This year we offered over 140 classes to over 1,000 students, in everything from photography to cheese making to mushroom cultivation to watercolor. Stained glass, featured above, was one of our most popular!

What a great year for The Gallery! We had seven shows featuring over two dozen artists and sold over 100 pieces of fine art. We’re super excited about 2023, with a new show opening January 6 (opening reception 4:00-8:00 PM) featuring Palden Hamilton.

Meanwhile, we’ve been putting a lot of time and energy into prepping for the water wheel, which requires a lot of steps — the first of which was squaring up the axel and leveling it. Railings by metal worker Derek Arnold and a stone wall by mason Frank Kammer to hold the millstone have been a sight to see. The original flume needed a home… what better place then in front of the wall? Here it is being lowered into place.

The complexity of the railing below is hard to appreciate, but Derek pulled it off — a single, continuous metal railing that wraps around a variable grade surface from the second level to the third floor of the Mill leading to the loft.

We’ve been tweaking things inside, including new cabinets made out of local pasture fence boards and a cool chandelier for the Loft made out of a huge gear with mason jars for light fixtures. Thanks to Michael Guarraia for that!

The Loft is so cool!! We’ve had tremendous performances in this space this year - jazz, BSO musicians, rock, blue grass. And there is an amazing line-up ready to carry us through June, including some incredible talent such as Popa Chubby, Roy Bookbinder, Sunny War and Steve Forbert.

Meanwhile we are gathering white oak to mill up for the water wheel! If you have a white oak log and want to contribute, please let us know at info@manor-mill.com. We have the metal frame and are planning it out now!

It’s been fun hosting corporate and organizational retreats. The space is well-equipped with lots of places to meet, high-speed internet and a number of flat screens to use. BCPS Arts Department leadership spent the day with us this fall.

Needless to say, none of us knew what to do when Frank K. Mason, Strongman came to the Mill, but we knew exactly what to do when Santa showed up out of nowhere to make toys with children. Here he is with Ms. Claus and the “list”.