EUREKA SPRINGS - A cleared, flattened stretch of land on a forested hilltop is ready for construction of a new “heavy metal” studio for the Eureka Springs School of the Arts.
Growing interest in working with metals led the nonprofit school’s leadership to begin work on a studio to provide classroom space for artists interested in welding and blacksmithing, said Peggy Kjelgaard, executive director. The site is hidden from view from U.S. 62 in the center of a 32-acre site the school hopes to develop as part of a long-range plan.
“We have been dreaming about this for a long time,” Kjelgaard said.
The property currently consists of a two-story house, a separate building for making jewelry and a building that houses kilns.
The school offers two- to five-day workshops in the fall, spring and summer, primarily for adults interested in unleashing their creativity on canvases, pottery, jewelry and sculpture. The classes draw between 200 and 250 students annually.
A groundbreaking ceremony is planned at 4 p.m. today at Eureka Springs School of the Arts, 15751 W. U.S. 62, five miles outside of Eureka Springs. Kjelgaard is working to hire a contractor with the goal to finish the building in February or March and open it toward the end of May.
Kjelgaard also plans to visit the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina to study the school’s iron studio to identify equipment for the new studio.
Eureka Springs School of the Arts received a donation from an anonymous donor to pay for the project, she said.
“Someone believed in us enough to give us not only funding for this studio, but operational funding,” Kjelgaard said. “It makes other people believe in you. It’s the art education. It’s getting the opportunity to teach these classes right.”
The school began developing metals programs in 2007 after Bob Reese, a metal artist,retired and donated much of his equipment and supplies to the school, Kjelgaard said. Students started signing up for the classes, which required oxygen and acetylene tanks, welders and stainless steel. Classes met outside.
Students then requested a blacksmith class.
Jim Wallace, founder and past director of the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, Tenn., conducted a blacksmith class in 2008 in the school’s backyard, but the school lacked enough anvils and forges to meet the needs of the class.
Blacksmith classes continued in area metal artists’ studios, but the school directors desired a heavy metal facility.
When they finish a class, students complete evaluation forms, Kjelgaard said. They frequently leave comments about their desire to take metals classes or comment that the facilities need to be improved. The school offers 10 metals classes.
Mary Springer, one of the school’s founders and a board member, said she and her 13-year-old grandson took a metal sculpture class involving welding this year. She said her grandson, who received special permission to take the class, took to the art form.
“There’s a future for some of the young people to learn trades,” Springer said. “It just opens doors in so many areas.”
Metal sculptor Wayne Summerhill of Hot Springs, who taught the course for Springer and her grandson, said he enjoys seeing the creativity of those who enroll in his week long metal sculpture class offered every spring at the school.
“You can be so three-dimensional with it,” Summerhill said.
The metal sculpture class so far has met outdoors. Sculpting with metal gets especially hot with the fire from welding torches and the late spring sun, he said. The artists in training have to share equipment, which sometimes limits what they can accomplish in a week.
Summerhill often brings his own tools, but having enough tools for eight students is difficult.
The new studio will provide classroom space and equipment that have been limited,he said.
Enrollment in his spring class has grown in five years from five students to eight students, he said. Some students have taken his class more than once. Each class begins with a day of instruction on safety, the use power tools and welding techniques.
Summerhill instructs his artists in training to think of a project to begin the next day.
“Students are really happy if they go home with a finished piece,” he said.
The Eureka Springs School of the Arts began in 1998 as a “school without walls,” offering classes taught by artists in their studios, Kjelgaard said. The school received its nonprofit status in 2001, hired its first executive director in 2004 and opened a starter campus.
The organization bought land in 2009 and 2011 around the campus and last year developed a long-range plan for the site, Kjelgaard said.
The plan includes a handful of new studios, two dormitories, four cottages for instructors and a large building to house administration and provide a cafeteria, Kjelgaard said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 14 on 07/25/2013