Fussell Academy

08/31/2026

Do you have a high school (or even middle school) aged student who needs more space for their art?

Come check us out. We have two studios that we are looking to fill with artists who need them.

Does your student want to pursue a career in the arts? How about design? Or becoming a craftsman?

We are looking for students who need guidance on where and how to improve their skills.

We do offer individual courses (still working out the exact when of them), but our value comes in the individual development of your student.

We are a newer program and studio and have room for tons of flexibility, but we need to hear from you.

Please feel free to send us a message, and we can discuss if we may be the program your student has been looking for.

We can take students of any age, but art takes discipline, and the tools we use require proper training first.

When I was growing up, I was very lucky to have access to ample making space, and even a workshop. I know many students who want to get into creation but don’t have the means or even the space.

We’ve got a long road ahead of us (almost as long as our driveway through the woods), but there is no time like the present to see if we can help provide a place to see more art made in the world.

08/26/2026

I'm trying to figure out why our link keeps breaking. We may have to change hosting services, but until then, here is the information on our pricing.

How Classes Work at Fussell Academy

Fussell Academy is built around a simple idea: students learn creative skills by making things, practicing consistently, and having access to people who can help them improve. Rather than offering one fixed program for every student, we offer several ways to participate depending on a student's age, interests, goals, and schedule.

Our current programs are divided into three main areas:

Private Morning Tutoring

After-School Open Studio

Monthly Classes

Students can participate in just one of these programs or use them together.

Private Morning Tutoring - NOW ENROLLING

$60 per hour

Private tutoring is our most individualized form of instruction.

It is intended primarily for older or more advanced students who have a specific goal they are working toward. A student might be preparing a portfolio for college, developing the skills necessary to enter a creative field, working through a difficult project, or simply looking for more serious artistic direction. Private tutoring is built around the individual student and what they are trying to accomplish. This is where we can spend time looking closely at a student's work, identifying weaknesses, developing projects, building a portfolio, discussing schools and careers, and helping them move their work toward a more polished and professional level.

Time is reserved in the mornings for private students by appointment.

After-School Open Studio - NOW ENROLLING

Weekdays, 2:00–6:00 PM

$14 per hour

The Open Studio is intentionally different from a class. It is a place for students to spend their afternoons making, experimenting, learning, and being around other creative people. There will be instruction and help available, but the emphasis is less on completing a curriculum and more on exploration, creativity, relaxation, and play. A student might draw, paint, build something, work on a school project, continue something from one of our classes, experiment with a new material, or simply come in with an idea they want help figuring out. The goal is to provide the kind of creative environment that can be difficult to find elsewhere: a place where students have the time, space, tools, and encouragement to make things.

Open Studio participation is arranged in advance so that we know which students will be on campus each afternoon.

Monthly Classes - NOW ENROLLING FOR OCTOBER

Our classes operate differently from a traditional semester-long course.

Instead, classes are organized into four-week sessions. This allows students to begin with a subject that interests them without immediately committing to an entire semester.

Most classes meet either:

Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday & Thursday

8 meetings per month

$40 per meeting

$320 for the four-week session

Friday

4 meetings per month

$40 per meeting

$160 for the four-week session

Our first classes will run from 11:00 AM–1:00 PM.

As enrollment grows, additional morning class times may be added.

Classes are designed to be semi-sequential.

The four-week format does not mean that students are expected to master a subject in one month.

Each month is a complete experience on its own, but it can also become the next step in a much longer education. A student might begin with Design Fundamentals one month, continue into another design course the next month, explore Architecture afterward, and return to Design later at a more advanced level. As students continue with us, their projects and instruction can become increasingly sophisticated. This allows us to meet a beginner where they are without placing an artificial ceiling on how far they can go.

You do not have to already be good at something to take one of our classes. You just need to be interested in learning it.

Our First Three Classes

STARTING IN OCTOBER

Design Fundamentals

Writing-Study-Synthesis.

Design Fundamentals is an introduction to the mechanics behind art and design. Before someone can develop their own style, they need tools for understanding why things look the way they do and why some visual decisions communicate more effectively than others. During the first four-week session, students will explore composition and visual communication. They will learn ways to study existing artwork, generate ideas, work through the fear of an empty page, and begin transforming observations and ideas into their own compositions.

Introduction to Architecture

Construction-Models-Organization.

Introduction to Architecture is a beginner course exploring the art and design of the built environment. It is particularly suited for students who are curious about architecture but may not yet know whether it is something they would like to pursue seriously. We begin by looking at buildings historically and asking a fundamental question:

Why do we build the way we do? Students will study examples of architecture, learn how architects organize space and communicate ideas, and begin exploring those ideas through drawing, design, and physical model making.

Beginner Drawing

Observation-Technique-Practice.

Beginner Drawing is an introduction to one of the foundational skills behind nearly every visual art and design discipline. The course begins with observation. Before students can draw something convincingly, they have to learn how to slow down, examine it, understand what they are seeing, and translate that information onto a page. Students will develop fundamental drawing techniques while practicing proportion, shape, value, composition, and observation. The purpose is to begin developing the ability to look carefully at the world and understand how to represent it.

More Than One Month, Project-Based Learning

The larger goal of Fussell Academy is not to create a collection of disconnected four-week workshops. We want students to be able to keep going. As students complete classes, new classes will be developed based partly on what they want to learn next. Successful introductory courses can also be offered again for new groups of students while returning students move into new subjects and more advanced work.

Over time, this creates different paths through the school.

One student might become deeply interested in drawing. Another might move toward architecture. Another might discover painting, photography, construction, graphic design, writing, or something we have not offered yet. The monthly structure gives us the freedom to respond to those interests while still providing students with a structured education.

Our classes are centered around projects rather than lectures, worksheets, or tests.

Students should expect to make things. Some work will happen during class, while other projects may require students to continue practicing, researching, drawing, writing, or building at home. Although students are learning together, we do not expect every student to produce the same work. Projects provide a common structure, but instruction can change depending on a student's experience, interests, abilities, and goals. A beginner may be learning the fundamentals of a skill while another student uses the same project to push into something much more advanced. That flexibility is an important part of how we teach.

Additional Studio Access for Class Students

Students enrolled in a monthly class receive additional access to the school. On class days, students may arrive as early as 9:00 AM to work independently in the studio before their scheduled class. This is not an additional instructional period. Instead, it gives students access to a lightly supervised creative workspace where they can continue projects, practice, draw, build, read, or work independently.

Students enrolled in monthly classes also receive 50% off our standard hourly rates for Private Tutoring and After-School Open Studio during their enrolled month.

That makes:

Private Tutoring: $30/hour for enrolled students

After-School Open Studio: $7/hour for enrolled students

Step Up For Students

Fussell Academy is a Step Up For Students provider. Eligible families may be able to use available scholarship funds toward qualifying classes and educational services at Fussell Academy. Families interested in using Step Up funding can contact us before enrolling so we can discuss the available options.

Finding a Place to Start

Students do not need to know exactly what they want to become before coming to Fussell Academy. That is part of what the school is here to help them discover. Some students will come knowing exactly what they want to learn. Others may simply know that they like drawing, building, designing, writing, photography, or making things.

Either is enough.

Find where you are. Figure out where you're going. Build a path between them.

Come make something.

Call now to connect with business.

08/19/2026

The website has THREE whole pages now. The newest: www.fussellacademy.com/pricing features our pricing strategy and an upcoming look at our monthly classes starting in October.

Until then, join us for our open studios and tutoring opportunities.

Either way, read all about it on our site, and fill out our application (even if you're just curious)

08/14/2026

(sound is better)

He's inbound and expecting a ginger ale.

This is Jack; don't make fun of him cause he tripped.

Best employee, no notes. He makes driving up to the studio better every time, assuming he's in a good mood.

08/13/2026

Appreciation post for my Dad, the Elder Fussell.

If it wasn’t for you, I would never have been afforded the opportunity to pursue what I’m doing with my life. No one could ever support me the way you have, and my appreciation for that could not be more understated.

You are the reason I am who I am today, from the way I speak to the way I go about looking at the world. So much of what I’m trying to build now started with what I learned from you.

You were my first master builder.

08/12/2026

You can watch my hand get tired between the pages.

I wanted to explain what we’re offering right now. There are three ways to engage right now (and one secret way I won’t say yet).

First, we have 5 spots available for full-time students, from middle school to early college. For these students, the school becomes their Studio. We start by figuring out where they are academically and creatively, where they want to go, and build an education around that. There is a lot of independence, but also guidance, structure, and a community to work alongside. These first students will also have a pretty unique opportunity to help shape the school as it grows.

The second is Open Studio, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. This is a little more casual. Come spend time with us and join in with whatever we are working on that day. We might be drawing, building, taking photos, working outside (winter activity), playing, debating an idea, or following an unexpected trail to learning about the anatomy of frogs. Generally, students should expect to be working and learning as a group, but on quieter days there may be plenty of one-on-one attention too. If you’re already in school all day, come spend an afternoon here making things, learning something new, and working alongside your friends.

Open Studio is meant to be flexible, but we do ask that you let us know when you’re coming, we’ll pencil you in. Not only do we need to keep everything safe, but there may be days no one is home if no one is expected. Art can happen anywhere and sometimes I’m on the move.

Third, workshops and full classes are coming. will usually be one to three meetings focused on a particular subject or project, while full courses will run about 16 weeks and allow us to really dig into something. We already have a huge range of topics we want to teach, but before we start filling a course catalog, we want to meet the community that is actually going to use it.

Tell us what your kids are interested in. Photography? Drawing? Wood working? Architecture? Film? Animal Husbandry? Gardening? Sewing? Music? Theater? I could go on but you get the idea. What you tell us will help determine what we offer.

08/10/2026

My Favorite Architectural Artifact.

It's my favorite for two reasons.

It was made in the early spring of 2020. So it marked one of the last models I would design and build by hand, for at least a year or so.

But more importantly, as I was laying it out, something clicked. The goal of the model was to create an interesting floor-ceiling condition (a pavilion). I came in with no real plan, but as I worked on it, I created the rules that would govern how it came together. By following a consistent language in the model (those aforementioned rules), in the end, I loved the result.

If you're interested in pursuing a career in design, come check us out. From the basics to developing your own visual language and style, we can help.

08/09/2026

Happy Sunday!
This calligraphy set is from "Door Posts" by Timothy R. Botts.

-I want to say several things at once.

I keep coming back to these passages as I work. The use of The Word. The expressiveness behind the font choice, color, and stylistic arrangement of the marks on the page.

They exemplify something that has been lost in schools.

Workmanship. Tactile pen to page. Unfortunately, even the ability to read well.

But, most importantly, the connection to God. The ultimate source of creativity for the universe. How are kids supposed to be motivated to make or do anything great if they don't have a foundation of why it is Good to do anything in the first place?

The word is fundamental. You cannot separate writing from the visual arts. If you cannot articulate what you want to do, how can you even begin?

You can know when you are called to do something if you're patient enough to listen.

08/09/2026

New Banner Image?