|
|
Buck said she isn't sure when the restorations will be completed, but much progress has been made, including the barn-raising which took place last Saturday.
"We'll probably know next week, they're here now framing windows and doors - that's a good sign," she said. "Up until Saturday the 18th, it was all mortis and tendon, factory work, and foundation. That took all the time with just the foundations, and there's a lot of handwork that goes on, and we're just out there hand-cutting, sawing, trying to fit all the mortis and tendons together."
"Then we had to be ready for the barn raising," she said. "Which means they had to lay everything out on the ground, and when you lay something on the ground and lift it up, and set it in place, unless you're pretty good at what you do, you're going to get some discrepancies. These guys were geniuses. Everything that they laid on the floor went right up and they knocked it right in. It was amazing, but all that planning on the ground is fussy work and has to be done ahead."
Buck said the WAA had its first meeting back in 2005, and it was decided to put the project in motion.
"It's a dream come true, and we're starting with a small seed here and hopefully it'll grow," she said. "And who knows what the end will be."
Douglas Buck, Director and Building Coordinator of the WAA, said the area used to be a fully-functioning farm up until the 1950s, and since he and Virginia don't have the required three acres of land now needed to operate a farm, they decided to restore the buildings and rent them out to the WAA.
"We can't use them for animals anymore," Doug Buck said. "[But] anciently, the farm was totally self-sufficient. They produced everything needed for the family and the workers: beef, bacon, all the different vegetables, potatoes, [and they] did a lot of canning and so on and so forth."
Virginia said there are two companies working on the restoration of the barns: Historic Housewrights and Pasternak Built.
"We have Scott Palmer from Housewrights, and Tom Pasternak," she said. "They're both excellent at what they do, I expect these buildings to stand forever."
"Scott is the one that did all the traditional mortis and tendon construction, the original barn construction because he specializes in that," she said. "[Tom's] doing all the outer work: the grooving, the siding, the windows."
Virginia said she and Doug have an idea of how they would like to designate the barns' use but nothing is set in stone. There are four separate barns - the west barn, the east barn, the carriage barn, and the ox shed. Behind the east and west barns is a pig pen, which is where the bathrooms will be. She said the west barn is two stories and the east barn is three.
"The carriage barn is going to be an artist's office," Virginia said. "They'll be physically painting there - that'll be their work space. The ox shed will be a classroom and gallery temporarily. The east barn right next to the carriage barn will also be artists' spaces so we'll have probably around eight to 10 artists spaces when we're done. We'll have an office in there, that whole first floor will be an open area with hallways going through the other buildings for gallery show. Either that, or we can use another classroom as a gallery. So we have options as to what the uses are, but we've constructed them in a way that it is flexible."
Doug and Virginia said the most time-consuming aspects of the restorations has been the planning and making sure the barns are restored up to modern codes.
"It goes on and on because all the codes and regulations for the commercial buildings are incredible," Doug said. "Plus, the restoration, so we're essentially building it twice. We're building it with the original frame, and then on top of that, we're building a conventional frame with insulation, wires, and everything else required."
"On the inside, it has to have modern conveniences, and it has to be according to code on the inside, and of course on the outside, too," Virginia said. "Two barns did not have foundations at all, so we have to do that. We have to have a firewall between those two buildings and the geese barn, which is not restored yet. That's a future project, but we had to make some changes."
The barns are owned by the Bucks and the restoration is their own personal affair, with the WAA having a 30-year agreement to house the Academy.
Virginia said a lot of the wood had to be prepared before it could be used in he restoration, and some of the wood couldn't even be used anymore.
"Some of the boards we can't use because they were rotten," she said. "But the majority of it, we're trying to use in other places and where ever we can in the building to keep it historic."
"Sometimes the beams that we have, we had to wash them all down and disinfect them because you can't have any bugs," she said. "You have to cut them, sand them - not too much - but you have to get splinters off. You can't have people walking in the building and rubbing up against beams that have splinters in them, so they all had to be lightly sanded and smoothed."
Virginia said the WAA will be based on the Atelier Method, which is a "mentoring process."
"You have the students who have taken basic introductory courses," she said. "So they understand how oils work, how watercolor works, how chalk works, drawing, perspective, all the basic foundational courses."
"When you finish, you will probably receive some sort of a certificate that you have completed so many years of Atelier study and you should know what you're doing," she said. "It's an intensive mentoring process with small classes."
She also said that if a student is already at a middle to advanced skill level, he or she can bring in a portfolio and be interviewed for the respective placement.
"It will be watercolor, oil, acrylic, and drawing," Virginia said. "We're just getting off the ground and as we move along, we'll be adding more workshops, more programs, like sculpture."
Virginia also said that eventually there will be performing arts offered at the WAA.
"We're planning on having art and heritage days," Virginia said. "For instance, to celebrate the history of the barns and art because it's old use combined with new, so we're trying to bring the history of the barn in to the art world."
Virginia said the WAA is open to all ages, and prospective students are encouraged to monitor the academy's Web site at www.wethersfieldarts.org for information about membership. The Bucks can also be reached by phone at (860) 563-4191.
