The Bay School Community Arts Center has welcomed a new artist to its staff. Annie Harpe took over the position of Gallery and Outreach Coordinator on Sept. 1, replacing Saraya Cheney, who is now employed by the Gloucester Montessori School.
Harpe is a self-taught fiber artist, specializing in felting, weaving, and knitting, and is known for her richly colored and textured shawls and funky knitted hats. She has a background in gallery management in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and teaching English, writing, movement, and yoga to diverse groups, including Mathews High School students and adults in substance abuse recovery programs.
Among her duties at the Bay School, Harpe will be managing both the Art Speaks Gallery and the Bay School’s Community Outreach Programs. She will teach several of those programs herself, integrating heritage crafts, literary arts and wellness into the long-standing visual arts programming. Two public programs she will begin teaching this week include the Thursday afternoon OpenArts After School Program, which is at capacity, and Teen Open Studio on Friday afternoons. Both these programs are free and open to all youth in the area.
New artisan vendors
Harpe welcomed five new artisan vendors to the Bay School Market Days Artisan Market: Bay Bear Creations’ works in wood from Char-
lottesville; funk/tion/al painted gourds, woven shawls, and natural stone jewelry from Culpeper; Creative Ahoy leather and bead jewelry from Chesterfield; Victoria Watson’s animal drawings and silver and bead jewelry from Newport News; and Matthew and Lisa Leavell, from Mathews, featuring Matthew’s botanical sculpture and Lisa’s inspirational soft goods. Creative Ahoy necklaces and earrings and Victoria Watson’s mermaid jewelry can now be found in the Art Speaks Gallery on an ongoing basis.
Upcoming art and craft exhibits
Along with maintaining regular gallery displays of local art and craft, Harpe will manage and curate upcoming exhibitions following a schedule set by Cheney and the gallery committee for the next 15 months.
“An Artist’s Journey,” the Bay School’s adult student show, had been scheduled to open this Friday. With the hurricane closure costing staff valuable preparation time, the show has been rescheduled to open Friday, Nov. 30, and run through Dec. 31. This will give Harpe time to take ownership of the exhibition and make it a special spotlight on Bay School students. The first exhibition she will host is “Woven Stories,” which opens Oct. 26. Fiber artists interested in joining this exhibition can find information on the Bay School website (bayschool-arts.com), can e-mail Harpe at annieharpe@bayschool-arts.com, or can call the Bay School at 804-725-1278.
The Bay School, a nonprofit community art school and gallery, is located at 279 Main Street, Mathews, and is supported in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Dominion Energy, Mathews County, and Chesapeake Bank. Community Outreach Programs are supported by the Mathews Community Foundation, the Sanders Foundation, and Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Rappahannock Trustees of the Servetus Community Outreach Endowment Fund.