Wooster Community Arts Center Closing After 40 Years

DANBURY — For forty years, Wooster School has provided a variety of fine arts classes to the outside community. The program currently under the direction of Wendy Northup, an accomplished artist and teacher.

Many thriving artists have made their start or continued to practice their craft at Wooster Community Arts Center.

The program began when Wooster was a small, all-boys, boarding high school. At the time, studio art was offered as an extra-curricular activity, and those who wished to participate joined the community classes. Today Wooster School is a thriving K-12 day school with a commitment to “the intellectual, spiritual, ethical, physical and aesthetic development of boys and girls.”

As an essential element of its mission, art is required for students in kindergarten through ninth grade, and class offerings in high school have expanded to include drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, 3-D, book arts, photography, mixed media, video, printmaking, pottery, and in computer graphics – illustrating, imaging, and animation.

Furthermore, the number of students interested in majoring in art has increased, and Wooster is running intensive studio classes and portfolio preparation for those who are applying to major, national art schools.

For the past couple of years, however, the school has tried to juggle schedules in order to accommodate both constituencies, but it has become impossible to meet the needs of its student population along with the interests of the larger community.

After much research and discussion, the board of trustees and administration of Wooster School came to the difficult decision to close the Community Arts Program in May 2007. At the end of this winter/spring session, therefore, Wooster School Arts Center will no longer offer classes to the public.