Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Angela Auriti. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Angela, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

The best investment of my time and energy I’ve ever made was reactivating the Ceramics Club at Brooklyn College after its hiatus due to the pandemic. At the time, in Summer of 2022, I had just 3 months of ceramic experience. It was going to be a journey where I was going to have to learn on the go, and I knew that going in. The club was set to begin again after 3 years in Fall of 2022, and I was the only member, and its president. The night before the campus involvement fair (which was an event at the beginning of the school year where clubs and programs would advertise themselves in hopes to get new students to sign up), I found out about it, and had to beg the organizers to give me a table last minute, and when they agreed I quickly made some fliers.
That day was 90°, outside in the sun, and I hauled my rinky dinky little ceramics that I made the previous semester to the quad. I saw that all the other tables had huge tri-posters, balloons, and all sorts of decorations. To make my table presentable, I went to target and got blue tissue paper and some green tape—the colors on my flier—and taped down the tissue paper to give the appearance of a tablecloth, and laid all my ceramics on it.
For a while I sat there alone and watched as all the other clubs and programs had students inquiring about and expressing interest in their group.
Then suddenly some students came to me and got excited about ceramics being at the school. They wanted to sign up—I hadn’t even brought a pen and paper for sign ups!
One kind girl gave me those items, and after 2 long, sweltering hours in the sun, I had 120 sign ups for the Ceramics Club.
This was exciting but also scary for me, because the ceramics studio at Brooklyn College can comfortably hold about 25 people, and that’s probably pushing it.
From here, started chaotic meetings every Wednesday from 12:15PM-2:15PM in Whitehead 104 for the full first semester. Me and 40-50 students, me trying to demo a clay pinch pot for them, with some listening, and others just wanting to play around with clay and not really make anything worth keeping.
With lots of perseverance and some frustration, I got through that first semester. And after the dust settled and the novelty of pottery wore off for majority of the students who had signed up, I was left with a group of students who truly loved this art form, and were dedicated to the craft. I continued on to serve as the Ceramics Club President for 3 more semesters after that, until my graduation this past May. With it came many ups and downs, tears of stress and tears of happiness. Countless hours spent working with the club and outside of club hours to ensure my members had the best time possible.

Because of the ceramics club, I have been given so much. I was connected with my amazing club faculty advisor, Eto Otitigbe. My club was written about in the school paper. I was given a “Best of BC” student spotlight by Brooklyn College and CUNY, and I was nominated for Club President of the Year at the Bulldog Achievement Awards. I grew my craft in unimaginable ways, and am now looking forward towards my first ever vendor sale at the Richmond County Fair on Staten Island in September.

Angela, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I mostly create for myself right now. My artwork mostly consists of ceramics, acrylic paintings, and mixed media. It all started in college when I took painting as an elective, and ended up just changing my major to art. I was originally a film major—not enjoying it, and before that a musician. I’ve been a trombonist since I was nine years old.

My proudest collection of works is currently my BFA exhibition show that was up at Brooklyn College for the month of May. In this thesis I explored themes of struggle with my relationship with music. Every single piece I made was a trombone, each one imagined in a different way.
The entire show was dedicated to my late music teacher, Mr. David Lamorte.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being creative is sharing it with others. I saw it every day with the Ceramics Club. There was one member, who had never done ceramics before coming to the club. After coming for a semester, she joined a ceramics studio is Manhattan—then introduced me to it, and it’s now where I regularly attend classes at. Finding my successors was also very rewarding. Realizing there were other students that loved this craft as much as I do, and learning that they love it so much because of their experiences in the Ceramics Club.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have two goals I would like to achieve.
I would like to peruse a Masters in Ceramics from Alfred University, and I would like to attend Pastry Arts School at The Institute of Culinary Education.
Ceramics and pastry arts are much more similar than one may think. I’ve been a baker my whole life, and I think all its parallels with Ceramics have really kept me persuing both as passionate as I do.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artbyangelaca__?igsh=MThodDU3YW8zNThudg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Other: https://www.brooklyn.edu/uncategorized/molding-futures/