Sharing old wisdom with youngsters

FALLS VILLAGE — Joe Brien emerged from his workshop, tucked in the woods off Point of Rocks Road, in answer to a “Hello?”Dusting himself ineffectually, he apologized for the state of things, explaining that after a big job he usually takes a day to straighten up.But after a series of smaller projects, and in the midst of preparing for a workshop on constructing emergency shelters, stuff had piled up a bit.It looked fine to the layman.A native of Salisbury, Brien has been conducting his Lost Art Workshops since graduating from the Rhode Island School of Deisgn in 1989. He combines the workshops with furniture design and projects big and small — cabinets, freestanding furniture, and, on this day, restoring the seats of an Adirondack guideboat he pegged at being from the late 19th century.Brien worked in Sharon for 10 years and has been in Falls Village for another 11.He began the workshops, which are designed to teach children the kind of skills (whittling, making a fire in the woods when it’s wet, how to use a compass) that used to be handed down from generation to generation.“These are common sense, basic skills. Kids used to learn them from their parents.”Where did they go?“I don’t know,” said Brien. “The television age, whatever.“I’m constantly amazed. Kids who don’t even know how to cook something.”But once engaged, the kids wind up enjoying the workshops — to the surprise and delight of their parents.“I’ll watch somebody struggle at first. They’ll get frustrated, say they can’t do it, it’s too hard.“And then there is a magic moment when it starts to click. The kid says, ‘Oh, I get it. This is fun.’”And then — “Can I do another one?”Brien thinks that today’s children “aren’t challenged enough. They’re not experienced in pushing through something.”Brien said he does about three hours of preparation for each hour of instruction. “Early on I decided I wouldn’t provide project parts. I don’t want the kids to assemble a kit.”Instead the participants create everything from scratch, as far as is practical considering age and dexterity.There’s some psychology to it. In a particularly cunning maneuver, he pointed out to boys learning to use a sewing machine that the device is in fact a power tool.Parents are happy, he said. “They’ll tell me their child can’t concentrate in school, but didn’t complain once in a four-hour workshop.”The wilderness survival workshops highlight the gap between the modern, technology-heavy world and the old wisdom.Brien said he asks the children to make a list of what they would need to survive overnight in the wilderness.“They list the cell phone, video game, the mp3 player — and some junk food.”But by the end of the workshop, they are thinking in terms of shelter, water, fire and food.Brien divides his time about equally between his paying projects and the workshops. The workshops are frequently sponsored by non-profit organizations, such as the Great Mountain Forest and the Housatonic Youth Service Bureau, that find funding to pay Brien for his time. The workshops are usually free to the public, with the occasional modest registration fee.Brien also holds private workshops, which involve a fee.The response is gratifying, he said. “I get more fulfillment out of teaching kids than from any furniture job.”For more information, see www.lostartworkshops.com.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less