Rainbow Springs Art Opens Pottery Studio Near Ocala

Dunnellon's Rainbow Springs Art gallery is opening a pottery studio inside its Walnut Street space, and it is marking the occasion with a second anniversary open house on Saturday, Nov. 14, running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 20826 Walnut St. The nonprofit co-op also has roughly 100 handcrafted soup bowls to sell, with the money going to a Dunnellon food pantry and meal program.

A second anniversary and a new pottery studio

The gallery, which moved into its current Walnut Street location about a year ago from a spot one block away, is run by about 35 area artists who make and sell their own work inside the space, according to the Ocala Gazette.

The newest addition is the pottery studio, which the gallery is unveiling during the Nov. 14 open house. Gallery member and potter Alicia Lowe oversees it. The room includes an electric kiln, a potter's wheel and shelving for drying finished pieces, and Lowe has started offering pottery classes there. Her own gallery background runs deep in the region: she founded the Coastal Art Gallery in Crystal River.

Lowe's reason for working with clay is not about the finished object as much as the process. She told the Gazette it is "very relaxing and soothing" and "kind of a Zen thing," adding that it doubles as exercise and produces something people can actually use.

About 100 bowls, priced from $25

The gallery's headline fundraiser is the international Empty Bowls Project, and this year it happens here on Feb. 27, 2027. Members have created roughly 100 soup bowls for it. Each one is handcrafted and will be priced starting at $25, with presale beginning at the Nov. 14 open house.

The partner organization is Dunnellon Community Services. According to the Gazette, buyers of the bowls are served soup at Dunnellon Community Services, and proceeds from the sales go to the group, which runs a food pantry and provides hot meals for seniors in the community. It is a small operation, and the money raised locally stays local.

The gallery's own website also lists an open studio where visitors can use the equipment or buy clay, plus pottery classes aimed at beginners with no experience required.

A grant that paid for the new kiln space

Money from the Rocket Shop Farm Foundation of Dunnellon helped make the Empty Bowls Project possible. The gallery recently received a $2,500 grant to underwrite the cost of the February event, and the foundation visited the gallery earlier to look at the new driveway and ended up touring the pottery studio as well.

That was the gallery's second grant in two years. Last year it received $5,000 from the same foundation to pave the parking lot, including space for physically disabled patrons. Gallery treasurer Kathy Sage said foundation representatives asked to see the studio during the driveway visit, and potter Alicia Lowe walked them through the new equipment.

The open house schedule for Nov. 14

• 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. - open house, with art and food vendors set up on the lawn outside the gallery
• Noon to 2 p.m. - new artists' reception
• 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. - open mic with the Dunnellon Poetry Society, which meets at the gallery on the third Sunday of each month
• Pull Up Boyz of Ocala, a local food truck, serves American food
• Room for up to 50 artists on the lawn; artists wanting to sell at the event apply through the gallery's website

The Citrus County Chronicle carried the same open house preview in its weekend entertainment listings, which is a good signal for anyone in the Ocala area who has not driven up to Dunnellon in a while.

Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday and Monday, and the phone number is 352-763-4048.

What the gallery sells and teaches

Beyond pottery, the gallery's website describes a co-op made up of more than 30 local artists working in sculpture, jewelry, woodworking, fiber art, leather, stained glass, photography, writing, acrylic, watercolor and clay. Beyond the fine art, the shop sells small goods such as greeting cards, magnets, prints, coasters, mugs, baskets, wind chimes and ornaments.

Classes change monthly and are taught by member artists. Two are on the calendar right now: a mosaic stocking workshop on Nov. 6 and a pressed flower art class called Forever Gardens on Nov. 20. The gallery also grants a $1,500 art scholarship each year to two graduating high school art students, and it is accepting applications from new artists who want to exhibit.

None of this runs on big budgets. The co-op depends on volunteer hours, grants like the Rocket Shop Farm Foundation award, and customers who know where to find it. When someone in Dunnellon searches for pottery classes or the Sunday poetry gathering at eight at night and cannot find hours, classes or a phone number, that is the visit they never make. Our local SEO guide for Marion County businesses covers the basics of getting found. Acelefayne builds small-business websites from $250, and we would be glad to quote your project.