Craft Center To Dedicate Renovated Railroad Station

And Its New Woodturning Studio This Weekend

 BROOKFIELD — The 50-year old nationally respected non-profit Brookfield Craft Center is hosting a special afternoon of events to dedicate and celebrate its newly renovated Railroad Station Building on Route 25 and the new woodturning studio which is located in the historic (circa 1917) structure that is a familiar local landmark.

The public is invited to join the many donors and supporters who helped purchase the property and restore it to its former glory for a dedication ceremony at 2 pm on Sunday, July 10. A celebration will commemorate the considerable hard work and considerable financial support that enabled the center to purchase and renovate the old Brookfield Railroad Station and turn a portion of it into a new state-of-the-art studio for teaching woodturning to expand their extensive educational program.

There will also be woodturning demonstrations provided by faculty members and “turner friends.” Visitors can also explore the new exhibition in the Lynn Tendler Bignell Gallery, “Innovative Perspectives in Turning,” which features national profile woodturning artists. The show’s guest curator, Albert LeCoff, the director of The Woodturning Center in Philadelphia, will be on hand to give a special gallery talk about the show and woodturning in America at 3 pm.

The Railroad Station Renovation Project was the first part in Phase Three of the center’s ongoing capital campaign which began in 1996 to improve and expand their colonial vintage campus on the banks of the Still River.

“When the railroad station came up for sale, it was an opportunity not to be missed,” said John Russell, the executive director of BCC since 1980. “The station provides additional studio space as well as much needed parking for visitors to the Center.

“Actually we are just continuing our tradition of historic preservation,” he added. “When the Brookfield Craft Center was established in 1954, it preserved an historic mill complex built in 1780. Now we’re doing the same thing again by saving the old railroad station, an important part of the town’s heritage.”

“The station is historically significant,” says Jacqueline Salame, an architect, preservationist and member of BCC’s board of trustees. Ms Salame is also chairman of Brookfield’s Historic Commission. “The railroad came to Brookfield in the mid 1840s. This station was built in 1914 to replace a smaller station. It was used mainly for freight and like the old mill, it was an important center of commerce and socializing when Brookfield was an agrarian community and farmers would receive their tools and seed by train.”

The Center is about midway in its multi-year capital campaign which seeks to “create a craft center for the 21st Century,” according to Mr Russell. Thus far BCC members have raised and invested about $1 million in Phases One and Two of the campaign.

The remaining Phase Three Projects involve extensive renovations of two of the center’s core buildings located on the west side of the Still River: the “Barn Studio Building” which will contain new pottery, woodworking, drawing, and paper and book arts studios; and a new Student/Faculty Center which will provide additional teaching studios, a research library, student/faculty lounge and improved accommodations for their visiting faculty.

The Brookfield Craft Center was founded in 1954 to promote and preserve the skills and values of fine craftsmanship. In 1982 it received the state’s highest honor in the arts, The Governor’s Arts Award. Today it is recognized as one of the nation’s foremost non-academic professional schools for fine craftsmanship.

BCC is at 286 Whisconier Road (Route 25), just east of the “four corners” intersection with Route 7/202. For further information, call 775-4526 or visit www.BrookfieldCraftCenter.org.