Arts & Craft
This Month ...

• This Month:  A Refreshing Approach, The New Springhouse School of the Arts

• The DownStreet Gallery:  Art by Springhouse Faculty & Students

• Links to Arts & Craft On-Line:  Kids Art ... and Then Some {cont.}

A refreshing approach  ...
The New Springhouse School of the Arts, Hinesburg
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Mary McClements with students at an afternoon Springhouse class

Something different that we're doing ... is getting some kids from CVU who really  need extra time to work, who want to beef up their  portfolios a little bit.  They're coming in here for a free  night, just to have a space to work, and to have a  couple of teachers give them a critique.  ... 

Mary McClements  
Founding owner  
Springhouse School of the Arts  

Like many towns in our neighborhood, Hinesburg is going through its share of changes.  For example, not so long ago, the Post Office moved into their new facility.  But it's what happened to their old building that may be fairly unique in the area:  The old P.O. is now an art school.

Faculty members Erika Geiger {l.} and Sarah Andronaco prepare for afternoon classes

This past summer, the Springhouse School of the Arts opened its doors on Commerce Street in a thoroughly renovated building that now, instead of bulk mail and parcels, has rooms with easels, pottery wheels, a kiln, glazes, and, most important, lots of kids.  On a recent afternoon visit, we talked with Mary McClements, founding owner of Springhouse.  We began the conversation with the most obvious question:  "So, what possessed you to start an art school?"

The dream ...
"What possessed me?  Oh, boy," Mary began, sorting through some paperwork on her desk.  "It's something I've been asking myself lately," she says with a laugh.  Then something shifted slightly and she began to tell a story of her own experience as a high school student, when she went off to a residential art school in Maine one summer.  "It was a cool place," she recalled.  "A kind of artists' overnight retreat."  It struck her then and there.  "I thought, I'd love to do something like that one day."
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Pottery Wheels in One of the Studio Rooms at Springhouse

For fifteen years or so, the idea lay in the back of her mind as Mary went off to college, first to complete a B.F.A. at the University of Colorado, then on to a Masters of Art Education degree at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.  Degrees in hand, Mary next set out to teach just outside Philly.  "I loved working with the kids.  But it was difficult to say the least," she acknowledged.  She then listed some of the downside -- thirty kids in a class, only 40 minutes to a session.  Add to that the demands placed on art teachers to provide sets for the school plays, posters for various other classes and activities.  

After her stint in Philly, Mary went back out to Colorado to teach in the public school system there.  Most of her students came from disadvantaged backgrounds.  "I loved working with that population," she said.  "It was great.  I loved it.  ...  But," Mary added.  "I just felt like I wasn't doing what I wanted to do, and I couldn't affect these kids in the way I wanted to affect them.  ...  I felt like the high quality art education I wanted for these kids was getting farther and farther away."

Students from Williston working in the "Fantasy Painting" class

In that environment, the dream of opening her own art school started to stir once again. "I felt it getting closer and closer," Mary confided.  The next thing she knew, she was on her way to Vermont to visit her "then boyfriend, now husband who had gotten a job at UVM."  That's when it her.  ...  "So I came out to visit him, and for whatever reason," she continues.  "I knew that Vermont was the place where the school was going to happen."

Of course, like most things, it didn't happen exactly the way she'd envisioned it initially.  After moving to a farm that had a 1400 square-foot studio, Mary Naturally imagined the school would be there.  But zoning regs kept that from coming to pass.  "That's when this place came up for sale," Mary said, then quickly added.  "Boom!"  And indeed, something of a boom it's been so far.

Faculty member Erika Geiger

The students and faculty ...
Mary had taken a class with the "Vermont women's small business program."  After a few of the kind of initial problems lots of businesses face, including, in Springhouse's case, a first catalog that went out the door later than expected, classes have begun to pick up.  In fact, we were both looking at the clock, since three classes would be starting up in pretty short order.  A group of elementary and middle school students from Williston would be meeting with faculty member Erika Geiger, a well-traveled instructor who's taught art classes in Mexico, Athens and Bogota.  This afternoon's fare?  "Fantasy Painting."  An easel holds some of the works of Salvador Dali.  

Meanwhile, across the hall, faculty member Sarah Andronaco -- who, Mary said, was "fantastic and helped to set a great tone for the school this past summer" -- was getting ready for a drawing class.  Mary herself, on the other hand, was looking forward to her own class, "Animal Arts."  This day, as it turned out, there would be an unexpected model to work with -- Erika's chocolate lab, Millie.

click here to continue ...

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     arts@downstreetmagazine.com.  ...

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