Supplies await creative hands at Greenfield Parks Department Art Studio.
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Supplies await creative hands at Greenfield Parks Department Art Studio.
Editor’s note: The Daily Reporter regularly features Hancock County’s arts and events. Here, Rachel Holmes, art instructor at Greenfield Parks Department, shares about changes made at the art studio in the last year and what’s on the horizon for 2022. For more on the studio, visit facebook.com/greenfieldparksart, parks.greenfieldin.org, or call (317) 477-4340. If you know a person, group or event that you’d like to see featured in Hancock Happenings, email dr-editorial@greenfieldreporter.com.
Daily Reporter: What’s your experience and background with art?
Rachel Holmes: Art has been a lifelong passion! My other passion, teaching, led me to an Elementary Education degree from Anderson University. I missed sharing art with others, though, so several years ago I began doing sip & paint parties. I then opened Indie Art Studio, which I ran successfully through 2020. Shortly after, I was approached by Greenfield Parks and Recreation to teach art, where I’ve been since last February.
DR: What were your ideas for when you were first hired a year ago, and how have those ideas changed?
RH: I knew I wanted to continue offering the types of classes and events I did at Indie Art Studio, focusing on an equal mixture of fun and education. I want my students to have a blast in class while walking away with more confidence and knowledge about art materials, skills, techniques, and concepts. As I learn more about the community’s interests, I continue to adjust for what’s relevant and interesting to Hancock county.
DR: What did you offer in 2021 through the Greenfield Parks Department?
RH: I started with monthly themed kids’ courses. We also introduced camps for spring, summer, and fall breaks. Then we began sprinkling in adult events like a monthly “sip and paint” or “sip and craft.”
DR: What has been your favorite experience so far?
RH: The castle camps, hands down! They are a blast, and I’m always amazed by how creative all the kids are. It’s incredible to watch them come up with ways to decorate their castles: old jewelry becomes a chandelier, or a mint tin becomes a tiny refrigerator. I have as much fun as the kids!
DR: What would you say to the person who doesn’t think they can create or make art?
RH: Of course you can! There’s a quote that says, “Every great artist started with a scribble,” and it’s so true. You have to start somewhere, and I love being able to get someone started on something new. Be brave enough to start with a scribble!
DR: What do you plan to offer in 2022?
RH: We’ll continue to offer classes for both youth and adults. We’ll start adding some family events soon. We will also continue monthly classes for children and teens, as well as adult events like sip and paint nights and educational classes.
DR: What are your New Year’s goals for the Greenfield Parks Department?
RH: My No. 1 goal is to build awareness of all the amazing things happening here and drive more traffic to our doors. The more engagement grows, the more classes and events we can add! My other goal is to continue that balance of fun and education, so every student has the knowledge to grow as an artist.
I’m beyond thankful to have joined the fun, supportive Greenfield Parks family. I look forward to growing the studio. Aside from registering for classes, the best thing people can do to help support Greenfield Parks and Recreation Art Studio is to spread the word!
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
