A brisk walk up the staircase near the front entrance of the Milton Rhodes Center on North Spruce Street will lead you to the Sawtooth School for Visual Art, a community arts school that has survived the pandemic by offering a combination of in-person and online classes.
At the onset of the pandemic in March, 2020, Sawtooth was forced to shut down and furlough its staff.The school quickly pivoted and reopened in July,adapting classes to meet the changing needs of the community.
Executive Director Amy Jordan credits the school’s instructors, who were “willing to be nimble and try new things.”
Sawtooth has 11 different studios in such arts as printmaking, photography, and ceramics. Children, teens, and adults of all skill levels are welcome to enroll in a wide range of classes which can last anywhere from one evening to a weekend or even multiple months.
Together Jordan and Sawtooth studio directors introduced a number of changes to keep the school going. Instructors use cameras to display their work during online classes and to maintain social distance in person. Safety protocols were implemented including smaller class sizes, mask requirements, and socially distanced seating. The school also introduced an artist in residency program, and implemented rental space for artists.
To Jordan’s delight, the school’s online classes have attracted students from beyond Winston-Salem, as far away as California, Oregon, Florida, and Texas.
Ceramics director Seth Charles said he was surprised at the sheer number of people who wanted to come back for the 2020 summer term. It was a “reemphasis of how important Sawtooth is for people and [how important it is] to have this creative outlet,” Charles said.
The ceramics department remained a pillar for the school to lean on during the pandemic. “We just knew if that department could make it, then we could bring back other departments as well,” said Jordan.
The ceramics studio, which overlooks Winston Square Park, is filled with large windows which allow natural light to pour in. There are classes offered in wheel-throwing, hand-building, glazing, design and clay sculpture.
Charles has worked at schools across the nation in Washington, Vermont, Montana, and Florida. He started as the director of ceramics in January of 2020, three months before the pandemic, and attributes a large reason for joining the team to the staff at Sawtooth, whom he saw “felt happy and fulfilled.”
As director, he has now spent more time in his role planning classes tailored to COVID-19 safety protocols. “It might have been easier for me to switch to that mentality because I was new here,” Charles said. things were still malleable and I was able to have a different vision for the studio set up.”
Emma Chanona, a student in the ceramics department, is impressed by her teachers. “All of the instructors here are amazing… they’re super passionate about ceramics,” Chanona said. Sawtooth provides an opportunity for her to pursue ceramics that she was unable to experience in her art major at Forsyth Technical Community College.
Chanona took her first class last January and fell in love immediately. “He [Charles] was so supportive and willing to give me opportunities to learn and grow, which I found amazing,” she said.
Currently, she is enrolled in spring term classes and simultaneously gaining studio experience by helping out with tasks such as disinfecting areas and loading/unloading the kiln in exchange for studio credit and an extra time slot to work on her art during the week.
