Your contribution to Featherstone's campaign helps shape Featherstone's campus, future and helps us provide year-round creative opportunities enriching the lives of children and adults.
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Our new Art Barn and Pottery Studio, built in 2017 have transformed our campus into a state-of-the-art facility for teaching, learning and experiencing the arts.  These new spaces enable Featherstone to accommodate artists and art enthusiasts in exceptional environments.

Your gift to the Campaign for Featherstone ensures that creativity thrives on our Island and at Featherstone!

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Featherstone Center for the Arts is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, thank you for considering a tax deductible gift!
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Benefits of the Campus Expansion
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In the summer of 2017 Featherstone opened two new buildings, expanding the art center campus with 8,600 square feet of new space. Since opening the buildings one year ago, Featherstone has seen dramatic increases in usage and visitation due to these beautiful and efficient structures.​

The new 6,400 Art Barn houses a state-of-the-art 1,500 square foot gallery, two studio classrooms, office space, conference room and kitchen. The Francine Kelly Gallery is the first purpose-built gallery space on the Island and capable of accommodating large and varied art installations while the expansive studio classrooms offer ideal space for drawing, painting, mixed media and other classes.  

• Providing a professional, spacious gallery with the ability to showcase large and varied works, gallery sales have increased considerably. In the past year since opening, the gallery has experienced a 421% increase in sales ($151,000 versus $29,000 for the year prior). In addition, a new gift shop was opened in June 2018 to showcase the work of Featherstone instructors and has generated additional sales of $5,000 over three months.

• The gallery’s expansive room also offers a unique space for sharing art in various forms – from hosting 200 people to hear former Poet Laureate Billy Collins, to free weekly community photo salons, to an experimental sounds series.

• Collaborations with fellow non profit and other organizations has increased due to the ability to provide space for programs and exhibits. Partnerships have produced beautiful exhibitions with the Vineyard Gazette, Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation and visiting curators. Other collaborations include hosting workshops for arts focused teacher trainings and professional development with both Garden Gate Child Development Center and Consenses.

• The demand for appropriate meeting, workshop and lecture spaces has also created a new revenue stream for the center, with $12,500 being generated in new rental income since the new buildings opened.

• Art classes have seen steady increases in participation over the past year, as well as expanded offerings. Children's Summer Art Camp continues to be a highly successful program at Featherstone and has increased by 28% this year over last.
• The new facilities are both energy efficient, built to LEED specifications (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) and accessible to all, ensuring ease of use for our weekly art therapy Memory Support Group and partnerships with Vineyard Independence Partnership and Seven Hills, two local organizations ensuring opportunities and independence for all Islanders with disabilities.

 
The 2,400 square foot Pottery Studio provides a much-needed generous space and significantly upgraded facility for teaching and creating. Ceramics is the most popular medium on campus with multiple classes and open studio time for professional and novice artists.  

• The Pottery Studio has seen visitation for open studio almost triple as well as the growth of classes and ability to accommodate more students with the enlarged space, while providing a much more adequate studio to create within.

• An additional studio was carved out of the pottery building to create the new Jewelry Studio. This new studio space and program has been hugely successful, adding a much-desired artistic offering to the class roster. In just two months of the new Jewelry Studio opening, the program has generated $10,400 in new revenue.

 
Vineyarders and visitors alike, enjoy opportunities offered at Featherstone. Students, teachers, artists and art appreciators utilize the six-acre campus for distinctive enrichment and education not found elsewhere on Martha's Vineyard. This will only increase in time, with new opportunities for collaborations and continued growth in programming.