Thank you for those who have participated in our May drive, which donated $500 to Solid Ground and $100 to Northwest Harvest in support of nutrition and housing programs in the Pacific Northwest.

We are doing another drive of Timea’s work on Friday, June 12th to benefit organizations doing critical work for racial justice and equity. We will be dividing up the 100% of all sales among
ACLU, Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County, Black Women's Health Imperative, Color of Change, The Innocence Project, The Loveland Foundation, and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

You can support the cause by following our Instagram page, where the available artworks will be posted 12-2PM, PT.

I need to acknowledge the times we are living through.
Each of us individually, our communities and the entire society grapple with not only a pandemic, but also with the events of these past weeks that exposed the racial injustices embedded in our society, economy, education system, and even, in our culture.
These injustices are not new, neither were they hidden, but my white middle class academic Pacific Northwestener privilege allowed me to not pay due attention to them momentarily.

But this is a time of emergency for Black People.
It's no longer enough to condemn police violence and overt racist actions by hating individuals and hate groups. It's no longer a question whether we enable and maintain systemic and institutional racism.

We have been enabling and maintaining it.

Black lives matter. The lives, cultures, histories, and the well-being of Indigenous, Brown and Person's of Color matter.

This week, I have been reading, listening, learning, and thinking. I've come to ask tough questions from myself of what I can do, what I am willing to do, how can I be relentless in doing my part in the healing to undo the perpetrated violence, negligence and ignorance.

Most importantly, I’ve been thinking about what can be done as a studio to change the rules of the game.

Slip Rabbit Studio was born out of a desire to facilitate participation in a field of research by involving students, artists, fellow researchers and tinkerers. During all these years, I've been striving to create a community that connects art and the STEM fields through ceramic 3D printing. A community that is diverse in every sense, as I strongly believe that each of us has something to learn from one another.

From the beginning, it was obvious to me that the biggest obstacle to participation in this arena is economic: it is technology, digital skills and equipment. Slip Rabbit's internship program mentored 23 students in three years, majority of them are women and individuals of color. I would like to pat myself on the shoulder but, sadly, this is not enough. It has never been enough. My dream was to create scholarship, paid internship, and paid apprenticeship programs so that young individuals could come to learn and to get mentorship at the studio, but they would also be receiving a financial incentive and compensation for their time and work.

During these critical times, neither of us can just withdraw and wait for someone else to do the right thing. During these critical times expressions of sympathy are not quite enough. I will continue to shore up resources and opportunities focusing on two areas in the coming year: 1. Slip Rabbit’s outreach to take 3D printing to BIPOC communities, especially middle school and high school age groups. 2. Establishing a paid studio internship program in ceramic 3D printing for black and brown women. Both are just a drop in the bucket, I know. But I also learned during these decades of being an educator that individual droplets can make huge ripples, with a little luck, leading to a magnificent storm.

With trust in a more equitable future,

Timea