The AiR program in Practice

The Artist-in-Residence program at the Museum has been an eye-opener for the staff at the Museum but for the gourd patch participants. The time spent there was so much fun. Several factors came together to make a remarkable visit. Most stunningly, members stepped up to put in more hours than the agreement required so in the end the SVCM had a full time studio.  Hundreds of hours were logged, making a consistent presence. That was pretty amazing and thank you to all the gourd artisans who donated so much time and enthusiasm to the effort. The President of the chapter mostly made the AiR a full-time position and became the anchor overall.

Note the moldy gourd is in a fish tank
for safely sake.

We slid back the glass doors and set up a daily educational table. It was a terrific opportunity to talk about gourds, some history, and some techniques for decorating them. It just took one child to step over and see what's going on, and then others would join in with family and friends. We passed out a LOT of brochures about the workshops weekend we sponsored during the summer!

We talked about dehydration,
washing, and decorating.

A benefit that came as a surprise has been how the members have begun to see how much they get accomplished when devoting a regular period of time to doing their gourd art. It is easy to move from day to day without realizing time is passing and before long chances to start (and then finish) projects passes. Now, most of the gourders see they have developed habits of weekly art time with their gourds and plan to devote a block of time for 'studio work' when they returned to their regular lives.  In my personal case, I hope that works in practice as it sounds in theory!