September 2003 – The Worcester Center for Crafts will offer over 200 courses in ceramics, photography, glass, enameling, metals & jewelry, textiles, refinishing, faux & decorative painting on furniture, woodworking, woodturning and more to the public throughout the year. Classes range in skill from introductory/beginning to advanced level.

Extensive course options and well-equipped studios make the Craft Center a unique alternative learning center. Three-hour classes and accompanying open studio times are offered days, evenings and on most Saturdays. A Student Supply Store stocks many items needed for the adult classes.

Open studio time is available to enrolled students and serves to augment class work by offering unstructured time for students to further develop ideas and skills. Degree programs are also available.

A description of some of the available courses follows:

Metals/Jewelrymaking

The Metals/Jewelrymaking Studio is designed for the user. A philosophy of exploration, shared learning, and honest critiques prevails. Students learn by demonstration and hands-on participation, with the faculty providing individual direction with an emphasis on design and personal vision.

The Metals Studio is approximately 1200 square feet and is well equipped with casting, forming and fabrication tools including casting machines, electric melter, a variety of torches, twenty-ton die-forming press, lapidary equipment, a dozen work stations, and a wide array of hand tools. The metals studio is adjacent to the Glass & Enameling Studio, which is approx. 800 square feet and has ten lampworking stations, steel work surfaces and two annealing kilns. The Enameling program is equipped with two kilns and a wide pallet of enamels. Stained Glass equipment includes diamond grinders and assorted hand and machine tools.

The Ceramics Studio occupies over 5000 square feet and is divided into two central studio areas, a throwing studio and a handbuilding studio, with smaller faculty, artists-in-residence and full-time student studios. The facility is well-equipped with many potter’s wheels, kilns — soda, wood, raku, several gas and electric — a slab roller, an extruder, clays, glazes and slips.

Faculty members for this course include: Department Head, Tom O’Malley received his BFA from New York State College at Alfred Univ. and his MFA from RISD. He received an award of excellence from the graduate School at RISD and First Prize at the Rhode Island Earthworks ‘93 show. He also exhibited in First International Exhibition of Ceramic Creation, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. O’Malley is currently head of the Ceramics Department at the Craft Center.

Ginny Casey received her MFA in Ceramics from the Univ. of South Carolina and her BFA from the Univ. of Hartford, CT, also in Ceramics. She has lived and worked on both coasts and was an Artist-in-Residence at the Mendocino Art Center, CA. Casey’s work has been exhibited throughout the country including SC Clay at the 2001 NCECA in Charlotte, NC.

Pamela Cole holds a BFA in Fine Arts. She has taught art to children in area schools since 1971. Cole was appointed to the Arts Council in Shrewsbury and was a member for four years. She has taken over thirty pottery classes at the Craft Center and served as a studio assistant for two years. She currently works and teaches in her studio in Shrewsbury.

Steve Earp is a Master Potter at Old Sturbridge Village. He received his BFA in Ceramics from Univ. of Iowa. Earp served a two-year apprenticeship under Richard Bresnahan at St. John Pottery in Minnesota. He worked for several years in Nicaragua and Central America for the craft support organization, Potters for Peace (PFP). Earp continues to be active with PFP, and he regularly offers workshops in conjunction with various community outreach projects.

Wayne Fuerst is a potter and papermaker. He has worked with clay since high school and studied at the Univ. of Green Bay and the Univ. of Southern Maine as well as having apprenticed with potter Tom Krueger.

Ginny Gillen studied at the Ringling Art School and Greenville Museum School. She received a certificate in ceramics at the WCC’s School for Professional Crafts. She has been teaching craft classes at the Worcester Center for Crafts since 1992 and is the coordinator of WCC’s T.A.P. Program. Gillen received a 1998 Arts Lottery Grant for public art installation in downtown Worcester.

Robbie Rosencrans Heidinger is the founder of Milk Street, where she produces slipcast lamps and handbuilt ceramic work. She studied painting at the U. of Michigan and received her BA from NYU. She earned her MFA from RISD and received two Awards of Excellence. Heidinger worked in New York as a commercial animator and a textile designer. Her ceramic work is seen in private and public collections, museums and galleries nationwide. Heidinger has taught at UConn, Quinnebaug Comm. College and the WCC. She currently lives and works in Northeast Connecticut.

Kristen Kieffer received her MFA in Ceramics from Ohio Univ., Athens. She holds her BFA, also in Ceramics, from Alfred Univ. She was an intern at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village historical production pottery in Dearborn, MI. Kieffer assisted John Glick at his Plum Tree Pottery and was an artist-in-residence at Arrowmont. She has exhibited her work throughout the country. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence and the Workshop Coordinator at the WCC.

Robbie Lobell is a studio potter living and working in eastern CT. She has studied with several nationally-known potters and took a study tour to China in 1993. Lobell teaches classes and workshops throughout the country. She exhibits and sells her work on both the east and west coasts and was included in the Fifth Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National juried by Warren MacKenzie, and the Annual Pottery Show and Sales in Demarest, NJ since 1995. Lobell’s work was included in the recently published The Art of Contemporary American Pottery.

Michael Paine received his BFA in Ceramics from Syracuse Univ. where he also spent a year as a special student. His ceramic sculptures are based on the human body. Paine is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Craft Center.

Photography

The photography studio occupies over 900 square feet and houses one of the best maintained darkroom facilities in the area. The studio is split into four subrooms based on function. The film developing room allows a separate sink from the main darkroom facilites for film processing, while yet another room provides a clean space for matting and mounting of finished prints. The darkroom itself contains 13 enlarger stations with plenty of elbow room and safe lights. We also maintain a classroom with blackboard, exhibition space, and track lighting for lessons and evaluation of completed work.

The faculty for the Photography course includes: Department Head, Peter Faulkner is an environmental photographer. His work is about the natural scene and human intervention into this world. Faulkner has taught photography at the Worcester Center for Crafts since 1979. His photographs have been shown in galleries and juried shows throughout the Northeast.

Kirk Jalbert received his B.S. in computer science from WPI and studied photography at the Worcester Center for Crafts. He is also a photography instructor at Clark University. Kirk exhibits his work throughout the region and focuses on our relationship to natural and industrial “everyday” environments.

Paul Dumanoski received his BA in Biology/Chemistry and worked in the medical diagnostic industry for many years. He left to become a clockmaker specializing in restoration of antique clocks. Dumanoski has studied photography (his other passion) at the Craft Center under Peter Faulkner. The subject for his work is the environment, both natural and man-made. He has exhibited his photographs in juried shows throughout the region and recently won an award in Preservation Worcester’s Architectural Images VI.

Many other courses are available. For information on all adult courses, contact the Worcester Center for Crafts, Sagamore Road, Worcester, 508-753-8183 or wcc@worcestercraftcenter.org.