Dear Editor,
What would you do if you heard that we might lose an important piece of our community and history?
Recently the Fletcher Farm School for the Arts and Crafts announced that they will be closing for the 2024 season to resolve funding, organizational, and personnel issues, including finding a new board chair for the nonprofit’s governing body, the Society of Vermont Artists and Craftsmen (SOVAC), by Jan. 15, or risk statute-dictated dissolution.
If the school shutters, we will lose a piece of living local history and a fantastic opportunity for us young people to participate in community events and learn new skills. In its current form, the school has been serving the Ludlow area for over 75 years, but arts and crafts classes have been offered at Fletcher Farm since the 1930s. Did you know that at different times, the authors Robert Frost and Dorothy Canfield Fisher served on the board of the Fletcher Farm Foundation (which leases the space to SOVAC)? The school honors this history through classes for students of all ages, and a Young Artists Scholarship to make the arts more accessible for local children and teens.
You can help this historic nonprofit reopen and come back stronger than before. Whether you join the board, make a year-end donation, offer pro bono services, or help out in any other way you can, this valuable community resource needs our support now more than ever. To learn how you can get involved, contact Board Chair Susan Damone Balch at susan@fletcherfarm.org or 802-228-8770. In the spirit of the school’s historic contributions to our community, let’s make sure it can stay open well into the future.
Sincerely,
Lorien P. Strange
Cavendish, Vt.