Lots of moms like to travel with their grown-up kids and kids-in-law, taking their annual family reunion on the road, so to speak. It's important to get some quality time with family, and on a reunion trip, people get a chance to catch up with one another in a context that's completely new and different.

This year Agnes Maserjian of Juno Beach, Florida, planned a truly new and different reunion for her eight kids and kids-in-law: a three-day weekend exploring arts and crafts at Snow Farm in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.

Everybody took a class -- welding, stained glass, glass-blowing, woodturning and collage -- and everybody came away with works of art they made themselves

There was plenty of time to gather together as a family in the farm's spacious living and dining rooms, the food was great, and everyone had a really enjoyable time!

Agnes had previously taken a weekend seminar in collage at Snow Farm several years ago. She heard about it through what was then called Elderhostel, and is now called Road Scholar (www.roadscholar.org).

She took a weekend seminar in collage with instructor Alexandra Sheldon, and found it to be "a wonderful life-changing experience."

“I loved the professional teachers, I loved the food, I loved the accomodations,” she says. So this year she invited the whole family for an arts and crafts reunion – Michele, Clare, Christa, Julia, Paul and Mark Maserjian and Tim and Rose Caspary.

The accomodations at Snow Farm are kind of like a five-star summer camp, with spare but comfortable double rooms arranged in four ‘living modules.’ The food is fresh and local, including home-baked bread and desserts, with selections for vegans, vegetarians, gluten-free diets, as well as omnivores.

The grounds are verdant and well-tended, and the architecture is a combination of buildings from a centuries-old family farm and modern buildings designed to blend in with the hill-town landscape.

All in all it’s a great place to immerse yourself in art, whether you are learning a new skill or learning more advanced techniques. The farm also hosts week-long seminars and a summer program for high school students. Some students become professional artists and craftspeople, and for others it’s a chance to learn an enjoyable lifelong hobby.

Snow Farm is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring together professional artists with students who want to add a new artistic dimension to their lives.

Agnes, the Maserjian family matriarch, says she enjoyed the professional perspective that Sheldon brought to her collage class and the discussions with other students about color, shape and texture. “It’s not just cut-and-paste,” she says.

The Maserjians all returned to their homes up and down the East Coast with works of art that are destined to become family heirlooms. Rose, who has previous experience with stained glass, made a three-dimensional butterfly. Christa refined her skills in glassblowing. Clare, Paul and Tim turned an assortment of wooden bowls. Agnes and Michele created a number of beautiful collages. Mark and Julia welded imaginative metal sculptures.

Everyone came home with works of art that will remind them of this year’s family reunion at Snow Farm.

captions:

agnes-collages - Agnes Maserjian with the collages she made at Snow Farm

agnes-michele - Agnes and Michele Maserjian at work on their collages

group-photo - Nine members of the Maserjian family gathered at Snow Farm for a family reunion

mark-alison - Mark Maserjian with welding instructor Alison Safford

paul-theo - Paul Maserjian gets some pointers on wood turning from instructor Theo Fidel

rose-dave - Rose Caspary works on her stained-glass butterfly with instructor Dave Zaltzberg

snow-farm-grounds - The grounds at Snow Farm are a great place to immerse yourself in art.

tim-wood-bowls - Tim Caspary with his wood bowls