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Our Students (BSSS Demographics)

From the beginning, students came from nearby counties and cities as well as Staunton. And from the beginning, area art associations have supported the new school. Many persons active in their area community art organizations were the same persons who took courses at the new school while continuing to volunteer in the groups they have supported for years.

Trustees and committee members of all the area art organizations have also been the primary supporters of both types of programs. These persons are the ones who recognize the differences in purpose between a community art group and a studio school and they understand the role played by each. Some of these same persons in Waynesboro, Lexington, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg and Staunton urged the founders of BSSS to consider forming a nonprofit regional school.

The concern of the artist-instructors and others was that the school maintain its carefully designed focus. After many discussions, BSSS became a tax-exempt nonprofit art school in January 1996.