May 26, 2022

It’s a cold and wet Monday afternoon in the woods near Wold Road, quiet and still but for the birds dashing from one tree to the next, searching for food to bring home to their newly hatched young.

From the chimney of a long wooden building tucked into the hillside, smoke from a wood-fired stove floats up into the branches of the cedars above. This subtle sign of life rising from the studio at Alchemy Art Center belies the flurry of creative activity taking place below.

In the ceramics room, hands thick with clay give form to bowls and cups that centered on fast-spinning pottery wheels. On the opposite side of the building, artists cut stencils by hand, combine inks to achieve the perfect color, then use a squeegee to press their screen-printed designs onto posters and t-shirts. In a quiet corner in between, a mixed media sculpture takes shape from an eclectic collection of salvaged materials.

More than a dozen middle and high school students are taking part in Alchemy’s spring youth environmental art program, a ten-week series of in-studio and outdoor experiences that bring together art, design, and informed stewardship of the natural world. It’s just one of nearly seventy programs, classes, and public events that the organization expects to provide this year.

It wasn’t always this way. Before Maria Michaelson and Eben Shay co-founded Alchemy Art Center in 2018, arts programming on the island looked quite different.

“I was working as a professional artist when I moved back to the island in 2012 and I felt the lack of community space and community support,” Maria says. “A lot of the artists here ended up feeling isolated. Art was pretty inaccessible to younger people, or people without as many resources, because setting up your own studio space is really hard – it’s as expensive here as it is in a big city. We also don’t have many public cultural spaces because this is such a rural place.”

Alchemy works to fill those gaps by providing a regular schedule of classes and workshops in ceramics, printmaking, and photography for children, teen, and adult artists. They also offer affordable monthly studio memberships, internships, and each year they coordinate one- to two-month residencies for artists who come from all over the country to hone their craft and teach community workshops on San Juan Island.

In addition, Alchemy brings opportunities for artistic expression to islanders who may not currently identify themselves as artists. Their popular Art in the Park series aims to spark creativity in both children and adults by providing free access and professional instruction in diverse disciplines like screen printing, cyanotype, botanical dyeing, and ceramics. They also provide regular programming at the San Juan Island Farmers Market, at Island Rec’s summertime Camp Eagle Rock program, and in partnership with local institutions like the San Juan Island Library.

Last year these efforts collectively reached more than 300 youth and more than 300 adults. Alchemy’s membership program now has 40 members and the organization hosted nine visiting artists in residence and interns in 2021.

“The feedback we’ve gotten is that the work we’re doing is really important,” Maria says. “We hear so many stories where people say things like, ‘This made it so I could stay on the island’ or ‘I was going to go to art school, but I couldn’t afford it, so now I’m a member at the studio’ or ‘My kid’s in the young environmentalist program and I can tell she sees the world differently.’ We get a lot of positive feedback and that keeps us going.”

The San Juan Island Community Foundation has worked with Alchemy since the art center’s early days. In addition to awarding competitive grants in support of their community arts programming, SJICF allows individual donors to give money to Alchemy through tax-advantaged donor-advised funds managed by the Foundation. SJICF also manages the Friends of Alchemy Fund, a fund established in 2021 through which anyone can make a tax-deductible donation. In less than a year, generous donors have provided more than $165,000 to the fund to help support Alchemy’s operations and expand its reach.

That programming also includes partnerships with other nonprofits. The Joyce L. Sobel Family Resource Center collaborates with Alchemy to connect more than a dozen elementary and middle school students with visual arts classes that complement the other youth programs run by the FRC.

“Alchemy is amazing for our youth,” explains FRC Youth Coordinator Delphina Liles. “Maria, Glenn [Hendrick, Alchemy’s co-director], and the interns are all loving, open-minded, encouraging teachers. Artistic kids in the San Juan Island School District often get lost in the milieu of the sports- and grade-oriented mindset. Alchemy provides a huge outlet for youth to learn that they are artists and to develop those skills.”

Having that kind of creative outlet on the island is of particular importance to the students with whom the FRC works. So too is Alchemy’s ability to provide scholarships for participants who need them. Last year, more than 50 islanders were able to take part in Alchemy classes because funding was available to offset some or all of their tuition costs.

“Kids enrolled at the FRC are often from low-income, trauma-impacted backgrounds,” Delphina says. “Alchemy provides a lot of financial support to keep these kids enrolled in consistent programming that fosters emotional expression, while at the same time giving exposure to different types of people and careers.”

For young artists, that exposure to unique perspectives and different ways of looking at the world can lay the groundwork for a lifetime of creativity.

“My first introduction to art as a child was through similar summer art programming,” says Britt Whitaker, an artist who lives and works on San Juan Island. “It was through these programs that I first found other kids who enjoyed the same things, which instilled a sense of belonging, new-found confidence and established a creative foundation in my life. Without arts programs such as those offered at Alchemy, I would have not dived into art classes as a teenager nor decided to later attend design school.”

For Britt and her co-creator and partner Craig Britton, Alchemy has also proven crucial to their long-term development as working artists, opening new artistic and commercial avenues in unexpected ways.

“We first moved to the island in the spring of 2019 for an opportunity to apprentice in a local fused glass studio and start our business – Living Large Small – selling our own fused glass work,” Britt explains. “We later became monthly members of Alchemy’s ceramic studio with the simple intentions of getting out of the house and learning something new, but we quickly found ourselves in the ceramic studio almost as much as the glass studio and realized we were hooked! With the positive feedback and encouragement from the Alchemy instructors and directors, as well as interns and artists in residence, we gained the skills and confidence to begin selling some of our ceramic work at the end of 2020.”

Fast-forward two years and ceramics are now Britt and Craig’s primary focus. They sell their work online, at local and regional art shows, and in retail and gallery spaces on the island.

Someday Britt and Craig hope to operate their own studio, but until then Alchemy Art Center will continue to give them a supportive place to explore their artistic expression – just like it does for islanders of all ages, abilities, and means.

“Alchemy is an exemplary example of cultivating intentional community presence,” Britt says. “Through affordable membership and class offerings, as well as extensive free programming, they are fulfilling a crucial need in our community.”

If you’d like to support Alchemy Art Center’s continued community impact, consider making a donation to the Friends of Alchemy Fund or working with the Community Foundation to set up a donor-advised fund of your own.