A whimsical assortment of sculptures, like the fine feathered friend above, are sprinkled around Featherstone's campus, adding to the lighthearted, quirky ambience of the arts center.

WATCHED OVER BY SOME COWS ON AN ADJACENT farm, the wood-shingled studios, classrooms, and workshops of Featherstone Center for the Arts sit on a serene six-acre campus off Barnes Road in Oak Bluffs.

Yes, there is a gallery with pictures hanging on the walls. The pictures are for sale, and if you attend an exhibit opening, you just might score some free wine and cheese, or even a chocolate martini at the annual Chocolate Festival. But Featherstone is much more than a gallery; it is more like the town hall of the Martha's Vineyard arts community. And, like the community the center represents, Featherstone is creative, eclectic--and a little bit quirky.

"We're here to foster creativity in the widest group of artists and students imaginable, all ages and all abilities," says Francine Kelly, Featherstone's executive director.

Featherstone's programs also embrace the widest definition of what art is, embodying creative mediums of sight, sound, and taste. An outdoor stage is the setting for the Musical Mondays Concert Series, which complement the center's singer/songwriter workshops, music lessons, and music appreciation classes. Island musicians, including Maynard Silva, Kevin Keady, and Johnny Hoy, play everything from classical to folk and jazz for audiences relaxing on beach chairs and blankets.

Visitors to Featherstone are greeted by a whimsical assortment of sculptures spread about the grounds--an oversized feathery eagle, a whale's tail with feet instead of fins, bright red and yellow pipe figures swinging each other through the air, a figure perpendicular to the ground clinging to the handlebars of a bicycle for dear life, and a second figure doing a permanent handstand.

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An ornate, wood-heated brick kiln, a work of art itself, sits outside the pottery studio. Firing the kiln is a lengthy and elaborate process, which sometimes provides an excuse for community members to camp out beside the glowing fire. Students working inside with clay can learn wheel throwing, sculpture, and glazing techniques.

"I really want the place to be fun," Kelly says.

Featherstone offers an assortment of fine arts courses taught by talented and often well-known artists, including figure drawing, and painting with watercolors and oil paints.

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"Featherstone has classes for people of all ages and all abilities," says Judy Drew, who has a BFA in fine arts and who has run an arts business, Periwinkle Studio, for 20 years. "After all this time, I was ready to take a class to get my creative juices flowing. Ellen McCluskey's pastel painting course was the perfect thing to help move my art work into a new medium."

Linda Ziegler is another longtime artist who decided to study painting at Featherstone, after teaching print-making there to both children and adults for four years. "I love teaching at the same place over time," Ziegler says. "It's exciting to see people's abilities develop over the years, including my own. Being at Featherstone helps me open up and learn new approaches to art. Trying to be creative can be difficult and I don't want to get stuck in one thing--so I need constant inspiration."

Justen Ahren teaches writing courses to both teens and adults. After receiving a BFA in poetry from Emerson College, he decided Featherstone was the perfect place to develop and share his interests."I especially like teaching poetry to younger students," he says. "They're usually open to trying new things and thinking in different ways, which is part of the whole creative process."

Ahren is compiling a few volumes of poetry based around different themes and he also plays the guitar--writing and performing his own music. To give something back to the center, he installed a labyrinth made from native grasses on Featherstone's campus--a place for people seeking a little serenity. "Featherstone has so much potential as a place to bring different types of island artists together," he says. "Francine Kelly is the director, but she's great about letting us help figure out the directions we want the center to move towards. Ultimately, the center is what we make of it, as a community."

Featherstone Center for the Arts was established in 1996 by a cooperative purchase of Featherstone Farm in partnership with the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank. Unable to afford the entire parcel of 24 acres, financial backers of the would-be arts center partnered with the Land Bank, which acquired 18 acres, thereby saving the land from housing development. The Land Bank has preserved the farm and leases some land out to island farmers--hence the watchful cows. The Land Bank also maintains walking trails on a portion of property behind the arts center, adding to the idyllic effect.

The Center for the Arts' mission was to create a space that would foster and connect the island's talented artists and also encourage emerging artists of all ages. Pre-school students attend daytime classes. After-school classes are offered for students from Martha's Vineyard Regional High School and there are summer art courses for children of all ages. Featherstone has a separate children's studio with small tables and easels, as well as a play area and a reading room.

The offerings for older students vary widely, changing from season to season. Local and visiting artists have taught recent classes on jewelry-making, flower arranging, music, painting, drawing, ceramics, photography, felt-making, stained glass, writing, tapestry, wreath-making, felting--and more.

Some of the offerings are more philosophical and less technical, meant to foster creativity itself rather than teach a particular medium or technique--such as Fae Kontje's "Words and Pictures" workshop, which helps artists of all varieties quell their inner critic, and Sumner Silverman's "Courting the Muse" course, which examines processes that encourage creativity and inventiveness.

Featherstone is a unique resource for anyone seeking artistic inspiration. The center represents the Vineyard's many artists, reflecting the island's broader community; creative, eclectic--and a little bit quirky.

For more information, contact Featherstone Center for the Arts, 30 Featherstone Lane off of Barnes Road in Oak Bluffs. 508-693-1850; www.featherstonearts.org

Charlie Cameron is a freelance writer who lives on Martha's Vineyard.