Richmond Hill pottery studio launches cheeky OnlyFans campaign to revive craft and fund operations

Arts institutions across Ontario have been buckling under the strain of diminishing funding, rising costs, and dwindling participation. Richmond Hill's Hill Potters' Guild, a non-profit arts co-op operating since 1978, decided to push back with an unorthodox move: OnlyFans.

In collaboration with local creative consultancy Black Jet Inc., the Potters' Guild created a nine-part video series called "Ceramics are Sexy," poking fun at the sensual association that pottery has come to be associated with — thank Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore for that cultural shorthand.

The titillating video series features potters providing actually useful, albeit euphemistic, pottery advice: instructing viewers to "grip the base" and "remember, a firm grip makes all the difference." The videos are free to watch on the platform, though viewers do need to create an account. If the platform isn't your speed, you can get your hands dirty with a class or membership at the Hill Potters' Guild itself.

The guild took keen note of the salacious stigmas surrounding OnlyFans and decided to use them to their own benefit — launching the campaign to encourage a new generation to pick up the craft. Unlikely though the pairing of a nearly 50-year-old potter's guild and OnlyFans may seem, it's become a match made in heaven for the studio's survival.