Empty Bowls Collection

The Empty Bowls Collection documents the Opelika-Auburn Empty Bowls fundraiser, a community effort in which local potters, chiefly the Rocky Brook Potters based at Opelika's Denson Drive Recreation Center, craft handmade bowls sold to benefit the Food Bank of East Alabama. Begun in 2014 and alternating each year between Opelika and Auburn, the event has raised close to $100,000 for the food bank. The collection comprises event ephemera and local news coverage from the 2025 and 2026 cycles: a color flyer and a promotional handbill for the "12 Days of Christmas" and "12 Days of Giving" pottery sales at the Denson Drive Recreation Center, and two clippings from The Observer by Ann Cipperly covering the holiday sale and the 2026 preview party. Materials name organizers and artists including event chairman Kitty Greene, pottery director Richard Talbot, and members of the Rocky Brook Potters.