Explore. Create. Connect.

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.

Second Sunday of every month, 2 to 4pm

Free and open to the public. All levels welcome.

Need a focused space to write?
Join us for Free Write - a relaxed, quiet place to come together to write.
Writers may bring an on-going project to work on or explore something new using any of the available prompts in the Writing Room.

Enjoy time well spent writing in the company of fellow writers with free tea provided!

Hosted by Marcia Silver

Hoffman Center classes and events are often photographed or filmed, and we love sharing those moments on our social media, website, and newsletter so people can get a feel for what it's like to create and connect here. By registering, you agree to be included in images of the event you have registered for. If you would prefer not to appear in images, please tell a staff member when you arrive.