Shelburne Craft School to Serve Students With Disabilities

Mosaics made in a class at Shelburne Craft School Credit: Courtesy

When Shelburne Craft School executive director Heather Moore heard earlier this summer that Inclusive Arts Vermont was closing, she said, she cried.

“It was just such a beautiful nonprofit that had done so much good,” she said, adding that she knew how much Inclusive Arts’ classes meant to students. Over 40 years, the organization served thousands of people with disabilities, often in partnership with schools and other nonprofits. But insurmountable funding challenges led to its permanent closure on June 30.

So when Marie Lallier, who teaches darning and mending at the craft school, walked into Moore’s office and said she’d like to teach classes specifically for students with disabilities, Moore was delighted.

“I love that the craft school has that energy,” she said. “It pulls in good things.”

Mosaic made in a class at Shelburne Craft School Credit: Courtesy

Lallier had a career in disabilities services until recently. She connected the school with her former employer, Colchester-based Champlain Community Services, which provides vocational and employment assistance to people with developmental disabilities and had a 40-year partnership with Inclusive Arts.

Executive director Delaina Norton described the org as committed to “ensuring that people have opportunities to promote creativity, connection and just well-being” and said she was deeply saddened by Inclusive Arts’ closure.

Starting after Labor Day, Shelburne Craft School will offer classes to adults with intellectual disabilities through Champlain Community Services. The first course will be a six-week “sampler” of different crafts, including fabric collage, clay, weaving and mosaics. After that, Lallier said, the school will run more in-depth six-to-eight-week courses based on what the students particularly enjoyed. Classes will be intimately scaled, as most studios can accommodate six students with their aides.

Moore herself doesn’t usually teach at the school. But she has worked with teens and adults with disabilities at Camp Thorpe in Goshen, and now she’s excited to try her hand at leading a clay class.

She got an idea for a class project on a recent trip to Japan, where she was setting up a different partnership: a cross-cultural program for students from the craft school to attend two-week residencies in Nishiawakura beginning later this fall. After she repeatedly found tiny clay creatures in gift shops there, Moore learned that Japanese students with intellectual disabilities make and sell such figurines to support their art classes. She said she’s eager to teach Vermont students to make their own.

Everyone involved in the new partnership stressed that they see the new classes not as a replacement for Inclusive Arts but simply as a step toward inclusivity and diversity at the craft school. Norton expects that students will adjust well to the new classes and that some might explore the craft school’s other offerings.

“Oftentimes by opening up a space and creating a more inclusive environment, it becomes apparent that there really weren’t nearly as many barriers as someone may have imagined,” she said.

Moore shares those sentiments and is thrilled to welcome Champlain Community Services students to the campus. “I actually have zero anxiety about it not being fabulous,” she said. This fall’s pilot course curriculum will be similar to any introductory class.

Asked if anything is different about working with students who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, Moore said, “Honestly? There’s just a whole lot more joy.”

The original print version of this article was headlined “Opening a Space: Shelburne Craft School to Offer Classes for Students With Disabilities”