilt delivers themes of crisis and survival, identity and motherhood, and human kindness amidst desperation.

Thank you to our local collaborators:
Cloud & Leaf Bookstore will have copies of TILT available for sale.
EVCNB will be on site with local disaster-preparedness information.

Recognition for Tilt

“A moving adrenaline rush that also manages to be very funny."
New York Times Book Review

“The storytelling in Tilt is brisk [and] as funny as a novel about humanity at its worst can be… Pattee’s ambivalence about human goodness is a powerful thing; it calls into question the assumptions we make about ourselves.”
The Washington Post

"Pattee takes the novel’s elements — the apocalyptic setting, the cutting social observation, the acerbic takes on marriage and motherhood — and shakes them into a potent cocktail."
New York Times

"Propulsive."
The New Yorker

About the Author
Emma Pattee is a climate journalist and fiction writer. She has written about climate change for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and more.

In 2021, she coined the term “Climate Shadow” to describe an individual’s potential impact on climate change. Her fiction has appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, Idaho Review,New Orleans Review, Carve Magazine, Citron Review, and Alaska Quarterly Review.

Her debut novelTILT is a national bestseller, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Fiction, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, named one of Time’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2025, an NPR favorite fiction read of 2025, and named by NPR, Time, Vogue and Bustle as a best book of the year.