A Centre Wellington couple is aiming to bring back face-to-face social time through courses and workshops offering artisan and life skills.
Mike and Laura Ács decided less than two months ago that they were going to open the Centre Wellington Community Studio in the FreshCo Plaza on St. Andrew Street West in Fergus. The studio programing is primarily aimed at teenagers and adults.
The couple says the not-for-profit project will offer a range of courses and workshops at an affordable price throughout the year, beginning this September, in anything from pilates to hip hop dancing and card making to string art.
The idea is to bring back a sense of community.
“Facebook has made everybody believe that they care about their neighbourhood or they care about their community when really they don’t, it’s just sort of that façade,” Mike said.
“You don’t have to like everybody in this geographical community but we want to build small communities within this community where you’re able to help out others and you become that family, that extended family that you can count on without hesitation or expectation.”
The couple moved to Elora from Burlington about four years ago and said they noticed a lack of activities available for teenagers and adults that weren’t Sports related. By opening the Centre Wellington Community Studio they hope to bring together like-minded people.
“You’re bringing people who (have) shared interests and they get to meet each other and hopefully get to know each other and then you can build on that,” Laura said.
“Our intent is one to give a space where all these local artisans can share their knowledge and inform the people that they share the community with that they’re here, and two, we’re bringing people out of isolation.”
Mike and Laura own two businesses, ACS Defensive Arts and LAMA Soap Company which are currently funding the community studio project.
“We’re not planning on making a living wage off of this, we’re not planning on doing anything, that’s why it’s non-profit,” Laura said. “This is not for us to live.
“That’s what my soap company is.
“This is what we see that this area needs so we’re the ones that are doing it.”
To help keep the prices affordable for attendees Mike and Laura are seeking business sponsors.
“We’re looking for … Centre Wellington businesses especially because there’s a lot of people that don’t know about local plumbers, don’t know about local builders, but … for the full year we want to put your logo up in here, we’re going to put it on the front of the calendar,” Mike said.
Laura added, “It’s businesses coming together and using us to help reach more people.”
It’s the couple’s philosophy that knowledge should be free so they’re trying to keep the cost of the workshops and courses as low as possible to make them accessible to the largest population possible.
“I haven’t done workshops myself because as a small family I cannot afford what’s out there,” Mike said.
“Right now we’re super inexpensive and we actually supply the people with the product so for example the knitting … they get the yarn, the needles, the counters, everything to do the project and they take it home, it’s theirs and it’s for the low, low price of … $40.”
With sponsorships and membership fees the couple hopes they can lower the cost even more in the future.
In addition to courses and workshops, Mike said the Centre Wellington Community Studio will also offer social nights for $3. For example, on Sept. 5 he will be hosting a zombie talk.
“There’s people out there that love the zombie apocalypse or they love to come up with scenarios, but when you speak to other people about it you get that kind of sideways look like ‘are you nuts?’ but now you get the like-minded people together to come up with the game plan as to what’s going to happen in the zombie apocalypse,” he said.
The couple is also offering select field trips. The first is on Oct. 28 to the Toronto Creativ Festival.
“I work for Voyager Bus Lines so I was able to broker a discount and the first field trip is going to be to the craft show so you get your ticket and round trip for $25 to Toronto for the day,” Mike said.
Laura added, “It’s the best shopping for creative people … and it’s a field trip, that’s great, you don’t have to worry about it. You just come here, we load the bus and then we go.”
Space is limited in each course and workshop so those interested are asked to register online. Classes range from about 12 to 24 people.
The Centre Wellington Community Studio will be offering an open house on Aug. 26 from 9am to noon.
“Come see where we are, come see our space, come talk to us, learn, find out what we’re all about and then you get a coupon,” Laura said.
“If you sign up that day you’ll save 5% on any class.”
For more information about courses and workshops offered and to register online visit www.cwcommunitystudio.com.
“When we all work together, when we all come together, we can create and we can do amazing things,” Laura said.
“And that’s what we want to do, we just wanted to create a centre where businesses, artisans and people who want to learn can all come together and we can work towards everybody being knowledgeable.”
