NORTHAMPTON — A long running art school that has been around for a little over two decades is taking an exciting next step with its model.
Art Always, an all-encompassing art school that currently shares a space with High Five Books in Florence, announced in late July that it is expanding its operations to a second studio space at 188 Pine St, which used to be a church.
“Part of what I’ve been missing is the ability to make big messes and spread out and have sensory experiences with the kids without being limited by space,” said Lindsay Fogg-Willits, the owner of Art Always.
Fogg-Willits has been running Art Always in some capacity since 2002. Originally, she operated the art school out of the Brushworks Arts and Industry building on Pine Street.
Currently, the school shares a space with High Five Books at 141 N. Main St. where they run a variety of programs like after school classes, adult and teen workshops, parent and child programs and birthday parties.
“It’s been great working with [High Five],” Fogg-Willits said.
Because they work in the shared space, Art Always can also offer retail items like art to-go kits, which are art projects people can take home to complete, and a craft bar, which Fogg-Willits described as a “candy store of art supplies” that people can take home.
The school also offers a program called “drop-in art” where people can come in and complete whatever the weekly project is without having to make a reservation.
According to Fogg-Willits, the classes they offer include from painting, drawing, photography, sewing, exploration and more. She added that the sessions are offered on a seasonal basis, and the classes are typically taught by teachers and teacher assistants who specialize in these topics.
“The list goes on and on,” Fogg-Willits said.
When asked about the benefits of this adding a second location for the school, Fogg-Willits gave a few different reasons.
“There’s multiple classroom spaces in the new spot, so it means I can have more programming to accommodate more people who want to take a given class,” Fogg-Willits said. “I can also have more kids in classes.”
She also said that she has noticed over the years how students are interested in exploring a more process-based approach to art making where they can use different sensory materials, like tables, to express themselves.
With this in mind, Fogg-Willits said she plans on having a class in the new space that offers a station model where students have five different stations to work through; like a material exploration station or an imaginative sensory play station, as two examples.
“So, there’s sort of the room to do that and have a class that happens there and then also be able to offer those sort of station experiences,” Fogg-Willits said.
Although Art Always is taking this monumental next step, their space with High Five Books will continue to persist since there are classes that make sense to still operate there, and they still want to maintain the retail portion. She also said the outdoor component at the smaller space is beneficial and not feasible at the new location.
“The [High Five Books space] still makes sense for classes with contained materials,” Fogg-Willits said.
The 188 Pine St. space, which encompasses 2,700 square feet, is set to open in September when the fall sessions begin.
Fogg-Willits said they are making the finishing touches on those classes right now.
“I’m excited to be able to do what feels exciting to me without having my physical space be the limitation,” Fogg-Willits said. “It sort of opens the door for all these creative ideas that I might have but can’t quite do currently, and that’s exciting.”
Readers can learn more about Art Always by visiting its website, art-always.net.
