Cape Cod Community College
Mass. Rt. 132, West Barnstable• (508) 362-2131• www.capecod.mass.edu

Set on 116 acres a few miles from Hyannis, Cape Cod Community College offers both day and evening classes to its 5,000 students. Two-year programs lead to associate degrees in several areas including the arts, humanities, and sciences, as well as in nursing, hotel and restaurant management, dental hygiene, and criminal justice. The academic programs are organized into two divisions with seven departments: Business, Health, Social Sciences, Arts and Communications, Natural Sciences and Life Fitness, Mathematics, and Languages and Literature. The college has a particularly strong communications program.

Opened in 1961 in the building that is now the Barnstable Town Hall, Cape Cod Community College was established as part of the community college system in Massachusetts. One hundred and sixty-three students from 33 communities enrolled during its first year. Outgrowing the space quickly, the college moved in 1970 to its current location in West Barnstable, making it the first community college in the state to build a new campus. Today, the campus consists of nine buildings.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy
101 Academy Dr., Buzzards Bay• (508) 830-5000, (800) 544-3411• www.mma.mass.edu

The Massachusetts Maritime Academy is the oldest continually operating maritime academy in the country. Bachelor of Science degrees are awarded in Marine Engineering, Marine Transportation, Facilities and Environmental Engineering and Marine Safety and Environmental Protection. The four-year co-ed course of study includes practical experience on the training ship Patriot State, which gives students an opportunity to visit numerous countries during their semester-at-sea. Eight hundred and fifty students come from across the nation and participate in a full range of activities and athletics. The academic year is composed of two academic semesters of approximately 15 weeks and a Sea Term or Internship.

Sea Education Association
171 Woods Hole Rd., Woods Hole• (508) 540-3954• www.seaeducation.org

This unusual college program offers the academic equivalent of a full college semester on board the Westward, a 125-foot staysail schooner or the Corwith Cramer, a 134-foot brigantine. The Cramer is named for the founder of SEA who designed a program for college students that enables them to spend six months on shore studying oceanography, nautical science, and maritime studies, followed by six weeks at sea practicing oceanography. Each student is also expected to complete an academic project. Students do not need any prior sailing experience nor do they have to be science majors. During the summer, the vessels go to the North Atlantic, and in the winter they visit the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. The SSV Westward carries 35 students and faculty, while the SSV Corwith Cramer accommodates 36 people. The academic complex, a circa 1889 estate, is located on a scenic hilltop site; it includes a lecture hall, classrooms, a laboratory, student library, computer room, study areas, and faculty and staff offices.

Falmouth Artists' Guild
744 Main St., Falmouth• (508) 540-3304

The Guild offers classes and workshops year-round in drawing, painting, pottery, silversmithing, and weaving for very reasonable prices (members get a discount). Class offerings vary from season to season, but run the gamut of media from watercolors to colored pencils. There are also classes for children.

Cape Cod Conservatory
Mass. Rt. 132, West Barnstable and Beebe Woods, Highfield Dr., Falmouth• (508) 362-2772, (508) 540-0611

The Conservatory's main facility is in its 45th season of teaching music, art, dance, and drama, and also offers classes at the Beebe Woods Center. The Conservatory has about 1,000 students, mostly from the Cape. Dance classes for adults and children include ballet, tap, and jazz; drama, art. Cartooning classes are offered for children. Adults may take courses in oil painting, monotype, and music instruction in all instruments. High school students make for about 60 percent of the music classes, which are open to all ages.

Cotuit Center for the Arts
737 Main St., Cotuit• (508) 428-0669

Unfortunately, the building that housed the arts center burned to the ground in the winter of 2000. At press time, alternative arrangements had not been reached, but you can bet the Cotuit Center for the Arts will continue with a focus on visual arts, branching into theater as well. We were told that the center will offer year-round classes for adults, teens, and children. Classes include painting, drawing, creative writing, drama, mixed media, guitar, and foreign language through the arts. The center has also presented art exhibits, plays, and seminars throughout the year. Call the number above for the most up-to-date information.

Academy of Performing Arts
5 Giddiah Hill Rd., Orleans• (508) 255-5510

Associated with the Academy Playhouse (see our Arts chapter), this school offers a variety of performance classes, including dance, acting, voice, and music lessons. Classes are for the young and the young-at-heart and are given in two 18-week sessions. The academy also offers a summer camp. Please see the reference in our Kidstuff chapter.

Cape Cod Photo Workshops
135 Oak Leaf Rd., North Eastham• (508) 255-6808

Cape Cod Photo Workshops is dedicated to teaching all facets of photography. With 25 separate weekend and weeklong workshops scheduled from May through September, you can study everything from light meters to photo collage. There are about 18 instructors who have distinguished themselves in the world of photography, and there are classes to suit every level, from beginner to advanced. On photo-taking excursions you'll visit some of the most beautiful nature spots in the area.

Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill
Castle and Meetinghouse Rds., Truro• (508) 349-7511• www.castlehill.org

One of the Lower Cape's most respected nonprofit educational institutions, Castle Hill has for 30 years offered classes with instructors who are both talented and distinguished. Housed in an 1880s barn with an adjacent windmill that contains the school's administrative offices, this unusual school offers a full range of courses in painting, sculpture, printmaking, pottery, poetry, playwriting, and fiction. Course offerings vary from year to year, but are always interesting and challenging. Recent class offerings included interpretive watercolor with Elizabeth Pratt, landscape in oils with Robert Douglas Hunter, figure in clay with Joyce Johnson, landscape workshops with Joan Hopkins Coughlin and photographic exploration with acclaimed photographer Joel Meyerowitz , to name just a few. There are classes for children, a lecture series, and artist receptions. Classes are held in July and August, and it's a good idea to register as early as possible, since many of them fill up fast.

The Cape Cod School of Art
48 Pearl St., Provincetown• (508) 487-0101

Founded in 1899 by Charles Hawthorne, the painter who is credited with transforming Provincetown into an important art colony, the Cape Cod School of Art is now run by noted impressionist painter Lois Griffel. The studio itself is a large rustic barn, but most of the teaching is done outdoors--something Hawthorne encouraged his students to do. Griffel herself teaches workshops in "Painting the Impressionist Landscape," one of the school's most popular classes. Other well-known local and nationally known artists teach weeklong workshops in pastels, figure painting, and watercolor. The school operates in the summer and early fall.

Hawthorne School of Art
29 Miller Hill Rd., Provincetown• (508) 487-1236

Charles Hawthorne built this studio (not to be confused with the Cape Cod School of Art he also founded; see above) in 1899 high upon a sand dune. In 1989, Olga Opsahl-Gee and her husband, painter Peter Gee, reopened the studio with the hopes of "creating new artists on Cape Cod." In the summer, they offer weeklong classes and workshops taught by local and world-renowned instructors in such areas as raku pottery, experimental painting, fiber craft, and photographic imaging. The school also has special drop-in children's workshops, a perfect (and creative) way for parents to have a little time to themselves while their children have fun in a bucolic setting!

Fine Arts Work Center
24 Pearl St., Provincetown• (508) 487-9960

Founded in 1968 by a group of visionary artists and writers (including poet Stanley Kunitz and artist Robert Motherwell) as a place where emerging artists are given an uninterrupted seven months to hone their work, this former lumberyard has since become one of the world's leading artistic retreats, nurturing such creative artists as Portia Munson, Jayne Anne Phillips, Dennis Johnson, Tama Janowitz, and last year's Pulitzer prizewinner for fiction, Michael Cunningham. More than 1,000 people apply for the competitive Winter Program each year, but only 20 (10 creative writers and 10 visual artists) are accepted. Residencies, which run from October through April, include room and board plus monthly stipends. The application deadline for writers is December 1; for visual artist it's February 1.

The open-enrollment Summer Program is a series of weeklong and weekend workshops in creative writing and visual arts. These workshops run from late June through August, and a distinguished faculty, including Michael Mazur, Grace Paley, and Bernard Chate, conduct the workshops.

The Fine Arts Work Center also hosts scores of readings and exhibitions throughout the year, as well as occasional benefits, including the much-anticipated fundraising auction, held each August (see our Annual Events chapter). A free catalog for the summer program is available each January from the address above.