First Posted: 8/18/2014
Five-year-old Brela Ormando, of Dallas, “loves cats.” Ormando, who will enter kindergarten at the start of the new school year, created a flawless coil cat sculpture out of clay at the Dietrich Theater’s “All About Pottery and Sculpture” classes that ended on Friday, Aug. 8.
Amy Colley, who, along with her husband Steve, is an instructor at the Dietrich studio, said Ormando “takes directions extremely well.”
Clara Kendrick, age 11, a native of Serancy, Ark is temporarily living in Tunkhannock with her family due to her father’s position with a local gas and oil company. She is home-schooled and enjoys the program at the Dietrich as being “fun” and that everyone involved is “sweet and funny” and that they make her “feel like home.”
Kendrick also said she was in the Dietrich’s recent production of the play “The Time Traveler.” In addition, she stated that she is “going to help autistic kids in Waverly” after the program at the Dietrich ends. She added that she “loves art” and is looking forward to returning when the next course is offered.
The week-long course was open to children ages 5-12. Ten children attended the program.
Margie Young, who has been the program’s coordinator since 2002, said the theater’s program features full equipment, and that mixed media and other pottery and art forms of instruction are available throughout the year for children and adults.
“The instructors are wonderful with kids and we value them. They encourage the children’s creativity. The (finished) products come from inside; none are duplicated,” Young said of the studio’s instructors, Steve and Amy Colley.
Artist in residence Steve Colley said that he and Amy met while the two were pursuing their bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts. They later earned their master’s degrees in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, in New York City.
The Tunkhannock residents have been teaching at the Dietrich for the past 12 years. Prior to the Dietrich, the Colleys owned and operated the Colley Studio of Fine Arts in Scranton and taught at the Waverly Community Center in Clarks Summit.
