Garden Gate at Featherstone
Garden Gate is now permanently located on the campus of Featherstone Center for the Arts!
A creative approach to learning in the early years.
Since opening in 1999, Garden Gate has had strong ties with our local art community. Many of our parents have worked as professional artists, sculptors, painters, musicians, photographers and dramatic artists. Having had access to these talented members in our own community has opened us to new languages, inspired us to take new risks, and supported our learning as we move forward.
Our classrooms are designed as studio spaces where children are free to explore, create and extend learning through a variety of creative materials. At Garden Gate, we believe children come into this learning space filled with theories to test, ideas that they would like to investigate and stories they would like to share. Through their co-active creative work in our learning studios, children begin to develop an understanding of social relationships, including an ability to negotiate and collaborate, to take another's perspective and provide empathy, to persevere through social challenges and to become solution-seekers within our community.
For more than a decade, we have enjoyed a relationship with our local community art center, Featherstone Center for the Arts, holding several children’s art exhibits, a parent workshop, an educators’ retreat, preschool graduation and our school’s 20th anniversary celebration at Featherstone. We have referred our alumni to Featherstone’s summer art camp and after school classes and our staff and families have attended classes with Featherstone’s artists. In 2020, we were exceptionally grateful to be able to run an auxiliary preschool classroom at Featherstone as our program struggled with the challenges of Covid-19 restrictions and regulations. Our story was published in the Boston Area Reggio Inspired Network Fall Newsletter’s “Silver Lining Stories” feature.
“Doing this work on the Featherstone campus, where we walk among outdoor sculptures and call hello to fellow artists as they head to their studios has inspired us and lifted us up in ways we wouldn’t have imagined. We have been able to reopen safely and beautifully, honoring children and keeping their image as capable and creative at the forefront. Children, parents and teachers arrive each day with joy, grateful for the opportunity to be together once again.”
Our vision, going forward, is of an early childhood education program that is built upon the artistic literacy of the children, an arts based approach to early education that nurtures creativity, problem solving and social competence. We envision an educational approach that continues to draw from that of the preschools and infant/toddler centers in Reggio Emilia, Italy, the internationally renown “Reggio Approach”. We picture a place where the arts are central to building community, sharing ideas and growing together in a vibrant, creative setting. And we look forward to entering into partnership with Featherstone in this work.
For more than 20 years, Garden Gate has operated on a sound business model while seeking to remain affordable for families and sustainable for staff. Collaborative relationships with other organizations in our community support our small non-profit organization and allow us to bring quality early childhood programming to our island families. We believe that a collaborative relationship with Featherstone will inspire and enhance each of our organizations and bring something unique and valuable to our community.
