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BERRYVILLE, Va. (AP) — Opus Oaks, An Art Place, an art school and library that has operated in Berryville for more than 15 years, will permanently close next month.
Founded in 1999 by Bonnie Jacobs, Malcolm Harlow and his wife Gale Bowman-Harlow, the non-profit school has offered art classes, after-school programs and weekend workshops to hundreds of area residents.
The school has been supported by grants and donations, but Bowman-Harlow said Tuesday that it has been difficult to raise enough money to maintain operations.
In addition to closing down the school, Bowman-Harlow is looking for a home for its 3,000-volume art library.
Bowman-Harlow said that school records show that at least 5,000 students have taken classes — in painting and sculptures, photography, jewelry-making, fused and stained glass, copper forging and even blacksmithing — there.
Opus Oaks has two locations — one on First Street in Berryville and the other at a residence on Crums Church Road, northwest of Berryville.
Those camps were "just magical," said Bowman-Harlow, the school's executive director.
The idea for Opus Oaks was born in 1995, when Bowman-Harlow, 61, and Harlow, 78, sought a way to cultivate artistic creativity in the community.
Four years later, they were joined by Jacobs to establish a nonprofit art studio in town.
Harlow has completed sculptures for area monuments, including one of George Washington for the George Washington's Office Museum in downtown Winchester, and the bronze boots for the Korean War Memorial in Jim Barnett Park.
The studio offered an array of visual arts classes for adults and children. "We've had students age 4 to 100," Bowman-Harlow said. The operation later added the art library and a frame shop.
Bowman-Harlow has been the executive director of the studio since its beginning, building classes, designing programs and overseeing the finances of the school.
Opus Oaks also partnered with the Clarke County Parks and Recreation Department to offer classes, and last year reached out to the Shenandoah Conservatory Arts Academy in Winchester to offer art classes there.
Bowman-Harlow noted that the school is responsible for some of the community art in Berryville.
A mural at the Barns of Rose Hill was created by adults and children in Opus Oaks' classes.
Interns working with Bowman-Harlow helped create a scale model of Josephine City, a street-long black community in Berryville, as it looked in the late 1800s. That model can be seen in the Josephine School Community Museum.
These public art works mean her students can always go and see what they created, Bowman-Harlow said.
She also donated school space to other artists, who needed room for projects. A record was made there, and ukulele musicians had a space to learn how to play and practice.
"I'm particularly proud of these community projects," she said.
"It is all catalogued to a library program," Bowman-Harlow said, and she wants to keep it available for people to check out books on the art that interests them.
One of Opus Oaks' board members, Pam Lettie, is putting together a book of the school's memories. Anyone who would like to contribute can contact her at pamlettie@gmail.com.
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Information from: The Winchester Star, http://www.winchesterstar.com
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