During the 2019-2020 school year, Monson Arts launched its High School Art & Writing Program. The initiative brought together a core group of twenty-five young artists and writers from six area high schools to participate in extended workshops in our studios by the shores of Lake Hebron. Students were selected by their teachers and principals to spend two full school days each month at Monson Arts, working alongside accomplished artists and writers.

During their days in Monson, these students created, experimented, discussed, critiqued, shared, and laughed in both the art workshop led by painter Alan Bray and the writing workshop led by poet Dawn Potter. In addition to learning from each other and their instructors, students were also able to visit with several of Monson Arts’ artists and writers-in-residence throughout the year to see and hear about what they were working on.

We envision this partnership with local schools as a unique educational experience for the young people of our community. At Monson Arts, these students can focus on creative work free from the distractions of a typical school day while connecting with peers from neighboring schools. It is our hope that this new experience of time and space will profoundly change the way these students see the world around them and their place in it.

Students in the Monson Arts High School Art Program worked with artist Alan Bray in our Community Workshop Studio downtown.

A group poem composed by students in the writing workshop, October 2019

Students in the High School Writing Program work with poet, Dawn Potter at our Tenney House event space.[/caption]

Students sketch in the woods by Lake Hebron, October 2019

Alan Bray demonstrates grinding pigments and making egg tempera paints

Monson, 2020

You can read more about the Monson Arts High School Art & Writing Program in the article “Enhancing Student Experiences With External Learning Opportunities” by Katie Thompson, featured on the Great Schools Partnership blog, February 2020.

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