ESSA offers classes in being crafty
There is a painting by Ken Addington in the Eureka Springs Historical Museum of Louis and Elsie Freund holding a flame in their hands, looking to pass it. That flame is the teaching of the arts in Eureka Springs. It was kindled by the Freunds and passed from them to Doug Stowe, Mary Springer and Eleanor Lux for safekeeping. That flame is what forged the art guild into ESSA.
Eureka Springs School of the Arts is beginning to carve out a space for its story and paying tribute to the history of art education in Eureka Springs. The campus houses a small museum/library in the Founder’s Building, the institution’s cornerstone brick and mortar. This museum contains the original woodblock cuts that Elsie designed ESSA’s logo on. The school still uses her logo.
“She’s the one who designed our logo, which was actually the logo of the Eureka Springs Guild of Artists and Craftspeople. The school carried it forward. We’re working on a project to make a self-guided art tour around campus that tells the stories behind the artists and their artwork,” Executive Director Kelly McDonough said. Each building on campus is filled with the work of local artists.
ESSA is offering nearly 100 classes throughout 2025, spring and fall. Its annual attendance is roughly 600 students, with 100 of these being veterans and youth.
“We are different from other craft schools in our lower pricing and smaller class sizes,” Kelly said. “Our class sizes are small. and you get a lot of one-on-one time with your instructor. This is intentional. One in five students here, attend for free. We’re non-profit for a reason. It’s a little unknown still, not just in the community, but also the region. There are not a lot of places like this in the country, and we have it here.”
Eight years ago, the total staff was five employees, all part-time. Fast forward to 2025, and ESSA now has 10 employees, seven who are full-time. Kelly became ESSA’s first full-time employee in 2019.
“One thing that makes me really happy is when current or former staff or board members who may have not really done anything artistic before, come and get into it,” Kelly said. “Some of these cases have mastered their process and have started to teach their own classes. I love that when people who have never done any type of art end up teaching classes.
Our society lives so much in our heads and screens. Here, we turn that off and do something physical with our hands and we end up with a creation. It’s a part of the human experience that should be an everyday process, but it’s not.”
ESSA started with no building, no acreage, and only $6000. They now have a $10 million endowment from the Windgate Foundation. They are allotted a yearly grant of four percent to cover operating costs, but can never take out the total sum at once.
In the next week, ESSA will close on an adjoining property that will expand the acreage of the campus from the mid-fifties to more than 70 acres.
From 1998-2003, classes were taught out of private studios. In 2004, ESSA acquired a building and an acre. In 2012, the school purchased the 35 acres that the Windgate Building, Instructor and Artist in Residence Cottages, and Commons House, all sit on.
Even though ESSA is more than a quarter-of-a-century old, much of its growth has happened in the last decade. In 2014 the Windgate Building began, with the completion of the Iron Studio. This studio includes blacksmithing, welding, metal fabrication and knife making. The woodworking studio, designed by Doug Stowe, was added in 2017.
2020 brought the completion of the Instructor and Artist in Residence cottages. There is a Doug Stowe cabinet in every cottage. In 2023, the Commons House was completely renovated, and a koi pond sits in what used to be an outdoor hot tub. David W. McKee, a protégé of E. Fay Jones, was the architect for these projects, which he hand-sketched.
ESSA is neither a K-12 nor an art spa. They do offer a dozen free workshops for both veterans and youth, and two free community events in the spring, Hands On ESSA and the ARTrageous Parade.
During my guided tour, ESSA was hosting a free workshop for Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks, which they do 6-8 times a year. This one was a jewelry making workshop.
“The main key was to have patience,” an excited veteran who calls himself Movement Man, said. “This is meant to be peaceful. So, take your time, learn your trade and connect. This is nature. You come here, to this art school, and your teacher lets you walk around outside in nature. Be with nature. This is an art school. Nature is art.”
On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, ESSA is open to any veteran who wants to take a free class.
“Doug and I have talked about this,” Kelly said. “ESSA is positioned, and this was always part of the intention, to be a stable presence in the arts community here. To support whatever else is happening in town, in terms of the arts. Art experiences for those who are not artists are important. Make these experiences accessible where whole families can bop into town and have an experience related to the arts that’s not intimidating and inclusive.”
ESSA is five miles west of Eureka Springs on US62. (479) 253-5384. essa-art.org
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