our ten year anniversary celebration of the art hall!

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When Torin Finser visited Cedarwood Waldorf School in its earliest years, one of the most distinctive takeaways from his recommendations was the importance of honoring community, both Cedarwood and its surrounding neighborhood.

For example, we could host a weekly market in the gym, or the youngest grades could place handmade May Day flower baskets on neighboring doorsteps. While he said to reach out, he implored us to do so by reaching in, to identify the resources we in our school community could share with the larger community outside our walls and to start to collaborate more broadly.

As an Art History major in my undergraduate years, I imagined one day directing an art gallery; maybe an art center where all felt welcomed to share their many forms of creativity, and where delicious, nourishing food would be served.

Fast forward twenty years to when my children led me to Waldorf education, and specifically to this fledgling school in SW Portland, then still running out of a church basement. My family immediately joined an ever deepening and broadening community. While my children graduated in 2008 and 2011, I am still here.

I am here because of all that I was given and continue to receive: a life enhanced by community; a collaborative community where we all raised our children together for the betterment of our and their futures; and at a place where the seeds of creativity are nourished daily for every one of us through an education infused by art. That I can direct our non-profit Art Hall as part of Cedarwood Waldorf School is a miracle, an experience which has contributed to my understanding of life as miraculous.

Our system is one of “pay it forward”. To help us get started with some seed money, Jannebeth Röell, then and still a pillar in the anthroposophical community, offered to donate 50% of her sales from our first exhibit in 2013. It was a great idea and we stuck with it.

These generous donations, from all the artists displaying at our anniversary celebration, have paid for a professional installation system, bountiful reception tables, advertising, travel costs for visiting artists, and more recently the fabulous gallery lighting system.

This ten-year anniversary exhibit and celebration is an honoring of and a thank you to all the artists who have trusted us and invested in our initiative, to their patrons who have also made this possible, and to the school without which none of this would have happened. Thank you, everyone!

Indeed, there are so many people to thank that I would likely leave someone out. So, thank you all…past, present and future members of our Cedarwood Waldorf School Community!