With our workshop season swinging into full gear this week, campus is bustling with new students and visitors and activities, like our weekly potlucks and faculty slideshows. With so much happening this time of year it may be easy to overlook how much work goes on behind the scenes to keep the workshops humming. This blog post is dedicated to our highly skilled and hardworking facilities staff, who go above and beyond all year long to keep the shops tidy, the machines running smoothly, and the buildings and grounds looking their finest.

The Messler Gallery hosts four exhibits a year, and our student show is always one of the most anticipated among students and staff. There is usually a flurry of activity in the workshops in the weeks prior to the show, as students strive to get their pieces gallery-ready.

Our Nine-Month Comprehensive students have just returned from CraftBoston Spring, where they exhibited their work alongside that of nearly 90 other craftspeople.

Our Studio Fellowship provides up to six emerging and established furniture makers with the opportunity to explore new directions in their work. Fellows share the 5,400 square foot Jackson Building, which includes a bench room and full machine room. Often participants are graduates of our Nine-month Comprehensive and Furniture Intensive programs, and occasionally instructors will extend their stay on campus to explore their own work.

Our Furniture Intensive students are beginning the sixth week of their twelve-week program, and their second project is already well underway. Here in mid-coast Maine the weather is (slowly!) changing from winter to spring, and the longer daylight hours seem to mean longer hours in the shop for this dedicated group.

On a walk through our turning studio on any given day, you may hear loud laugter and be forgiven for thinking that no work could possibly be getting done around here. How could there be, when there are so often groups of students sharing a belly laugh with their instuctor, Beth Ireland?