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Resource Report - 29 Arbutus Folk School · Resource Report

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Hello and welcome to Resource Report, where we
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share with you important information about local
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nonprofits and resource organizations that support
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the community we share, produced by Pathways
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to Agency. I am your host, Rainmaker. Today's
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guests are the founder of Arbutus Folk School,
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Stacey Waterman, and Executive Director, Hillary
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Tully. Here's Stacey and Hillary. I am here remotely
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meeting with Hillary Tully, Executive Director
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of Arbutus Folk School, and Stacey Waterman,
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and you are the founder of Arbutus Folk School,
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is that right? Yup. You're not really listed
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on the website or staff. What role do you currently
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play with Arbutus? Cheerleader. Cheerleader.
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I stepped down and her and I overlapped for about
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three or four months or so, and then I went back
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to work at the state, always a text away or a
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phone call away from her. Like I want to be a
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hundred percent available to her for anything
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that she needs, but I really wanted to empower
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her. And I knew I needed to kind of- as the founder,
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I needed to give her the space to build her own
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connections and take it where she needs to go.
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So I wanted to step away, give myself a break,
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let her build her own thing there. Stay available
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to her, but not necessarily stay on the board.
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I think that's a mistake a lot of founders make
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is that they stay involved and people still kind
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of orbit to the founder. I just didn't want to
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do that. I wanted her to feel ownership of it.
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And it's been six years now. And I mean, COVID
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came and whatever life things happened. And I'm
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now.. contemplating getting back involved to just
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help on a capital campaign, sort of a 10 -year
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plan, like what the real facility needs that
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we have. But I'm also thinking if I'm really
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ready to take all that on. So I was like giving
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myself a little bit of space right now, but I'm
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hoping sometime this year to start a committee
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that can plug away at the long-term needs for the
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space, and just target that and not get involved
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in any of the operations or, you know, I don't
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know if this is a board... if I need to be on the
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board to do that or if I can do this sort of
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as a way to help Hillary. I'm not quite sure
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how this fits in the organization, but I do feel
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some energy around focusing on the facility development
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needs, so I haven't got any plan... I don't even
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know how to do it. But if there's one thing I
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know is that I'll learn it. I'll figure it out.
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I didn't know how to do anything. I think back
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to the beginning of Arbutus, I had to research
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how to start a nonprofit, what kind of people
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you need on your board, how to build a website.
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You know, I created all these forms, like how
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to vet instructors, how to, you know, enroll
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students in classes. you know advertising and
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marketing I had to figure out commercial leases
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like I didn't know anything! Anything! And I just
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kept plugging away at it until I kept telling
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myself I told everybody this like if I made any
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major obstacles and it's time to throw in the
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towel so be it but I'm just gonna go until I
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hit that obstacle and there were no obstacles
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that we couldn't figure out it just kept coming
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together and people kept helping and it just
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every time a crisis came up you know people came
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to the rescue like people care. The community
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supports it and, um, when you need it they were
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showing up and it's very motivating.. You- and
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I felt like I wanted to fight hard to keep it
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going because other people were also fighting
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for it and, um, it's just a powerful thing. I feel
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really grateful for the whole experience That's
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wonderful. That's wonderful. And Hillary, how
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did you come to be here at Arbutus? Yeah, my
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name is Hillary Tully. I'm the executive director
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at Arbutus Folk School, and I started in 2020.
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So this is my sixth year working at the organization.
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And I, obviously starting in 2020, it was COVID,
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so that was a rough time to be starting out.
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We've been through a lot of changes since then,
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getting through COVID and rebuilding from that.
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And we actually had to move two years ago, which
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was also kind of an ordeal. But now we're trying
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to stabilize and we're open. Stacey, what led
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you to start the Arbutus Folk School in the first
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place? My profession in energy and climate policy.
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I've been working on energy efficiency, renewables,
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clean energy. I was about 24 years old in the
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early 90s, and the energy work became all about
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climate change in early 2000. And this is a little
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bit of a story. So bear with me. But we spent
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many years in the mid 2000s. developing a state
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climate action plan, working with 11 Western
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states on the Western Climate Initiative. As
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we were learning about climate change, we were
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also developing policies to address it. We knew
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where all of the greenhouse gases were coming
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from, and we knew what we needed to do to solve
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this problem. We had plans developing in place.
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This is then the economy tank in '08 and everything
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got thrown out the window and the politics around
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climate change got really ugly. And I started
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to get something called climate anxiety. I only
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learned about that word maybe 10 years later.
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So I didn't know what it was at the time, but
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I was just like in complete disbelief that we
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were going to let this thing happen to the planet.
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And I spent about five years after that just
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like, what can I do? What can I do? What can
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I do? Like all of these climate solutions we've
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been working on were just out the window. And
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I began to make a mental shift to, holy cow,
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we're going to let the planet warm. And it's
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the middle of the recession and everybody was
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feeling very economically vulnerable. And, you
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know, at the time there were backyard chickens
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and people were gardening, and canning and stuff.
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People were trying to take some control over
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their ability to take care of themselves. And there
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were also these people out there that were creating
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bunkers and just getting really isolated and
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just thinking about taking care of themselves
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and their families. I really wanted to take care
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of the community. What does our community need
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to survive this economically vulnerable time
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and that climate's changing and everything sucks.
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And I started to think about these traditional
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crafts as a sustainable economic development
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opportunity that had been completely ignored
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in the sustainability conversations that I'd
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been having but thinking you know we have
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local materials where we live in a fortunate
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part of the world. Where we have a lot of resources,
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and if we could sustainably manage those resources,
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and learn to use local materials for some of
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what we need to live in this world. But that
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felt like some kind of progress. I didn't think
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we were going to change the world. We weren't
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going to have this totally hyper circular five
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mile economy kind of thing. But I thought we
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could do a little and make some progress and
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show, show something from this, that this is
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good economic development. And so, at Arbutus.
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So I started to think about these crafts and kind
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of reached out to some folks and found a lot
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of very interested people who were willing to
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put in time and effort. And, you know, then this
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thing came together and it's just, I mean, that's
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a longer story about how the whole thing unfolded.
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What I do want to say, we buy lumber from small
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family farms in Thurston County, sustainably
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managed small family farms. We buy wool for our
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fiber arts classes from small family farms in
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Thurston County. Those people are making a little
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bit of money providing these materials that go
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into these classes where instructors who have
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spent a lifetime accumulating this knowledge
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get to be paid for that knowledge that they've
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gained and sharing it with the world, and we
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get to benefit from people knowing how to do
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these things. I've often thought that traditional
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knowledge is like biodiversity. We're like one
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generation away from losing all of it. And we
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need to keep it alive and we need to keep the
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knowledge alive, so that we can call on it if
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we need it. You know, when COVID hit, we had
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just, we had hundreds of people sewing masks.
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You know, we just got super organized and we
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delivered, God, I don't know, was it 10 ,000
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masks? And, you know, we need people who know
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how to do stuff. And anyway, that's where Arbutus
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came from. It's a little bit of environmental
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anxiety, but it looks like an art school. And
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it is an art school. It just has a lot of other
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co -benefits. Where does the name come from,
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Arbutus? The Madrona tree. You know, I really
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wanted Arbutus to help by... craft from things
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that grow and live here in the Cascadia region,
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Pacific Northwest... like what are the things that
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are here around us that we can use um to to live
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really like you know what are the plants and
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materials around us and how can we manage them
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sustainably, and kind of... yeah, and i really don't
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know that this is even possible, but, um, you know,
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there is a long, you know, Indigenous history
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here. Our, our tribal neighbors are really... they
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have this knowledge and it's, I think it deserves
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to be preserved. It deserves to be elevated.
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It deserves to permeate Western mindset. We should
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learn how to live softly here. And I, and it's
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a very bizarre sort of... There are so many things
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that kind of converged in my head when I was
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thinking about Arbutus., but I picked the name of
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a tree that grows along the coastal northwest
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that's pretty scrappy, has a lot of multi -purposes.
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It's an odd name, a lot of people have trouble
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pronouncing it, but I also wanted something unique.
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But that's really all it is. Oh, actually, the
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bark of the Arbutus tree- So at the time when
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I was founding the school in 2012, 2013, a buzzword
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at the time was Green Economy, you know, Green
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jobs, stimulus money. They were funding Green
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jobs. And the bark on the Madrona tree, when
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it peels off, it's kind of got this, the old
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bark on the outside is like a rusty reddish brown
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color. And then it peels and underneath it is
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this bright, bright green. And I used to kind
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of have an analogy that Arbutus was like pushing
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through the old economy. Oh, yeah. I like that.
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Previously, when you mentioned the wealth of
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knowledge the Indigenous have of skills and living
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from the land, I think of the word that came
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to my mind when you were talking about that was
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de-colonization. I think that's a good move in the
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direction of de-colonizing and being able to find
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that balance between living in harmony with the
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world, the nature, and sustainable living and
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technology and the progress and advances and
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being able to hold both of those things. This
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is some wonderful work that you began here with
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this. So what is Arbutus Folk School and what
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do y'all do? Basically, we have three main areas
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of things that we do. The first is learning and
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we have different classes, and many different crafts.
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So if you come in the building, you'll see a
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wood shop, a fiber lab with looms and things,
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and a ceramic studio. And so people come in and
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take classes and use different crafts, ceramics
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and woodworking and weaving, but many other subjects,
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in the space. And we also have an open shop, open studio,
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where people are doing their own thing, um, practicing
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those skills...self directed projects... for the
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classes they're in. So there, the
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people that are coming in to learn, there's also
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people that come in just to gather and connect
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with each other. We have events, like our monthly
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open mic night, we have the music school, the Oly Old Time
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Festival, and have what I call, like, Grow... So there's..
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we have Learning, Gathering, and we also have
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groups for Growing. And so that's kind of just practicing
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skills and having communities of practice. So
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we have an artist residency program where we
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have an annual cohort of artists that are working
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in the space. And we have different circles that meet
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and practice together. So we have knitting circle,
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embroidery circle, lace making circle. And that
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we also have where the umbrella of the Olympia Woodworkers
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Guild. So that's a group of people that meet every
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month thant works together on projects, a Show 'n' Tell and shares
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skills between members. Oh, that sounds exciting.
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I love that. Can you talk a little bit about
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what are the different classes that y 'all have?
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We have lots of classes we offer on a pretty
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regular basis. We're always going to have these
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ceramic classes, many different options for people.
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There's four weeks, there's eight weeks, there's
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beginner level, there's classes where the skill
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level is mixed. And so people can kind of pick
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and choose, you know, oh, I like Tuesdays or
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whatever. That's always going to be there, but
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we also have classes that are more unique and
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less common. So, for example, classes that rely
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on the season. So we have willow basket weaving
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that just wrapped up this weekend. And, you know,
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we rely on the willow harvest. And so that won't
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be happening until this winter, I guess next
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winter. And so classes like that, nettle harvest,
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and even actually flint napping, which uses obsidian.
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So, you know, the obsidian instructor collects
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it. He goes rock hounding all summer. So he then
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comes back in the winter. Wow. Oh, my gosh. So students are
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using obsidian that he collected. So it's really
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special. Like, there's so many links with where
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we are and, you know, what grows here, who lives
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here, and everything in between. I mean, we have
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a fairly regular, like, cedar bark weaving classes
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led by tribal members from around the region.
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We also have different, like Scrimshaw, different
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artists in this area who have a really unique
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specialty and come to me and say, I'd like to teach a
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class, which is music to my ears . So Scrimshaw,
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for example, is.. there's a local artist, Lara Tukarski, who
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specializes in that. And she's actually a second
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generation Scrimshander. And so she has been
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teaching those classes with us, and um, it's not like
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I said to myself, oh, I think we'll have a Scrimshaw
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class. Who's going to teach that? It's the other
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way around. So Arbutus Folk School in a lot of
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ways reflects what are people in our community
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good at and what do they want to share with their
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community. And that's a lot of what a folk school
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is. It's a worldwide model, but it's been growing
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a lot in popularity here in North America. And, uh..
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basically, you know, it's like, folk means people. So it's like,
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what do the people want to learn? What can the
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people teach each other to live here? And so
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we're actually the first urban folk school. Usually
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it's a pretty rural space, but actually we're
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right in downtown. Kind of a new model. I feel
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like I forgot what Scrimshaw is. I know it's
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some kind of carving. Yeah, it's etching on
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bone. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I was
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going to say just how often does one hear the
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word Scrimshaw? It's not a common vocabulary
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word. I had to think about that for a minute.
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That's really cool. That's really cool. Wow.
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So, and then you even have classes for tourists
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and visitors, I see. So they're like, there's
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one-off, one-off classes or...? Those are just,
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those are classes that we are highlighting and
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have sort of had. for people who may be coming
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from out of town just because they do take place
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in one or two sessions. Okay. So if someone is
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just here for a week and they want to hop in
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a class for the weekend um, you know, like, say
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Intro to Bookbinding takes place over a Saturday
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and Sunday you come away with an amazing final
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project and it's just a really an incredible
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experience with a very passionate instructor
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out of uh that's Jeff Salazar out of Boston Harbor
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Bookbindery and, um, he leads students in creating a
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really nice, I think it's six by nine, linenbound
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journal. And so that's an example of like someone
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who goes to our page that's called classes for,
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what did I call it? Classes for Visitors. You'll
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see that listed. I mean, it's open to everyone,
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but it just, it happens to be suitable for someone
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who's just here for a short time. Right on. That's
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good to know. Cool. You have Partnerships and
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Special Programs, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we do partner
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with different social service agencies, libraries,
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schools to sort of open our doors wider and get
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more people making art and taking our classes
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who might not otherwise do so. We do have, I
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mean, we have our regular classes where you can...
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you're- what you're paying towards the class is
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allowing us to pay the artist and buy the materials..
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craft is very expensive, uh, it's you know, this
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is locally harvested wood, this is clay, this is,
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um, you know, glazes, that we find the materials,
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and we do not find the materials, but I'm just
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saying you know it's not like we can just um
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grab these items um you know on the cheap, so
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craft is expensive, and we try to make it accessible.
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We do have scholarships and sliding scale classes.
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We offer free programming and reduced costs.
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Basically, our partnerships are really special
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because they're not open to the public and they're
21:49
a little bit of a best kept secret. But I work
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with, generally with other groups to bring these
21:54
experiences to their audience, whether that's
21:56
in our studios or actually in their own space.
21:59
Where maybe their audience is more comfortable or already
22:02
is located. So that's a special way to increase
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access directly for audiences, typically of like
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social service agencies, like I mentioned, or,
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you know, rural communities and things like that
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that might not ordinarily be coming in. Oh, I
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love that so much. I love that so much. You have
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free community arts activity in partnership with
22:26
Puget Sound Estuarium, ceramics activities with
22:29
the Low Income Housing Institute at Billy Frank
22:32
Jr. Place. Those are just really wonderful, accessible
22:37
programs for individuals experiencing those kind
22:44
of circumstances. And I think that that's really
22:47
where, you're really open to all the community.
22:51
It's not an exclusive thing. You really are finding
22:55
ways for every person, no matter what their disposition
22:59
is, to be able to participate in this. And that's
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just really incredible and special. And it's
23:06
amazing, truly, like how impactful this is. Like,
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you know, one of the projects I'm working on
23:12
now, Partnerships, I've been working with Rosie's
23:16
Place on programming. We've worked with them,
23:19
uh, in in the past, and the student came to their
23:22
staff and said when is.. when are we going to do
23:24
that again and so that you know,it's like once
23:27
people realize like, oh wow I can make this, and
23:31
I can learn how to do this, and it's just very
23:33
inspiring. There's, like, it's like people are so
23:35
drawn to this kind of experience working with
23:38
their hands or doing something they've not tried
23:40
before. Of course, we all know how impactful making
23:44
art is for youth, but even for adults, it's like,
23:47
you think that you're not artistic because you
23:51
can't draw. But then when you put your hand to
23:54
clay, for example, that's a totally different
23:57
sensory experience and a totally different way
24:00
of thinking really through the world. People
24:03
love it. I can't explain it, but it's just such
24:06
a deep part of everyone. Even the most reserved
24:09
or stern person is really going to, I'm pretty
24:12
sure, going to open up and enjoy themselves as
24:15
they try something new. It doesn't have to be
24:18
perfect. It's just learning and trying something
24:20
and seeing what comes out of it. Our classes
24:23
are almost always geared toward beginners and
24:26
helping that beginner find success in what they're
24:30
doing. And so, you know, the classes are kind
24:33
of long. I think some people are surprised by
24:35
that. This is how you make something. You know,
24:40
it's not quick. You don't instantly have what
24:43
you want. It takes time and practice. And that's
24:48
just an experience that's so good for so many
24:51
people, whether you're stressed or having trouble
24:55
with self -expression or your creativity is gone.
25:01
There's just so many ways for this kind of experience
25:04
to... to support people's many different needs.
25:08
I love that, yeah, um, so I was finding out about
25:15
the, um, the different low income options you have
25:19
like slidiing scale and scholarships and there
25:22
are even free classes and I, I just want to call
25:26
out that you know people experiencing various
25:28
barriers living in survival mode even or just
25:31
low income and they don't have these opportunities
25:34
for their kids or even themselves usually. They
25:37
don't think of themselves as even having those
25:39
opportunities and I think it's very valuable
25:41
to find an opportunity like this because it's
25:45
something that feeds the soul and can be very
25:47
healing is to do an activity like this with others
25:51
you know, and and I could put you back in a normal
25:55
lifestyle frame of mind, you know? Yeah, I'm so grateful
26:01
to Hillary that she has the skills to build, um,
26:05
you know, that the fundraiser for the scholarships,
26:08
it was so important to me, but I didn't know how
26:11
to do it and I-I quickly got to the maximum of
26:15
my capacity when I was starting the- you know,
26:18
and I got kind of on a treadmill like I just
26:20
I can only do what I'm doing and I can't do more
26:22
and we needed, we needed to do more, and we brought
26:26
in Hillary, she had a lot stronger fundraising
26:28
skills, and I'm just so grateful that she's been
26:30
able to do that. And, 'cause paying for the classes is
26:35
just something that I really, I just really hate
26:37
that we have to charge at all. I just wish it
26:40
was all free. I really, really wish so much that
26:45
it didn't cost anything. There were no barriers
26:48
to participation, but anyway. She's doing wonderful
26:52
things, and I'm so grateful for that. So if you want
27:04
to take a class, how do you sign up for one?
27:08
And if you need to do a sliding scale or a scholarship,
27:12
how do you apply for that? Oh, um, you will see in our
27:20
catalog, our youth classes are always sliding
27:24
scale, at least as long as we have the funding to do that,
27:28
which, thanks to City of Olympia, which supports that
27:31
with entire Olympia funding, we've been able
27:34
to apply to offering sliding scale classes on
27:37
a really affordable basis. So those, you just
27:41
put yourself in the class with the price point
27:45
that you need. With scholarships, there's a really
27:48
simple application that you can fill out and
27:50
then apply that scholarship to whichever class
27:54
you wanted to attend. Those are not specific
27:58
to classes that happen at the school. Classes
28:01
that happen off -site are a little bit different,
28:04
so they're not under the scholarship program,
28:07
but the vast majority of our classes do happen
28:09
at our downtown location. And then the reduced cost
28:15
classes are typically folk and traditional arts. That's
28:18
also supported generously by our partner, Northwest
28:21
Heritage Resources. So we're able to bring in
28:26
some amazing regional culture bearers and instead
28:28
of charging, you know, the full cost of what
28:32
we're spending to create this experience and
28:35
to get these really special materials that they've
28:37
harvested by hand, and instead, students are paying
28:42
a much lower rate. The cost is supported by the
28:45
grant. It makes it more accessible for everybody
28:48
to be able to come out. And then the free programming
28:53
you'll also see in our catalog. We do that as
28:56
much as we can. It's hard because we do pay our
28:58
artists in most cases. We have a few actually
29:02
amazing volunteers. In particular, our circles
29:06
are led by volunteers. If you come out to a circle,
29:10
it's really a group of people helping each other,
29:12
including that volunteer lead and some amazing
29:15
people that help make all our programs possible
29:18
behind the scenes as well as the instructors.
29:22
But yeah, just take a look at our website, our
29:24
catalog, see all the different offerings and
29:27
ways to get involved, even if you can't afford.
29:31
Some of our classes are quite pricey because
29:33
they're so intense. We have a quite extensive
29:37
woodworking class going right now, but it, um, it's like a full
29:40
week. It's like a woodworking summer camp, uh, for
29:43
grown -ups. Yeah, there is a mix. I see this, um,
29:47
like the Stained Glass Intro is $105, and you have
29:51
the Embroidery Circle, which is free, um, and that
29:55
looks like it's every Sunday at 10 ..10 am, and
29:58
then and you have Knife and Tool Sharpening for
30:01
$50, so it's.. There's a variety. Okay, that's really
30:05
cool. Lace Making Circle is free. That's 4 o
30:09
'clock pm on Fridays, and then the Leather
30:14
Tool Roll... Lace Making is once a month, not every week. Oh, it's
30:17
once a month. Oh, thank you for clarifying that.
30:19
Cool. Yeah. Do you take internships? Do you work
30:23
with Evergreen or other schools? Yeah, we do.
30:27
We do work with Evergreen. We have interns at
30:30
Evergreen, a few a year. So, for example, this
30:34
past year, we had a really wonderful intern in
30:37
Ivy, who helped with our summer camp. We had our
30:39
first ever summer camp last year. We're planning
30:42
another one for this coming summer. But that
30:45
intern was able to help us conceive and plan
30:50
out and implement this great new camp for youth.
30:53
And that was a really special program. The big
30:56
hit with that was Chinese Shadow Puppetry.. with Kuen Art, which
31:00
is one of our instructors. I could not believe
31:03
how much these students loved it. They created like
31:06
a narrative and characters of this traditional
31:09
Chinese shadow puppet show. And they just loved
31:13
it. They were like begging to do more. But it
31:16
was so sweet because it was so, it was like kind
31:18
of hard work. Like they create, you know, these
31:20
students created a story and all kinds of things,
31:23
a bamboo stage. But they just loved it. And so
31:26
that was a really big hit at summer camp. And
31:29
they also did ceramics and needle felting. We're
31:32
looking forward to getting that again this year.
31:34
Exciting How do you see these traditions contributing
31:38
as a community resource? I think back to my very
31:42
first couple of classes. I started this school
31:45
out of economic fear and environmental anxiety.
31:50
I was not really thinking about art because I'd
31:57
never really taken an art class. I was shocked
32:02
after our first couple of classes. The people
32:05
bonded in these classes and they had really powerful
32:09
experiences just being creative in community
32:15
with other people. A lot of folks are not creative.
32:19
They don't have a lot of creative opportunity
32:23
in their lives. A lot of office workers here,
32:28
and people came into these classes, and just you
32:32
have to let down your guard to like to make something
32:35
that other people are going to see you to break
32:38
into your creative self and and share it and
32:42
you have to be in a very supportive- for a lot
32:44
of people- you need to be in a supportive environment.
32:47
You don't want to feel judged, you don't want
32:49
to feel like you're not good enough, like, they
32:51
might have felt that way a lot in their lives
32:53
in the past. Anyway, I remember people being
32:57
so moved about just being able to create together
33:06
with other people. In fact, a lot of people wanted to
33:08
sign up together in the next class. They sort
33:13
of bonded in these classes. They wanted to take
33:15
the next class all together. Let's all sign up
33:18
for the next class! I was really... blown away
33:21
by that experience that people were having. I
33:24
didn't even know that existed. I didn't know
33:29
about that dynamic. It became more important
33:35
to me than everything else. I loved fostering
33:39
that kind of experience for people. I wanted
33:45
everybody to have more of it in their lives.
33:48
I just thought, if we could have... I don't know,
33:53
people having experiences like that, the world
33:56
would be a different place. People were coming
33:58
to Arbutus... some people were just looking for
34:01
community. They just wanted to be with other
34:03
people and do something, and it was new. It was
34:05
not a bar, and it wasn't church. It was sort
34:08
of a different way of interacting with people.
34:12
And some people came because they'd done a little
34:16
bit of this craft, but they wanted to learn more.
34:18
They were trying to develop skills. Some people
34:21
came because it's sort of nostalgic. They remembered
34:26
their grandparents doing this stuff, and they
34:28
never learned how, but they kind of wanted to,
34:31
kind of reminded them of their grandparents.
34:34
Some people came because they wanted to feel
34:39
more control over their lives, like being able
34:43
to fix stuff and repair stuff and make stuff
34:45
for themselves. People came for all kinds of
34:49
reasons that I didn't really expect, and they
34:52
mix in these classes in a way that we don't mix
34:58
in our lives in any other way. And people really
35:02
bonded in these classes. I think there's been
35:04
a lot of, I don't know, just powerful connections
35:08
built. And I'm really, really proud of that.
35:13
It just makes me really happy. Wow, I love that so
35:17
much. Yeah, so you mentioned volunteers.
35:22
How do you get involved? Are you hiring? Do you
35:25
have.. um, there's volunteering, donations, other
35:28
ways to participate? To get involved, I would
35:31
say the number one thing is take a class or attend
35:35
an event, tell your friends, bring a friend.
35:38
I cannot tell you how much it supports our beautiful
35:43
school to have people consistently coming into
35:45
our classes, filling the classes. You know, we
35:49
really, it's really hard to go out on a limb
35:53
and be like, we hope, we think people will like
35:57
this class. The example I always give is we have
36:01
a Longbow class coming up where you can make,
36:03
well, I don't know if it's actually a Longbow,
36:05
but it's like a wooden bow, and when the instructor
36:09
first proposed that, I was a little freaked out.
36:10
I didn't know if people would want to make a
36:12
longbow or not. And then we posted it, and then
36:14
it just, like, sold out immediately. And I'm
36:16
like, oh, I guess people do want to make a long
36:18
bow. And so, but, you know, there's other times
36:21
where we post something and nobody wants to do
36:23
it. But, you know, it's kind of a strain, like,
36:26
trying to get, make sure the class is run, like,
36:30
you have enough students to be able to do it.
36:33
So when somebody does sign up for a class, it's
36:36
just a huge help because it allows us to actually
36:38
run the class and give that artist work and sustain
36:41
the school and keep programs running. So taking
36:44
classes is a great way to support. We also rely
36:48
on donations. We've talked a lot about all the
36:50
things we do to try to serve as many people as
36:53
we can with these experiences, not just those
36:55
who pay. And so that's, you know, it's very costly.
36:59
And it's not only the cost of the materials,
37:01
the artist time, but, you know, none of this
37:04
could happen without, for example, my position,
37:06
my work to coordinate it, you know, working with
37:08
these partners. They don't just appear out of
37:11
thin air, you know, it's a relationship. It takes a lot
37:13
of time. And so those donations that we do receive
37:17
are so impactful for expanding the accessibility
37:20
of our programs and sustaining the school for
37:25
the long term. So that has been our really amazing
37:29
thing, particularly with COVID. We came really
37:32
close to needing to close just due to there being
37:34
literally no money. And the community has just
37:37
been amazingly supportive through COVID, and
37:40
then all we have to do, stepping up to support
37:42
all our costs to survive. And so that has been
37:47
amazing to see just how meaningful it is to people
37:49
that they will step up and support. So that's
37:52
so sweet. But there's a lot of ways to get involved.
37:58
I would say, like I said, taking classes is great.
38:01
We do take volunteers, but volunteering with
38:03
us is very unusual. And we're trying to standardize
38:08
it a little bit, but it's, um, I would say if someone
38:13
wants to get involved, it might be good to kind
38:15
of check out what all is going on at the school
38:17
and see if you have a skill set that loops in
38:20
with something special and unique that we're
38:22
doing, and then maybe reach out from there because
38:26
we've got people that, you know, volunteer... helping.
38:30
Like, just recently we had some volunteer hours
38:33
blocked for willow harvest and it's like, that
38:36
is not a typical volunteer position description.
38:39
So that kind of gives you a sense of the diversity
38:42
of tasks that we're doing in our own school.
38:45
But yeah, we're not currently hiring. We could
38:47
just hire one position now. People can certainly
38:51
keep an eye on our newsletter, which comes out
38:53
once a month. Find out for that on our website.
38:56
We'll keep you posted there with the openings
38:58
we've been involved. One thing that comes to
39:01
mind in a few months, we'll be doing a community...
39:04
it's going to be free, collaborative, you know,
39:06
art project with an artist out of Gig Harbor
39:09
named Bella Kim, who does really beautiful work.
39:12
It's inspired by Korean quilting. Well, I don't
39:18
know if you'd call it quilting. A traditional,
39:21
like, reuse of scraps to make fabric. And she's
39:25
been kind of inspired by that. That's where some
39:28
of her aesthetics come from, as well as... reuse
39:31
of materials. And so we're actually going to
39:33
be needing a lot of materials for that project.
39:37
So if people want to save actually some of their
39:40
trash for us, they can read more about that in
39:44
our website or reach out to us about that. But
39:48
we'll be publishing that out more soon, what kind of materials
39:52
we'll be looking for. And so, yeah, there's always
39:56
something like that coming up and just stay tuned
39:58
and jump in when you see something that appeals
40:01
to you. And then, of course, this weekend, we've
40:11
got the Oly Old Time Festival. That's a great way
40:14
to jump in. Come to a dance or come to a workshop.
40:17
Yeah, this show is going to be airing right after
40:21
that. So I wasn't sure if I wanted to mention
40:23
about it or not, but that's really exciting,
40:27
and that's something you do every year? Yeah,
40:30
it's every Presidents Day weekend. And it's concerts
40:34
and jams, and all the workshops are free. The
40:38
concerts are $30 per night. It's square dancing, and,
40:44
you know, bring your banjo and jam with people.
40:48
And it's a really special event and takes place
40:50
at South Bay Range. And definitely encourage
40:54
people to come out for that as well. How and
40:56
why did that Oly Old Time Festival begin? Oh,
41:01
so the Oly Old Time Festival began before Arbutus,
41:04
and they were friends of mine, the organizers
41:07
of the festival. I went to the festival and had
41:11
a blast and loved it. You know, my kids were
41:14
little and they had these family jams and these
41:16
little family square dances, you know, where
41:18
you, you know, you go in this middle of the square
41:21
and quack like a duck, and it was just so sweet.
41:23
And I.. it just touched me. And I loved that this
41:29
little, you know, like the kids were not watching
41:33
TV. They were coming out, being together, dancing,
41:36
goofing off, learning to play music, dance. I
41:39
just thought, you know, gosh, I felt so lucky
41:42
that we got to expose our kids to that. And then I
41:47
went up to Fiddle Tunes up at Centrum. It's one
41:52
of the Centrum programs at Port Townsend. And
41:55
there were 10, 000 people that come every year
41:59
for a week to Port Townsend from all around the
42:03
world to learn traditional American fiddle tunes.
42:06
And that's where I realized there's a lot of
42:10
people that care about these non -commercial
42:16
things. Like, you know, some of these folks were
42:20
building their own canvas tents and they were
42:23
bringing homemade canned food and they were building
42:27
little wooden stools that sit around in their
42:30
jam circles. And I thought, you know, there must
42:32
be interest in all of these crafts beyond the
42:36
music, and that's where it was at Fiddle Tunes, probably
42:41
the summer of 2012, where I thought, huh, I think
42:48
there is a market for something like this. And
42:50
I think I could go big. I didn't know for a while
42:54
if it was just going to be a wood shop or just
42:57
a ceramic studio, like one space. But I thought
43:00
if we did all of it, or had an intention of eventually
43:04
doing all of it, that we would get more interest
43:07
from folks. This is an example of where I think
43:09
a bigger idea was a better idea. And that I shouldn't
43:13
start off too small because I think it might
43:16
be too limiting. And the other big thing risk
43:20
I took was like starting off by renting some space
43:26
in Olympia instead of like, somebody's garage
43:28
or renting a church hall or something I just
43:31
said you know what we're gonna be a presence
43:34
in downtown or people are gonna see us you know
43:38
did a lot of online promotion at that time, and Facebook
43:42
really helped us, like, but this is early days
43:45
of Facebook, where people.. you know if you made
43:47
a post people would see it now now you have to
43:49
pay to get showed up to people's feeds,
43:52
but we were able to get the word out about what
43:55
we were doing very cheaply and easily. There's
44:00
a lot of traffic outside our front doors so people
44:02
can see it. We took some big risks and just kind
44:07
of went big early on. I think that was a good
44:10
idea. Tell me about the Founders Fund. I'm just
44:13
really moved by that. Hillary started that after
44:17
I left. And it was...they, they kicked it off
44:23
at my goodbye party. It was my going away party,
44:27
which got kind of delayed because of, it was still kind
44:29
of Covidy. She'd, she'd been there, I think a
44:32
year and a half or something like that, when
44:34
we were finally able to have a gathering of people
44:38
indoors. And we had a big, just very sweet party,
44:43
and then we kicked off this Founders Fund and
44:46
we were raising money to help, and like, just
44:49
develop the the organization. You know it's hard
44:54
to get funding for like, professional development
44:58
or some of the things that they needed, in fact
45:02
I'm not.. I should go back and look at what it
45:04
says online.. it's probably been a couple years
45:06
since I've looked at it but, um... she
45:11
just did that in my honor, and I just thought
45:13
that was really really great and I'm not sure
45:15
really, you know, if it's promoted that much,
45:19
or if there's been that much money raised, but
45:21
the whole idea of it was very moving. I mean,
45:25
I used to say all the time, like, all I did was
45:28
push a boulder over a rock. I mean, over a cliff.
45:32
I pushed a boulder over the cliff, and I watched
45:34
it roll, you know, like... It sure gained momentum.
45:39
It brought a lot of momentum, and I get all the
45:42
credit for pushing this boulder over, but...
45:44
But really, you know, there's so many people
45:47
that were involved for many, many years. And
45:52
I just feel lucky that I spotted the boulder
45:57
and had the idea to push it over and see what
46:03
happened. I love that. That's so wonderful. Is
46:16
there anything else you would like to share?
46:20
Well, I do think we have enabled a lot of people
46:28
with unique skills and knowledge to make a living
46:32
in that space where maybe it was just a hobby
46:35
before. You know, a lot of these instructors were not
46:42
making a living, you know. In some cases, depending on
46:47
how much you want to get into this teaching stuff,
46:50
lots of people quit their day jobs and are just
46:55
doing this. And I love that. I want more economic
47:00
vitality around this. This feels like, when I
47:05
think about the world I want to live in, if I
47:09
could ideally design the world, I would have
47:12
lots of farms and sustainable harvesting of local
47:18
resources coming in to artisans and instructors
47:26
and people making stuff with it, and that's sort
47:31
of how we live. You know, I would love for this to be a
47:35
bigger part of life and the bigger part of our
47:39
economy. I mean, in an ideal world, I would just
47:43
take all the money out of it and it wouldn't
47:47
be like nobody would have to pay to take classes
47:50
and instructors wouldn't need money to survive
47:52
and we wouldn't have to pay for materials. But
47:54
that's unfortunately not the world that we live
47:57
in. And I could not for the life of me figure
48:00
out how to make it work without that. I mean,
48:04
you know, Melinda Gates could really help us
48:07
out. And Jeff Bezos, you know whatever.. millions
48:11
of dollars on us, so that we could offer all
48:13
of this for free, and.. but anyway, that's not the
48:18
world we live in, um, but this is how I could figure us,
48:23
you know, moving in that direction. I wish more
48:31
than anything, that we could be gifted,some
48:37
property that we could develop into a really
48:43
fabulous attraction of a location. Something
48:48
that we could chip away at building all of the
48:53
shop spaces. These spaces are very unique. I'd
48:58
like to have a variety of kilns for
49:02
the ceramic studio, like a wood kiln, a gas fire
49:05
kiln, raku, you know, a metal shop. I think
49:10
I mentioned that. I'd like to have space to host,
49:16
you know, boat building classes. And I'd like
49:22
to have accommodations for visiting artists and
49:26
for even, you know, retreats or, you know, groups, and..
49:33
Oh, gosh, and the performing arts space where
49:37
we could have dance communities be able to practice
49:40
there and have rehearsals and hold dances and
49:44
concerts and gardening and canning and cooking.
49:48
A commercial kitchen where we could get into the
49:50
food stuff, which was part of my original idea,
49:53
but I had to let it go because commercial kitchens
49:55
are so hard and expensive. There's a bigger vision.
50:01
which we're going to start getting into once
50:03
I start this Capital Campaign thing, but we really..
50:07
I would love to be gifted property to, to develop
50:14
this and really become a major attraction. And
50:18
a lot of people have asked me if, I just hate
50:23
technology or they'll see me talking on a cell
50:26
phone. It's like, I thought you were like the
50:28
back to the land person. I'm like, no, I'm actually
50:30
not. I use technology. We all use technology,
50:33
but I kind of, I think we really, we've gone
50:39
a little, I think too far and relying on technology.
50:42
I think it's important to remember how to make
50:47
and... make stuff that we need and not get too removed
50:50
from, you know how things that we rely on to
50:56
live, um, are made and um, so I mean, I'm pro technology,
51:01
but I also like.. like in the wood shop, we have
51:04
power tools, but I also really love the hand tools.
51:07
I kind of feel like it's learn to walk before
51:09
you run you know, just don't forget how to make
51:12
things. I feel like it's it's vital to our sense
51:17
of safety and also and just have a... kind of take
51:22
care of ourselves. And that's sort of separate
51:25
from just the fundamental need to create and
51:28
be in community and connect with people and just
51:31
feel like, you know, like the artistic, you know,
51:37
drive that people have for these classes, so that's
51:40
also really important, but I think it's what
51:43
differentiates us from just an art school. It's
51:47
this resilience or sort of like, empowerment,
51:50
I think that's the word I'm looking for. If
51:52
we carve a wooden spoon, that's not like we can
51:59
go live out in the woods. That's not all the
52:02
skills you need to survive, but it is very empowering
52:06
just to make one little thing and just say, okay,
52:08
well, at least I can make a spoon. And if you
52:13
don't buy a spoon... If you give it as a gift, and if
52:18
it displaces one plastic piece of crap from the
52:21
Walmart or whatever, that's progress to me, like I
52:25
feel like I view this as a success, if we're
52:27
able to shift even a tiny bit of revenue away
52:31
from those big box stores. Every little bit counts.
52:35
Thank you so much for your time, Stacey. I really
52:38
appreciate hearing from you. Thank you. Thank
52:41
you for your interest, Rainmaker, and I'm so thrilled
52:44
that you're interested, and I'm just really
52:47
honored that you're choosing Arbutus and this chance
52:50
to disuss, and I hope this was useful,
52:54
and I hope all the people listening to it find
52:56
it interesting, and yeah, take a class. Join
53:01
fun down there. All right. Awesome.
53:04
And so final question, is there anything else
53:08
you would like to share? I really appreciate
53:12
you featuring Arbutus Folk School, sharing more
53:14
about it with the community. You can visit Arbutus
53:25
Folk School at 705 4th Avenue East, Suite 101
53:30
in downtown Olympia or call 360 -350- 0187. Find out more at
53:44
arbutusfolkschool.org. That's spelled A -R -B -U -T -U -S. Arbutus. That's
53:57
it for today's resource report produced by Pathways
54:00
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slash resource hyphen report.