Touchstone to host free craft workshop
Greene County high school students will have the opportunity this summer to spend a week in the Laurel Highlands learning a craft.
Touchstone Center for Crafts, at 1049 Wharton Furnace Road in Farmington, will host its annual Targeting Teen Outreach program June 27 through July 1. It will teach students in grades 9 to 12 crafting trades such as blacksmithing, ceramics, fiber, glass, metals and jewelry, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and weaving.
“The workshop really is to dip those students’ toes in the water if they want to become working artists,” said Shauna Soom, executive director of Touchstone. “So, it’s a very immersive, interactive experience for them.”
Soom said the Fine Foundation and the Grable Foundation provided funding for the workshops and scholarships for students who want to attend from Greene, Fayette, Somerset and Allegheny counties. While the workshop is open to students in other counties and even other states, students who register for the workshop with proof of residency in those four counties will be able to attend the program for free, she said.
“It’s based on where the program has been successful before and where similar opportunities are for those particular areas,” she said. “Our funding preference is students from rural counties.”
Touchstone has seven working studios, Soom said, and each student will choose one to focus on and spend most of their time in: the blacksmith forge, a glass studio, a ceramic studio, a painting studio, a mosaic studio, a fine metal studio and a youth program studio, which is primarily used for elementary students.
“So, if they choose blacksmithing, they’ll be in the blacksmith studio from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday,” Soom said. “There’s room to explore in the other studios after the class periods are over.”
The students will be able to stay in cabins or dormitories on Touchstone’s campus for the week. On the last day, the students will be able to showcase their work and even put it up for sale, Soom said.
Touchstone has hosted the workshop for six years in a row and it’s been steadily growing, Soom said.
“It started out with just a couple students,” she said. “This year we hope to have about 60 students on campus.”
Soom said she works with local art instructors and guidance counselors in the school districts to refer interested students to the workshop.
Students must register for the workshop by June 10 and can fill out the form online at www.touchstonecrafts.org.