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As we enter a season of gratitude and thanksgiving, The Sedalia Center is fortunate to count its many blessings.  We are deeply grateful for your continued support which has enabled us to provide cultural heritage festivals, art classes, a pollinator habitat, elementary school field trips, and much-needed infrastructure improvements.   

Projects literally sprouted from the ground this year at Sedalia!  The Pollinator Garden is open to the public to work and learn in.  A small teaching garden primarily focused on introducing children to working with the natural processes is planned for next year.  Education remains a vital foundation of the center’s mission, and these projects will need volunteer labor plus financial support in order to flourish.

2020 Vision for Sedalia: Bring the Future into Focus

As the gardens grow, and the children learn, the center will take on two major art and cultural projects. These projects will begin with historical research of the Sedalia area.  One branch of that research will grow into the Mural Project.  This mural will wrap around the walls of the cafeteria, depicting geology, flora and fauna, and inhabitants of the area and major historical events, including the Counter Ridge School and The Sedalia Center.  The second project, The Counter Ridge History Project, will establish a classroom as a repository of the history of regional African-American education.  We hope the history room will attract artifacts, records, pictures, and other memorabilia scattered throughout the community.  Special events showcasing local African-American artists will take place at the center during Black History Month (February 2020). 

Hovering above everything the center does, is the 1959 flat roof which must be replaced in the next five years.  We have a fundraising plan in place, led by the board of directors, which we will ask you to support as the new season develops. More information will be available in March.

In this season of giving, we give thanks for your continued support.  Your tax-deductible donation helps guarantee a bright future for this community landmark.  Please support The Sedalia Center as it strives to support you!

With Gratitude,

Doris McCabe Board Chair

Donate Now!!

For More Information about Donating or Becoming a Sponsor Visit our Sponsor Page.

Thanks to the generosity of Bedford Community Health Foundation and its vision of community health as encompassing more than hospitals and medicine, the Sedalia Center was able to offer a class in watercolor still life painting to volunteers in a Master Gardeners pollinator garden project at the Center. Funding for the class was included in a grant award for the installation of the garden, a joint project of the Sedalia Center, BCHF, and BAMGA.

The class, led by well-known Bedford artist Revelle Hamilton, was a basic introduction to watercolor painting; its subject matter the flowers and plants in the eight beds of the garden, which was planted this season in beds built by Eagle Scouts from Troop 638, which meets at and is sponsored by the Sedalia Center.

Expanding the domestic art of horticulture to an exercise in the fine art of watercolor painting is a first step in developing a broad-spectrum arts culture at the Center rooted in the connection of all creative endeavors. Annis McCabe founded the Sedalia Center “for the Art of Living and Living Arts,” casting a wide net to allow imagination to inform both work and play.

Ms. Hamilton introduced the class to the mysteries of the color wheel and provided a chart that help students figure out how colors combined. Students arranged hardy annuals from the garden’s beds in vases and worked under the artist’s guidance. The room hummed with focused energy, and everyone learned a lot and produced a finished painting.

Ms. Hamilton’s Floral Still Life class was a smashing success, and it happened because community members worked together to produce an opportunity for learning and immersion in the arts that would otherwise not have been available.

Please consider becoming a sponsor! For more information visit our Become a Sponsor Page.