Metalwerx Education Scholarship

HI All,

I am pleased to announce a raffle for Education Scholarships. These
funds will be available for students who are on fixed incomes, our
Metalwerx Camp and for those in retraining programs. The Metalwerx
Education Scholarship Inc. (MESI) will focus particularly on young
students who show exceptional motivation and hand skills, such as our
young studiomate Jacob Berger. Jake is 16 years old and has an
excellent career in front of him.

Please help Metalwerx sustain outstanding education in jewelry and
metalsmithing.

Raffle Information:

http://www.metalwerx.com/raffle

Metalwerx Education Scholarship Inc

ASSISTANCE OPPORTUNITIES:

MESI offers three different kinds of grants. Application deadlines
occur several times throughout the year. This appears in
course brochures, in the Metalwerx Insider, on the web site, and in
relevant professional publications such as the SNAG News.

Artist-in-Residence

MESI awards two artist-in-residence grants per year, each lasting
for two months. One award goes to an Emerging Artist new to
metalsmithing who is recently out of school, currently in school, or
changing careers. The second award goes to an Established Career
metalsmith seeking a funded sabbatical to pursue work they are unable
to do within the framework of their regular employment. The residency
award covers travel, lodging, and stipend.

Each recipient will agree to present a weekend workshop at
Metalwerx, LLC in their area of expertise during the time of their
residency. Professional proficiency sufficient to do this kind of
teaching is one of the selection criteria.

SPONSORED FELLOWSHIPS:

These awards are underwritten entirely by a single donor and they
apply to the costs of workshops that are three days to a week in
duration which usually run during the summer months. The award covers
the equivalent of two-thirds of the course tuition.

BENCH GRANTS

These awards cover two-thirds of the tuition for a weekend workshop
or a weekly class. The recipient must pay the remaining third plus
the studio and materials fee. These grants are intended for those on
a fixed income, persons who desire or need to take a particular
class, middle and high school students, and persons in transition
from one career to another. Applicants may receive up to two awards
per calendar year.

M E T A L W E R X
School for Jewelry and the Metalarts
50 Guinan St.
Waltham, MA 02451
781 891 3854
www.metalwerx.com

Karen,

I applaud your efforts to help jewelers and people interested in
metalsmithing advance their skills. In the past, I’ve written to
MJSA, JA, Stuller and others asking for them to offer scholarships
for jewelers to help them advance their skills. We now have the
opportunity to take specialty courses of two to five day length. Many
of us were self taught in many areas and would love to have an expert
give us their tips and tricks. Yet, some employers refuse to pay for
these classes for one reason or another. Some jewelers are stuck in
jobs that are repair oriented and would love to take a class on
granulation or repousse or whatever. The salaries for jewelers are
slowly gaining ground, yet are still low compared to the our skills.
Last week I was vacationing in Chicago and picked up a newspaper and
read the classifieds. They listed a bench jeweler position at $18.75
an hour seeking someone who could fabricate and yada yada. However,
if you could install stone countertops another company was paying
$31.00 an hour. The reason I wrote the above mentioned companies is
that the current load of scholarships are aimed at getting someone
into the industry. I’m not aware of any that are for the working
class jeweler that wants to learn more skills or become better at his
craft. There could be some out there, I just haven’t run across them.
I’m fortunate that I have the ability to pay my way but many jewelers
are struggling to pay bills. That’s why these new scholarships from
Metalwerx are important. So Karen, thank you for your efforts and I
hope your school enjoys many years of success.

James S. Cantrell CMBJ

Thank you James. Because of people like you and others at our Vendor
Day, we are getting a little to closer to our goal. Once the raffle
is closed, which is April 2nd, we will soon announce the process for
obtaining a scholarship. This is something we have been working on
for a long time.

Education in any form is very valuable. A link to one of our
studiomates, Jake was mistakenly left off my last email. I append it
now. We are very excited to help young students like Jake.

http://www.jacoblouis.com

It is no surprise that Jake has already been accepted to three art
schools. However, I want him to have a more well rounded education
and have pointed him to John Cogswell at SUNY New Paltz.

If you want to help our Scholarship Funds to grow, again the
DEADLINE IS APRIL 2nd. You have 56 chances to win a prize.

http://www.metalwerx.com/raffle

Thank you all for listening, helping and for those who have
purchased a raffle ticket, THANKS!!!.

Last note, it is because of an Orchid Member, Judy from Kansas,
whose guidance and assistance to Metalwerx wrote our first grant
towards Organizational Support for the Massachusetts Council on Art.
I personally owe a debt of gratitude for this community who have
watched this little idea become a fully fledged metals focused
school.

Our next big goal is to hire a full time Executive Director. We are
now going for additional funding for organizational support to aid in
her salary. I personally need to take a step back for health reasons.
I have been involved for nearly nine years in every aspect of
Metalwerx and am proud of what spirit and energy has created this
remarkable and even magical metal school.

Please consider mak.ing a donation. Every little bit helps.

Thanks everyone. And a big thanks to our vendors who participated
and donated at our Vendor Day. Our attendance was about 400, steady
and the vendor attendees grew from 12 to 21. Wow! We need a new
space!

-k
M E T A L W E R X
School for Jewelry and the Metalarts
50 Guinan St.
Waltham, MA 02451
781 891 3854
www.metalwerx.com