001[Music] hello and welcome to Around the Clock I'm your host Yolanda Greaves on today's show we have gone outside of Ashland and we have brought in Kelly Grill who is the executive director of the HCA Kelly welcome to Around the Clock thank you for having me so you and I have had a conversation and I I will be forthcoming I am on the board of the hackington Center for the Arts for the HCA uh because I love I love the Arts um tell us a little bit about the art centers just to start with a little bit of its history and how it got there sure uh started in 1997 with some very forward thinking women who saw that the town of hackington was purchasing a plot of land to build the new high school
002and there's an old uh farmhouse in Dairy Barn and they saw that and said this really could be an El Center and so uh the town um supported that idea and it from 97 right through till 2015 fundraising and um work working toward and creating programs in the visual art Performing Arts uh theater music dance and uh education and events and so that's really how it started with really some people saying you know this is a a wonderful space and location um I came to them in 2011 I had run a little theater down the street and a theater that we all started at hington High School uh and U I love how you say a little theater around the street just a little space uh much smaller than your beautiful Studio here um and
003we uh we joined fores then and and that's when it was the cultural Arch Alli originally we were the ental love theater and we formed the Hopkin Center for the Arts in 2011 so since then we have renovated um our barn into a 200 seat performance space gallery and education space and then we also have our Farmhouse which we renovated for private music lessons and music classes and uh We've grown so much that we ended up uh renting some space down the Street for our Ceramics and dance program so hit hit all those programs a little bit you you know Dance Theater Ceramics Visual Arts talk about them let's start with the Ceramics program because that seems to have just exploded in the last couple of years it has it has and you know what's
004so amazing about that is the majority of people who take usst class are adults it is it for a while I think the perception was opkins and ferrets was just for kids uh which was never the case but now it's really clear that um there's so much there for adults and most of the people that come but because CICS itself is it's pretty physical you have to have a lot of arm strength to certainly do the wheel so you have to be at least a teenager in order to even do it right um however when I keep hearing over and over again and I why Ceramics is so popular and why it's grown it's tactile but it's so social if you're there for a class you there for three hours you really get to know
005the people in your class three hours three hours it takes a long time because you you roll the clay and is a lot to do and that's not you know then you have to come back and blaze it and fire it it's it's a very long process but so you're with people um and you develop friendships you develop you know a social Community there and so people continue to come back to that which is I love that fun and we have the website up in back of us and we're seeing shots of Music uh we're seeing an outdoor concert I know the summer concerts have over are over but chall a little bit about we love our summer concerts we had started doing them um really um more fully in during Co because we couldn't
006be together so this was an opportunity to have uh an arch full event um safely and so and the musicians were so happy just to be playing again people were happy to be out again and since then um it has continued to grow it's a pay what you can concert Ashley and celal Council has been very generous in giving us some grants and so we're able to um make it a open to everyone and anyone we have some amazing bands every Friday and Saturday night in throughout the summer um people wearing their lawn chair and maybe a little bit of uh dinner and and can just enjoy a nice sour night great so then as you transition into the fall there's again lots of classes so make sure you check out their website because there
007are classes in theater dance music art Ceramics but also some other programs right like there's the night once a month paint for parent for adults or talk about some of those special you know because maybe I can't commit to a a weekly class but right what are some of those events that I can just come in and try something yeah well we definitely have you know even in cmix there's a one night ceramic night out where you can actually make a a mug in in one night uh there are some paint nights there are um we're we're trying to do more and it really is my adults that have come to me and said uh particularly uh I have all group of visual artists that take a lot of painting classes we'd really like to
008have a night where we you know just bring in a um someone who is a specialist in some kind of technique to talk about it not even necess to have a class but a workshop talk about we've also done some inl a things out toide on a Sunday you know where you're outside we have a jazz group that comes you get to listen to The Jazz group and we just recently got our liquor license so we'll be starting to serve you know mes and blendy Mary tell Sunday afternoon Jazz Brunch that you do right yes yes exactly so um there's there's we try uh to have something for everyone um and what that means it continues to evolve because we love it when um our patrons or customers you know I'd really like to see
009some more of this or you know you know have you heard of this musician or have you you know talked to this author and then we um try to bring it in and bring some new new customers that come yeah do you partner with any other groups we partner with several groups most uh significantly the YMCA here um Metro YMCA and um we work with them on a fundraiser that we're doing with the hunt but uh in particular we we offer some specialty art classes in the summer with them um we work with them during the year um doing classes we have a great partnership with the Huffington um uh paral rec department and um we work with uh a wonderful group uh of students from several towns uh students with disabilities between 18 and
01022 who are looking for what I didn't realize is that population uh in most of the towns um will have a small population of students that stay and and stay in school uh from 18 to 22 to take classes some of them V to college classes but there was no art program and so we had a wonderful uh donor and then sponsor and a corporate sponsor in Dell that provided funding so that we are now offering all those groups from Ashland now has joined us Holliston um westbo and hopkington that get together once a week for either an art class or a dance class and it really has been um just a joy it's our favorite day of the week while those students come in than now you're talking about all these classes and people
011pay for those and stuff but as an art center we need to do fundraising so we have the Mark Cohen concert that we talked about what's the next big fundraiser and talk about that the next week f rer is wicked weekend wicked weekend starting with a 5K run uh costumed run um a little Loop Road area near the center and has grown to include a family party that will happen right after which will have kind of an October Fest where we'll have some games for the kids and and uh food trucks and and party things and then it also added on to a pickle ball uh contest again costume kindly uh important to be costumed uh we do that uh in partnership with the YMCA and our big ad is the haunt and the haunt
012is a haunted town so it's walking through the woods um we call the uh the town dead Woodville and homage to Woodville in hington and the you walk through the town um people live there after they die it is really a theatrical interactive haunt it's not the typical chainsaw jump scares but it's a it's a story um musical numbers it is um uh clever and uh we hope uh delightful for audiences to and so while we're talking when when does the hunt happen and again if I'm someone's interested to get some tickets and Par to and or help run it what what might they do well we need lots of volunteers lots of help uh from everything from parking to being an actor in The Haunt um but we also you can get tickets on
013our website it happens the last two weekends of October so 18 192 and the 25 2627 great great anything else you'd like to add to let people know about the HCA just that we are a regional arar and uh our we see a lot of people coming from the community of Ashland and we'd love to see a lot more we want Ashland to know this is your art center how many communities do you know have come and done stuff at that we we see uh our last count was 341 communities and that includes some in other states that come uh whether it's for a class or for concert or an event or um we've even had people submit original plays from as far as Australia so it's been a it's been quite a journey uh
014to get here but um what the most um population that we see obviously certainly for classes is right in the towns right around us so ashle is a big part of our family so if you want to try out smart classes check out uh HCA um it's a great organization uh now Kelly before you go there's inter there's a question I ask all first time uh interviewees at around the clock is there something about you Kelly grill that not many people may know that you'd be willing to share with our viewers o I don't know that's a good one um I feel like everybody knows it must be something deep past that deep past uh well um I I I could say uh once my my my one little claim to fame as I went
015to I attended a wedding one time in uh shut this to you looking for but in California uh Beverly Hills of all places it was very po yes it was it was one of those I don't know how I knew this person but I walked into the wedding and there was milon Burl oh my goodness and it was a wedding of like 20 people so the entire time he was like directing and telling about in very large on life and I think I was the only person in the vetting uh guest that didn't say hello I was just too intimidated it's Milton pearl S that's a story my well Kelly thank you so much for coming to around the clock and sharing all the wonderful things about the HCA and hopefully friends we will see
016some of you attending some of these great events and maybe even see you at the haunt that would be great thanks for coming thanks and that wraps up this episode of Around the Clock