A Full Service Violin Shop Give The Gift Of Music This Holiday Season
So Entertaining | Art View
By Bob Curley
A Tapestry of Local Artists 1058 Kingstown Road Peace Dale, RI • 401-284-0265 www.beekmanviolin.com
Hours TUE, WED, THU, FRI 11am-2pm or by appointment Additional Holiday Hours Thursday, November 20, 5-9pm Saturday, December 6, 11am-5pm Saturday, December 13, 11am-5pm Thursday, December 18, 5-9pm 150 Chestnut Street, 3rd Floor Providence | 401 641 5182
ArtProvidence.com
70 SO RHODE ISLAND | December 2014
The Mill at Shady Lea’s Open Studios returns for its 17th year Textiles are woven on looms at the Shady Lea Mill just as they were when the factory was originally established along North Kingstown’s Mattatuxet River in 1820, but there’s a whole lot else going on at the millturned-artists-community nearly 200 years later. Now in its 17th year, The Mill at Shady Lea’s Open Studios event began as a bit of homespun public relations by founder Andy Reisert, who wanted to ease any concerns among the mill’s neighbors about what the “hippies” were doing in the building after his manufacturing business, a company that made staples, shut down. Over the years, the tenant list has grown to include more than 40 artists producing everything from pottery and blown glass to photography, sculpture and paintings to jewelry and guitars. And since the old mill is said to be haunted, it’s only appropriate that the paranormal investigation group GHOSTS also calls Shady Lea home. Two dozen or more of these artists will take part in the 2014 Open Studios event, including crowd favorites like Anchor Bend Glassworks, clockmaker Richard Fyans, weaver Suzy Bellanger, musician Andrew Grant, the GHOSTS team, potters Connie Payne, Donna Thompson, and Sue Greene, and sisters Judy Schaefer (a sculptor and weaver) and Jo-Anna Melrose (who paints and produces etchings and monotype prints). Artists conduct demonstrations or presentations and provide visitors with snacks and drinks, as well as offering their products for sale during this once-per-year event. Dan Collins, founder of Shady Lea Guitars, says the Open Studios event has been great for business, especially since the business does no formal advertising for its custom-built guitars and guitar-building classes. “People walk through and spread the word for us,” he says. In addition to explaining their work and showing how wood is bent to
Jo-Anna Melrose and Judy Schaefer at Shady Lea Mill
create the curved side of a guitar, apprentice luthier and Julliard-trained musician and singer Ariel Rose Bodman may show off her own talents on the shop’s small stage, which this year will feature performances by the folk group Cannibal Ramblers and satirical singer Jacob Haller. “It’s so much fun,” says Bodman, noting that about 500 people came through the Shady Lea Guitars studio during the 2013 event. Donna Dunn, whose Rhode Island Spa Products utilize mostly locally grown and produced agricultural products in its soaps, bath salts, and lotions, makes special soaps scented with pumpkin and cinnamon to sell as stocking stuffer during Open Studios, which not coincidentally is scheduled in the middle of the holiday shopping season. Repeat visitors look forward to chatting with Dunn over a cup of tea beside her in-studio fireplace. “It’s a very busy event for sales,” Dunn says. “People love to come in and see how and where things are made, and to talk to the artists.” Visitors to Shady Lea aren’t limited to one weekend per year: although there are no set hours, you can simply knock on studio doors and see
who is around. Most artists welcome the occasional visitor, according to mill owner and Open Studios coordinator Lynn Krim, and some even put materials and items for sale outside their doors. A walk around the nearly 200-year-old mill not only reveals hints of its past history (look for the staples embedded in the wooden floors, for example), but also an opportunity to browse the work of artist Edwin Roche, who uses one section of the whitewashed hallway as an impromptu gallery for his paintings.
Shady Lea’s Open Studios December 6-7 (winter storm dates are December 13-14) 12-5pm Free, but a donation of a non-perishable food item for the North Kingstown Food Bank is requested 215 Shady Lea Road North Kingstown 290-7548 www.themillatshadylea.com