Starting October 11, 2010, the Craft School will be offering evening classes in Pottery, Glass Bead Making and Frame Drum (Bodhran) Construction. Two nine-week sessions will be offered to the public.
Session I, which will begin the week of October 11 will run until December 17, 2010.
Session II will start again after Christmas on January 10, and will run until March 11, 2011.
Each class will be scheduled for a different night of the week, from 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m., and will be held at the Craft School’s main Artisan Studio at 110 East Main Street; conveniently and safely located right off the Square and next door to the Arkansas Craft Guild.
Session I classes will start off on Tuesday evenings with a Frame Drum (Bodhran) Construction class. Frame drums are ubiquitous – the Irish bodhran, the Middle-Eastern riq, American Indian drums, and the familiar tambourine. In this class, students will be given the choice as to which type of frame drum they would prefer to build: a Celtic–style bodhran, a Native American-style drum or the more exotic Siberian-style drum. Although each of these drums has distinct differences, their base is the same – a skin stretched on a bent wooden framework. Students will go home with an instrument that pays homage to history and is an expression of their own individuality. The instructor for the class will be ethnomusicologist John Van Orman, who has studied musical instruments of many cultures and has been building musical instruments of all types since 1976.
Wednesday evenings will be set aside for Glass Bead Making with Tom and Sage Holland. As early pioneers in the revival of glass bead making, Tom and Sage are known nationally as well as internationally – as both teachers and as creators of beautiful, intricate beads – yet they live right here in Stone County. A recent grant has allowed the Craft School to purchase essential tools and equipment for the production of glass beads. Students will be individually mentored during the class according to their experience and all skill levels are invited to participate.
Thursday evenings will be set aside for our most popular request – Pottery Classes – which will be taught by local ceramic artist, David Dahlstedt. David and his wife Becki have been creating their line of decorative and functional ceramic wares produced under the name of Mountain View Pottery for many years. A major foundation grant recently supplied the Craft School with the funds to purchase eight new potter’s wheels, a ceramic kiln and other necessary equipment for a ceramic space at the Craft School. David is looking forward to sharing the skills he has mastered in a lifetime of pottery making with local beginning and intermediate pottery students.
Session II classes, which will begin in January 10, 2011 will be announced in the Fall.
Tuition for each individual nine-week class will be $225.00 plus materials fees according to the instructor, and scholarships are available to qualifying students. Class registration forms, scholarship applications and further information on these and other class offerings of the Arkansas Craft School may be found on the website: www.arkansascraftschool.org. Students may also sign up for classes by calling Terri Van Orman at (870) 269-8397.
The Arkansas Craft School, located in Mountain View, Arkansas is dedicated to the education of aspiring and practicing craft artisans for success in the Creative Economy. The Craft School partners with Ozarka College which offers Continuing Education credits for all of its courses. Support for the Arkansas Craft School is provided, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, and the National Endowment of the Arts.
