NORTHAMPTON — When Art Always opened 25 years ago, owner and founder Lindsay Fogg-Willits was only offering the community art classes and a creative hangout space alongside her other local arts education jobs.
Now a quarter century later, it has become her full-time gig and grown into the community art studio it is known as today, offering creative options and classes for children and people of all ages.
“Some businesses have a clear beginning: you open the doors, and that’s your anniversary date. Art Always wasn’t really like that,” explained Fogg-Willits. “The business grew organically out of my life, this community and the people I’ve met along the way. One opportunity led to another, more families found us, and I just kept going.”
A Northampton native, Fogg-Willits began teaching her first classes 25 years ago after returning home following graduation from Skidmore College. The initial Art Always studio space was located in the old Yankee Hill Machine building in Florence, and at the time the endeavor was just a part-time effort, offering art classes to local children and their families while she worked full-time as an arts educator at Northampton High School.
“I always wanted to be a teacher so that was something that I was pretty clear about,” Fogg-Willits told Reminder Publishing. “I thought, well, this is great; this will be a great way of kind of making money after graduating, and being with kids, and that’s what happened; it just sort of went from there. It seemed like a natural combination to do the art and the teaching.”
When first starting, Fogg-Willits said she wanted a studio in Art Always that felt friendly and safe in all ways for people to express themselves.
“That was sort of my goal, and I quickly learned in doing it — and I still think about this now — that so much of why people come to an art class is because they feel good when they’re there. There’s somebody who knows them, who talks to them, and they want to feel like they have community,” she said.
In the years that followed, Art Always continued offering programs as Fogg-Willits continued working in arts and education throughout the Northampton area. Early on, she taught full-time at Northampton High School and the Hill Institute, led after-school programs at area schools and served as administrative director of the Deerfield Academy Summer Arts Camp.
“At first, I think I thought I’d teach some art classes and it would be because families want art, but more and more and more I think what I discovered is that they don’t just want art; they want somebody who knows who they are, who is going to root for them and listen to them and all of that. So that was sort of an interesting discovery along the way, and it’s become the thing I maybe like the most about my job,” said Fogg-Willits. “I was sort of just living my life. I was working my butt off to work multiple jobs all at the same time. I was teaching at Northampton High and then I’d end my day at 2:30, and I’d race over to my studio, and I’d teach two classes of little kids.”
Soon enough, Art Always grew from part-time offerings to a full-time job as opportunities arose and more families found their way to the studio. With a little encouragement from her father to take advantage of what was brewing at Art Always, Fogg-Willits made the transition over to making Art Always her full-time priority.
“I think at a certain point I remember sitting down with my dad, and he was like, ‘You’re going to have to take a leap at some point. You’re going to have to sort of leave one thing and trust that doing Art Always is going to be enough,’ and eventually I did that, which was a little scary because I don’t have benefits and get all these stable things that people who aren’t self-employed get,” she said.
As her journey continued through several studio spaces — moving from the Yankee Hill building to inside the Brushworks Arts and Industry building, and eventually sharing space collaboratively with High 5 Books — the balance gradually shifted. As Art Always programming continued to expand, Fogg-Willits devoted more of her time to the studio and less to her other arts-related jobs.
Over the years, Fogg-Willits not only witnessed the efficacy of Art Always, but she also noticed the meaningful connections she was creating in Northampton and Florence.
Some of the children who participated in Art Always programming years ago are now adults with children of their own whom they bring to the studio. Fogg-Willits said this has become a particularly meaningful reminder of just how much time has passed since those first summer classes 25 years ago.
“For one, it makes me feel really old at times to see these people come in that have children and now I teach, but talk about really witnessing a community. Here you are in this one place, and this one sort of art-making experience has brought generations of people together. What an honor to do that, to provide the place for that,” said Fogg-Willits. “Every person who walks in the door, more and more it feels like I know in some way. There’s some connection to them, whether they were my high school student and this is now their little kid, or a friend of my parents who are now bringing their grandchildren; it’s community in a nutshell.”
Nowadays, Fogg-Willits said she has immense gratitude for the community and their connection to the studio, which sits at 188 Pine St. in Florence. She added it confirms her hard work over the years has been worth it.
“On the one hand, I feel really proud of myself. I worked really hard to get here, so I do reflect on it. 25 years is my whole adult life, so I kind of trace back what that period of time has looked like and having children and sort of evolving and trying to do what I do from a place of integrity and what feels exciting, and all of that I’m really proud of,” she added. “There’s a whole lot of gratitude.”
The studio plans to celebrate its anniversary throughout the year with its community while continuing to do much the same thing that started it all: giving people a welcoming place to create. Fogg-Willits added that she will explore opportunities to give back to the community throughout this upcoming milestone year, and people can learn more about the studio and look for future class offerings at art-always.net.
