Fort Family: The Kiln Room
/Spoiler: With over 240,000 square feet of space, there are no secret rooms here (as far as we know). But the humble gray door you see below opens to a delightfully big haven for ceramic lovers. It’s Eric Rausch’s Kiln Room. Read Eric’s short interview below, and scroll down for more photos.
Eric Rausch, owner of Kiln Room at The Fort.
What is the Kiln Room?
Eric: Kiln Room is a decade long dream come true. Just like all things must change, so has the vision for Kiln Room. We are building an artisan production ceramic business that is built on strong values. Through a partnership with fellow Fort tennant, STUMP, we designed and started producing planters for them to sell in their stores. We are furthering this wholesale production while working on products that will make sure we have a diverse client base.
“…we will never forget the founding value of building community through clay art.”
This business is started from a passion for clay art, so while we are focused on building a sustainable production business, we will never forget the founding value of building community through clay art. This is why we make space in the studio to offer community access. We have a group of 20-30 people utilizing the studio for firing work made at home, continuing practice in the studio, and some one on one instruction. We hope to grow our community studio alongside our production business all within the walls of our home at The Fort.
See more photos below…
“This place has everything and then some, including one of the best landlords in the city.” –Eric Rausch, owner of Kiln Room
Why the Fort?
Eric: We chose The Fort because of pragmatic planning and good timing (a.k.a. luck). Like I mentioned, this is a decade-long dream so the space had always been a missing hypothetical piece. We could not commit to a space until we had enough equipment to get started, let alone some assurance that we could start making enough work to pay the bills. We almost settled on a different location before it fell through because of cost. When that happened, I contacted my commercial realtor and we began to look all around Columbus again, only this time, The Fort was an option. This place has everything and then some, including one of the best landlords in the city. We were lucky to find the place when we were ready to sign a long term lease and got in on the ground floor—literally, we have a first floor space with garage door access and all the beautiful windows (although they were boarded up when we signed the lease). We are grateful to be a long term tenant and part of the beautiful change this building is experiencing.
