The Sharing Arts Network has met its fundraising goals for a new ceramics center in Dublin. The arts organization raised $110,000 in the past year to secure a long-term lease in the Dublin Village Park and ceramics equipment via individual donations, tax credit sales to local businesses, and some in-kind equipment donations, organizer and MAxT Makerspace director Roy Schlieben said. The ceramics center will feature a gas kiln, electric kilns, a glazing room, six wheels, and other pottery tools and equipment, he said.
“We expect to have regular classes for all ages and abilities,” he said. Although he’s hopeful for an earlier opening, Schlieben said he expects the studio to be open this fall, following renovations.
The Sharing Arts Network is a community driven effort to provide art studio resources and classes to the Monadnock region following the 2019 closure of the Sharon Arts Center. The program is managed by the MAxTMakerspace in Peterborough and partnered with Arts Alive.
“We did the hard part first,” co-organizer Kimberly Kersey-Asbury said. The ceramics program was the most expensive initiative of all the Sharing Arts Network’s programming goals, and future fundraising and investments are expected to go to other programs, she said.
In the meantime, a robust schedule of summer classes is in the works. Five outdoor ceramics classes are lined up throughout the summer starting this month, Kersey-Asbury said, and a printmaking open house is coming later this month. Classes on garden sculpture, beginner and advanced wheel throwing, drawing and watercolors, and quilting are all in the works as well, Schlieben said.
Schlieben thanked the local businesses that purchased tax credits to aid the ceramics studio fundraiser: Main Street America Insurance, Bar Harbor Bank and Trust, Grove Street Fiduciary, Savings Bank of Walpole, Sequoia Technologies, Tod Von Mertens LLC, Studio Buteo, and AVA Restoration Services.