| Sawtooth School for Visual Art
began in 1945 as the Arts & Crafts Workshop, the initiative of the
Winston-Salem
Junior League in partnership with the City's
Parks and Recreation Department and Public Schools. Initially
many arts disciplines were included in the mix of programs, from visual
art and craft to dance, writing and cooking classes. Instruction
took place not only in the central-city facility, but also in schools,
parks and churches throughout the municipality and students young and old,
black and white were served by the group. All programs were provided
free of charge. Only Workshop supervisors and the manager, Mrs. Chester
Marsh were paid for their labor, while most instruction was provided by
volunteers.
By 1947, a majority of the
City Aldermen determined that public support of arts programs would not
be sustained. The Workshop's initial West End Graded School home
(the city's first public school) was sold to Sears (currently the space
occupied by Wachovia's West End Center), and the School was razed.
Believing their programs were a great public value, the group formally
incorporated in 1948 as the Arts and Crafts Association, with J. Gordon
Hanes, Jr. as its first president.
Between 1948-51 Arts &
Crafts was housed at the corner of 4th and Main (across the street from
R. J. Reynolds and the County Courthouse, above the Kress Drug Store),
and its mix of programs, services and Junior League support were all sustained.
Facing serious economic challenges
with the pending end of Junior League funds (initially a five year commitment),
the Association joined forces with the new Winston-Salem
Arts Council and from 1951-58 resided with other cultural agencies
and the Council on 5th Street (the Trotman House). Workshop
Manager, Mrs. Marsh retired in the first months after this move, and Mrs.
Bess Burke was hired as her successor (1951-1965). Programs at this
time focused largely on adult populations, with most outreach (in playgrounds)
and youth services provided by the Council. During these years, annual
membership dues and charges for classes, workshops and material/facility
use were first introduced.
The Winston-Salem Foundation,
owner of the Arts Council's first facilities (both on 5th street, and later
the Hanes Community Center), sold the Trotman house in late 1957, covering
all expenses for the Association's move to the James G. Hanes Center on
Coliseum Drive (where Arts & Crafts called home between 1958-1981).
Mrs. Helen Weiler (1965-67), Mrs. Frances Malcolm (1967-80), and Mr. Randy
Williams (1980-81) succeeded Burke in managing the Association's work.
Oversight of their efforts was the responsibility of Arts and Crafts' Board
of Directors; a body whose constituency has, in part, changed annually,
and whose numbers have ranged from seven to thirty. Arts & Crafts'
years at Hanes Community Center seem devoted to increasing professionalism
and focus of the organization, which by the late 70's was singularly centered
on the visual arts. Actively considering facility challenges and
growth since the mid-1970s, the Association had worked out most of the
staff organizational changes, program expansion plans and facility needs
by 1981, when Ray Pierotti was hired as the group's first executive director.
Shortly after his hire, and in concert with the move to our current facility,
the name of the Association was changed to the Sawtooth Center for Visual
Design.
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