Photo by Aila Boyd
By Aila Boyd
aboyd@mainstreetnewspapers.com
Editor’s note: This article is the eighth in a series of articles that will feature all 14 artists that will be participating in the 2019 Open Studios-Botetourt tour on October 26 and 27. Each week leading up to the two-day event, The Herald will feature one artist – highlighting their passion for their chosen artform.
Vera Dickerson, a Troutville-based artist, can hardly believe that The Studio School, which she founded, is currently preparing to celebrate its 30th anniversary. An art show that will open sometime in October will mark the milestone.
Before helping launch The Studio School, Dickerson had spent roughly 20 years teaching on the collegiate level. “I was in my 40s, which is a good time to be taking chances,” she said. Looking back, she said that deciding to leave the security of academia was a risk— one that paid off. But she didn’t know that it would at the time. In order to make sure that starting an art school in Roanoke was actually a viable plan, the original three teachers conducted a survey to make sure that there was enough interest.
“We talked about how we absolutely adored our adult students because of the maturity and the determination that they brought to class,” Dickerson said was the catalyst for starting the school.
So Dickerson left her teaching position at Virginia Western Community College and helped launch The Studio School, which has served as a central hub for those in the Roanoke Valley who have wanted to learn more about art for the past 30 years.
For many years The Studio School was located above Mish-Mish, an art supply store on Campbell Avenue in Roanoke, but moved into a suite on the first floor of Roanoke’s Jefferson Center in 2001. In 2006, the school moved to a location on South Jefferson Street, before relocating to Brandon Avenue in 2010. Since 2018, classes have been held in the upper level of Towers Mall.
When it was first started, The Studio School had roughly 60 students. Now, 150 aspiring and established artists take classes from the eight teachers that comprise the school’s faculty.
“Some of the people who started with us are still taking classes, which is wonderful,” she said. “We’ve gotten to be friends instead of just teacher/student.”
One of her current students, who was also a student of hers at Virginia Western Community College, has been painting with her since the 1980s.
“We don’t give grades, so people come purely because they want to learn. We don’t try to have set rules and pathways because we want them to go in their own direction, which I think is important for something as individual as art,” she said. “The students bring in their own backgrounds, which is good because each person is a little bit different.”
One of the biggest changes that The Studio School has undergone, Dickerson said, has been the variety of classes that it offers.
Now, Dickerson only teaches at The Studio School on a part-time basis. “I’m not ready to retire, so right now I teach two classes,” she said. “It’s a really good balance.”
On average, she spends three hours a day at work on her art.
In addition to preparing for the 30th anniversary show, Dickerson is also busy at work finalizing her plans for Open Studios-Botetourt. “It’s fun to have people come in and talk about the art,” she said.
If the weather is nice, she said that she would like to do some outside demonstrations. She plans on using a demonstration method that she says greatly resembles the one used by most television chefs—showing the same painting in various stages of completion. “I like to teach like a cooking show where I have something to start, something to show that’s halfway complete, and then something that’s finished. That way they have a better idea of how I got there,” she said.
For more information about Open Studios-Botetourt, visit: https://openstudiosbotetourt.com/
