STAR Collaboration

The STAR Collaboration (Students, Teachers, Artists-in-Residence) at Eagle Hill advances artistic approaches to education by connecting diverse learners to accomplished artists who live, learn, and create new work on campus.

The STAR Collaboration invites artists of all disciplines to come away for a semester of focused art work, and to come together with our students and teachers to facilitate learning.

STAR residents can be at any stage of their careers — emerging and well-established artists, art teachers, and those returning to former careers in the arts. STAR artists are educators-at-heart, who want to work with young people while expanding the definition of what being an educator means; who are interested in novel, interdisciplinary educational approaches; and who thrive on collaboration with others.

We provide STAR artists with studio facilities, room and board, a monthly stipend and a materials budget, dedicated, distraction-free time to make art, and opportunities to develop teaching skills through professional relationships with mentor teachers. We work with each artist to find a healthy balance of creative sanctuary and community engagement.
 

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John Collins

John Collins, MBA, is a lifelong artist who grew up and studied here in Western Massachusetts. His love of art has spanned many forms including drawing, painting, and sculpting but he has pursued these only as part-time hobbies while raising his family. Earlier this year when he retired from the business world and phased out his own architectural products marketing company, he decided to focus on taking his art to the next level.

John recently won a "Best in Show" award this June -- for the first show he ever submitted an oil painting for. However, the three dimensional human form, although challenging, is by far his favorite subject matter. John has been sculpting for 30 years and has experimented with many materials, including stone, wood, clay, and even snow and beach sand, winning competitions for his unique larger-than-life human form sand sculptures on Narragansett Beach. His other, more permanent sculptures have been exhibited locally and throughout the Northeast, including at the Norman Rockwell Museum's juried sculpture exhibition. John also trains golden retrievers and has a talent for teaching and sharing his passion and knowledge for art with people of all ages.