For 15 years at least, Arts & Crafts has been able to schedule outside art teachers for classes and workshops open to members and all Villagers.  We always considered scheduling art classes a service to Villagers since we know that learning new skills keeps the brain active and well-being at a high level.  Our art club has never made a penny of money for scheduling these classes because all the student fees go to the teacher.

For 15 years,  outside teachers signed a Release of Liability form to VGCC and one to VACA, promising that they would not hold The Villages or the art club liable for any accidents.  The form was filed with the Community Activities Office before the class could begin.  Our art club has a million dollar insurance policy to cover all club activities.  In August 2020, the Community Activities Office notified us that we could not schedule outside teachers unless they had their own personal professional insurance policies.  We scoured 12 insurance agencies to see if we could provide "teacher insurance" with negative results.  The cheapest "personal professional insurance"  we could find for each individual teacher had an annual premium of $354.  Since most of our outside teachers are retired or current public school teachers, none of them could afford $354 premiums when  teaching a 6 weeks class here at The Villages earned them about $360 a class.

For the last 15 years, we have scheduled 37 outstanding outside art teachers for 251 classes, serving an average of 300 students per year or  about 4500 Villagers and their guests taking art classes.

So THANK YOU and GOOD BYE to these fine teachers:  

Benz, Ferenz:  watercolor

Bramshreiber, Jeff:  acrylics

Brown, Brad:  motion drawing

Chen, Shirley:  Chinese Brush Painting

Cline, Julie:  collage, hand-made paper

Cordova, Lillian:  hand-stitched books

Duffy, Kay:  collage

Duvall, Robert:  gouache

Fiock, Wendell:  judging

Franz, Ming:  Chinese Brush Painting

Giraudo, Al:  watercolor

Gittelsohn, Judy:  acrylics

Gleeson, Jim:  acrylics

Hegglin, Karen: watercolor

Hill, Terri:  watercolor

Jackson, Jeff:  drawing

Johnson, Robert:  drawing

Jones, Sandra:  pastels

Joseph, Sefla:  abstract acrylic portraits

Kao, Dr. Arthur:  Chinese brush painting and poetry

King, Jaya:  acrylics, collage

Kwant, Jane:  acrylics

LaRoche, Karen:  life drawing

Lacey, Ed:  water-soluable oils

Larson, Carolyn:  watercolor

Mitchell, Linda, oils with palette knife

Olsem, John:  cutting mats

Rigge, Lisa:  hand tinting photos

Ruiz, Donna:  hand-felting

Sieker, Linda:  watercolor

Stout, Clyde:  watercolor

Thomaselli, Valerie:  watercolor

Verbiest, Claire:  watercolor

Wanzong, Jennifer:  stained glass

Williams, Laura:  oils

Yu, Candy:  watercolor

Zitten, Floy:  watercolor on gesso, botanicals

This list of non-resident art instructors does not, of course, include any resident art instructors on whom we now now rely for all of our art classes.