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Posted by Lisa Oram, guest blogger of Snow Farm

Family travel can be complicated.
Some folks want to shop and others want to hike. Some love museums and others hate them. Some people need a nap in the middle of the day and others… well, you get the point.
Melanie Dana and Marya Zilberberg of Goshen, MA figured out how to make it a lot easier, however, when they brought together 14 members of their extended family from Massachusetts and Connecticut to take part in a creative weekend with Snow Farm: The New England Craft Program.
Snow Farm Spring resized

During spring, there are a lot more flowers than snow on the ground at Snow Farm

Snow Farm, in Williamsburg, MA, offers year-round studio craft workshops in a residential setting on the grounds of a historic New England farm.
Studios include something for everyone: glassblowing, painting, ceramics, metalsmithing, woodworking, textiles and more. Most workshops do not require any previous experience, so first-timers are very much welcome.

Snow Farm Outdoors

Looking in towards Snow Farm

The Dana Zilberberg crew ranged in age from 14 to 79 and came from six households: Goshen, Northampton, and Cambridge, MA; East Lyme, Millford, and Old Saybrook, CT. Melanie, who had taken workshops at Snow Farm in the past, organized the family gathering as a holiday present to the grandparents.
Snow Farm Glassblowing Family
Marya (right), her mother-in-law Barry (center), and her niece Sarah (left) chose a flameworking workshop. Above, they are melting colored glass rods into beads. Snow Farm workshops are typically small, usually with a maximum of 8 – 10 students, giving participants a great opportunity to learn.
Five members of the family took Glassblowing together. The studio is hot and the students move quickly to push and pull the molten glass while it is just the right temperature. Quathy Dana made a bowl to keep her yarn in while knitting. Her parents, brother and cousins gathered round to watch the next step: opening the blown ball.

Snow Farm Glassblowing Orb

Bowl-making in action

Snow Farm Glassblowing Demonstration

The opening of the bowl!

Other family members were in a quieter, cooler studio. The mood was peaceful for Melanie, her father, her mother, and her mother-in-law in Watercolor Monotypes.

Watercolors

Working on watercolors at Snow Farm

Snow Farm workshops run for 2 – 7 days. Professionally equipped studios and modern living spaces blend into the historic buildings and landscape of a 1700s farm that once belonged to the Snow family.
During the workshops, and occasionally for early arrivals, four dorm buildings provide simple double rooms and shared baths. The dining hall serves up hearty homemade meals, featuring fresh local produce, vegetarian options, and decadent desserts. Guests who prefer to stay at a hotel or bed and breakfast have plenty of nearby options as well.

Snow Farm Picnic

Nap time is also on the table at Snow Farm

Snow Farm Sports

Frisbee, too!

Snow Farm is ideally located in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains and just outside the five-college area of Northampton and Amherst, MA. Beyond workshops, the surrounding Hampshire County area is filled with natural, cultural, culinary, artistic and all other manner of interesting things to do!
If you’d like to bring your family to Snow Farm (or, dare I say it, get away from your family on a personal art vacation?), you can plan it all here or by calling us at 413-268-3101.
To see what the latest happenings are around Snow Farm, keep with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Lisa Oram is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Snow Farm: The New England Craft Program.

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