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Background
The Art School was founded by Nancy Barno Reynolds in September 2005. The school is located in Broome County New York with its two main facilities in Vestal at the Our Lady of Sorrows Church and in Endwell at Broome West Senior Center. Nancy serves as the Executive Director and the only full-time (non-contracted) staff member. The Art School strives to offer "affordable art education for everyone" and does so with classes ranging from $5-10 an hour. The classes include a variety of art, cooking, dancing, and writing mediums and are taught by numerous visual arts teachers in the surrounding areas. The faculty members are handpicked by Nancy for their creative talent and the unique spirit that they each can offer The Art School. Nancy describes The Art School as a way to "combine my loves: family with work; art & language with cooking; talented artists with willing students; education with community improvement."
The Art School is the only school in the area with such a broad amount of variety and creativity for students. It was founded with only a couple of months of consideration and planning by Nancy after a friend suggested that something of its nature was needed in the community. Aside from teaching members of Broome County about art, The Art School is extremely service oriented and is very involved in giving back to the community whenever possible. Monthly art demonstrations take place at either of their campuses for free and various donations are made for free art or cooking classes to other organizations in need of support (WSKG Art Auction, Mothers & More group, S.O.S. Shelter Art Auction, etc.)1