Sawtooth receives a substantial grant from The Winston-Salem Foundation to begin strategic planning, marking a pivotal moment in the school’s nearly 80-year history.
In advance of the organization’s 80th anniversary, Sawtooth School for Visual Art is proud to announce that it has received a substantial capacity-building grant of $25,000 from The Winston-Salem Foundation to help develop a strategic plan–the school’s first in over a decade. This plan will act as a guide for the organization, setting out a vision and long-term strategic direction to enhance Sawtooth’s position as the leading provider of community-based visual art education in the region.
Sawtooth is working with Next Stage Consulting, based in Charlotte, NC, to craft this comprehensive approach. Informed by discovery interviews and planning sessions, focus groups with key constituents, and retreats with board members and leadership staff, Next Stage will prepare a visioning roadmap with goals and objectives guiding the organization for the next 3-5 years. Sawtooth will unveil these findings in late 2024, kicking off their 80th-anniversary celebrations in early 2025.
Next Stage has worked with many regional arts organizations, including the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County and Arts for Life. They deeply understand Winston-Salem’s vibrant and creative cultural ecosystem and recognize Sawtooth as a pillar of arts education in the Triad and beyond.
Sawtooth was initially founded in 1945 as the Arts and Crafts Workshop, an effort led by a consortium of organizations looking for new ways to enrich Winston-Salem’s cultural life. The Junior League, Winston-Salem Schools, and the City’s Parks & Recreation Department provided seed money to establish a community-based, hands-on learning institution that would present programming year-round.
Sawtooth’s founding board members Mary Reynolds Babcock, Elizabeth Gray, Helen Copenhaver Hanes, May Mountcastle, and Charles Norfleet played a pivotal role in developing the school and would go on to spearhead the city’s arts revival at large. Their early involvement with the Arts and Crafts Workshop, which later became Sawtooth, predates the establishment of other influential area institutions like the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, Piedmont Craftsmen, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Among other area initiatives, their efforts contributed significantly to Winston-Salem’s longstanding reputation as the City of the Arts.
In 1982, the school found a new home in the historic Shamrock Mills building downtown. This building, originally constructed in 1911 as Hanes’ first hosiery factory and named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, holds a significant place in the city’s history. As part of its new identity, the school adopted the name “Sawtooth” to reflect the building’s unique jagged roofline and north-facing skylights, which were designed to maximize sunlight before the widespread use of electric lighting. This unique architectural feature fills the school’s eleven studios and its spacious gallery with abundant natural light throughout the day, an appealing and distinguishable trademark for the institution.
Over the years, the organization has been housed under various names in several locations. Still, its mission to provide community members with high-quality craft and visual art instruction has never changed. Today, Sawtooth is a creative hub for the region, serving generations of artists with high-quality, hands-on offerings for students of all ages, skill levels, and backgrounds. Classes range from one evening to a weekend or three months, with even more options for children and teens. Dedicated and renowned instructors foster a nurturing atmosphere that combines technical expertise with the freedom to experiment and grow.
In addition to its landmark downtown campus, Sawtooth has recently expanded its presence across Winston with the addition of two wood-fired ceramic kilns at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Winston-Salem (SECCA), and two well-equipped, professional-grade studios at the Intergenerational Center for Arts and Wellness.
Another crucial aspect of the nonprofit community art school’s outreach efforts is their Art + Wellness program, providing supportive art experiences for people of all ages in partnership with eleven healthcare organizations across Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Thanks to financial support from the Greer Foundation, Sawtooth’s Art + Wellness program routinely reaches patients, survivors, and caregivers impacted by critical illness, providing them with experiences that encourage stress reduction, relaxation, mood elevation, and overall well-being. This vital program, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, continues to evolve–finding new and unique ways to engage people through virtual options and locally crafted, instructor-led do-it-yourself artmaking kits.
As Sawtooth looks to the future and reflects on a long and rich history, there is much to celebrate. The organization’s 80th anniversary serves as an excellent opportunity to deepen its connections in the region and renew its commitment to serving as the regional leader in community-based visual art education. This strategic planning effort, undertaken with Next Stage, will balance ambition in programming with the operations required to make it happen and the resources needed to fuel that ambition.
