Featherstone's History

Featherstone, the island's only year-round non-profit arts center, celebrates 15 very fruitful years of bringing art, in a myriad of forms, to island audiences and participants.

The Martha's Vineyard Artistic Outlet

With gallery shows, classes and workshops, art camps, evenings of music and poetry, and special events, Featherstone has been the living beating heart of the Vineyard art scene for over a decade now. Starting out in 1980 as the Meetinghouse of Martha's Vineyard, with a mission to sponsor and encourage community involvement in the arts. Meetinghouse found a home, and a name, when the center, in partnership with the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank Association, acquired the farm in May 1996. Meetinghouse changed its name to Featherstone in 2002. Featherstone will be celebrating its fifteenth anniversary in 2011 with a big birthday bash on Saturday, August 6th.

Watched over a cows, the six acre parcel devoted to the Arts Center, maintains the feel of a working farm. Situated among unspoiled woods and meadows, the center's five buildings house studios, show space and offices. The farmhouse has been converted into a gallery and office space, the main barn, once used as stable for horses, has been transformed into a lofty artist's studio for photography, printmaking and weaving. A tool barn was reinvented as a workshop for woodworking, stained glass and metalwork. What was once the stable for breed mares and their foals is now the Pottery Studio. On the grounds is an outdoor, wood-fired, brick kiln.

Budding artists/artisans/musicians can explore a diversity of crafts through the Center's many workshops led by professionals in a variety of artistic fields. Along with drawing, painting and photography classes, Featherstone's adult offerings include ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, felting, quilting, knitting, printmaking, tapestry, poetry, writing, mixed media, and technology.

Art For Kids and Teens

Our children's art offerings include: week-long art camps in the summer as well as weekday and Saturday art classes in the fall, winter and spring. Preschoolers to young teens can participate in daily, age appropriate art related activities. After school programs in photography, ceramics, and printmaking are offered free to teens during the school year.

Outdoor Entertainment

Musical Mondays take place during the summer from June 20th through August 15th, spotlighting local musicians in a bucolic outdoor setting.

Flea and Fine Arts Market

The Featherstone Flea & Fine Arts Market is offered every Tuesday from June 21st through August 30th. from  9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. — featuring over sixty vendors.

Summer Pottery Readings

The best American Poets read on Thursdays throughout the summer.