2013 Castine---silent auctions

 Silent Auction was held one day during meal times and conducted the traditional way---you placed a bid, and upped your bid until closing time. Raised about $2400 for Guild School.

A sampling of Open Bid items held during meal times Sunday-Thursday. You put in a bid on paper and placed in a box, and highest bid wins the item. You had no idea what anyone else bid. Winners were posted on bulletin board the next day.

Items for Open Bid tended to be cast-offs and included items such as old miniature magazines, bottle caps, and an empty cigar box, although occasional treasures such as Bespaq furniture items were included. Magazines didn't seem to do well, as they were placed on the tables for a donation of your choosing in the final two days of school.

2013 Castine---the dining experience & inside Bangor airport

 A delectable chocolate dessert on opening night---chocolate mousse on top of moist chocolate cake with chocolate shavings on the outside and strawberry and lemon sauce bed

 Lobster night---coincides with Auction night

 Our final meal on graduation night

I highly recommend the salmon, although some dill sauce and capers would have been nice

The food at Guild School is PLENTIFUL, and included with registration (as is lodging).

All meals are in the Student Center.

Breakfast is served starting at 6.30 am, Lunch is at noon, and Dinner is 5.30 pm, except for opening night, auction night and graduation night.

Hot entrees vary each day. Salad and sandwich bar during lunch, hamburgers and pizza for lunch and dinner, a soup of the day, soda fountain, juice fountain, ice water or ice tea in jugs. Desserts mostly include cookies, whoopie pies, brownies, various cakes, cupcakes. Coffee and tea station. Ice cream is always available at meal times and a favorite of many guild school attendees.

Meals are served cafeteria style, except on opening and graduation night, when you are seated at tables and they bring entrees to you. 

The very best food was served on graduation night. I especially liked the hor d'ouvres, which included items like crab legs, shrimp cocktail, oyster in a flaky crust with some tangy sauce, artichoke head with aioli, chicken chichimanga, fried jalapenos (similar to fried green tomatoes)

In between classes, they would bring sodas, juices, bottled water, coffee and tea along with an assortment of pastries to nourish you for the next class. You'd be surprised how doing workshops consumes a lot of energy. That, and the walking to classes on an uphill slope and walking up the stairs to your room because the elevator is so remote and well hidden.

A painting in one of the stairwells in Curtis Hall 

A play center for kids at Bangor Airport 

A charming "crooked" playhouse air traffic control center 

 A cute child's picnic table and benches ( to make in mini?)

Bangor Airport is 38 miles from Guild School and the drive from the airport to the school takes an hour, mostly on 2 lane roads and speed limit not exceeding 50 mph.

The airport shuttle service that you sign up for through the Guild School is a nice convenience and costs $40, which includes gratuity. You give them your incoming and outgoing flight #/airline and they take care of the rest. 

When you arrive at the Bangor airport, walk to Baggage Claim area and you will see people holding up a sign "IGMA Guild School". They usually batch the shuttle ride for 3-5 people at a time. You will be transported in mini vans, one van for people and a 2nd van for transporting everyone's luggage. Near the end of Guild School, there is a list of people who have signed up for shuttle service with scheduled departure time and time shuttle will transport you to the airport. The list is posted in the Student Center as you enter the cafeteria.  For example, my departure time was 7.25 am, my shuttle departure time was 5 am. The shuttle will pick you up at front office of Curtis Hall. There was a group of 5 people sharing the shuttle ride to the airport.

2013 Castine

The Student Center

Textile classes are held in the Student Center Basement

Exhibit Room, Guild School office/library also in this building

Back view of the Student Center

All meals, including opening and graduation ceremony is held in this Hall.

This is the view as you walk from Curtis Hall (dormitory for all Guild School students)

Leavitt Hall, which is directly in front of the Student Center

No classes were held here, but some of the evening seminars took place here.

Dismukes Hall

Many classes involving power tools (table saws, lathes) were all held in this building

The bell in front of Dismukes Hall

Back view of Wyman House (President's House)

Left front view of Wyman House

Wyman House portico

Note the rhododendrons, which are plentiful and humongous in this part of Maine

 Right side of Wyman House

 Side porch of Wyman House

 Right side of Wyman House overlooking the lake/bay

Wyman House parlor

Peggy Meyers taking in the ambience of Wyman House

    

 A flat screen TV in the parlor of Wyman House

 The Wyman House parlor adjacent to the foyer

 Wyman House foyer

Nell Corkin's class is held in Wyman House, but it is also the furthest from the Student Center/cafeteria

Courtyard of Curtis Hall viewed from 3rd floor of my dorm room

The buildings are interconnected, but the effect is like walking through a maze to find your room

Elevators are present, but precious few

The dressing area with built-in closets and bureau of drawers

Bring your own hangers if you like your clothes hung

My sumptuous bed and desk

Everyone is assigned a roommate, unless you specifically want to room with a particular person. You have to pay extra if you want a room all to yourself.

The hang-out area---a couch and chair is available every 10 rooms for people to hang-out informally

Bathroom is shared among 4 people or caty-cornered to two rooms

Things to bring if you go to Guild School

• Hair dryer
• your own shampoo (they provide a bar of soap)
• a mesh bag to hold your toiletries when showering (there is no bath tub)
• flip-flops, if you don't want your feet touching the shower stall and for walking about the bathroom
• the bathroom has lockers to hold your towel and personal stuff
• your toiletries
• a light jacket, for those chilly evenings or cold classes
• an umbrella, it rained 2-3 days when I was there
• sheet protectors (to protect instructions from your classes)
• name labels (you can slap on any items you purchase and identify as yours)
• small plastic boxes to protect your minis
• checkbook-- many of the dealers do not accept credit cards
• lots of cash--if you plan to buy minis from international dealers
• Your bed gets made each day while you are in class and a set of new towels are added each day for each person
• You can request extra blankets (fleece) and pillows from the front office

Living quarters are spartan, but you spend very little time in your room as most people are taking workshops 6-8 hours each day and they have activities at night to keep you busy, so the bedroom is mainly for sleeping.