WEST ALLIS — At Cream City Clay in West Allis - clay is the canvas.
"You can paint on it, you can sculpt it," says owner Colleen Volland. "It mixes all the different art media together in one."
Opening in 2015, owner Colleen Volland recalls what life at her shop was like pre-pandemic
"Classes full of students, Monday through Saturday and it was bustling and busy and fun."
But the health and safety on the line, Colleen knew things would change.
"A lot of the people that work here are high-risk for health and we wanted to keep them as safe as possible," Volland says. "But we also wanted to keep them safe mentally."
With art very much a type of therapy, Cream City Clay did whatever they could to reach their community at home.
"The teachers were still broadcasting classes through Zoom and Google Hangouts," Volland explains. "And we were trying to find any way we could get the information to people. We mad clay to-go kits."
Getting through the safer-at-home order, Colleen's doors are back open.
"We make appointments now and people will make appointments to see each other," Volland says.
And her clay community has slowly been put back together.
"Groups will start to form on certain days of the week just to support each other and see what they are making," she says. "How are their families doing and they missed each other."
Open Tuesday through Saturday, Cream City is ready to offer everyone a safe place to create.