The word “school” likely evokes similar images and memories for most of us: Rows of desks facing a whiteboard; maps, the periodic table, and motivational posters, and the looming stress of tests and report cards. And, of course, a ticking analog clock that, if you were like me, was an obsession above all else.
Compare that mental picture to Toole Skool, Matt Toole’s evolving education-minded, hands on workshop.
His studio istucked behind Victory Gardenson the Old Roberds Dairy Farm. It'ssurrounded by hiking trails, a glamping site, andthePegasus Riding Academy’s stables. A set of open oversized double doors leads to theworkshop'sfloor, the “classroom” if you will, where a wide array of metal and wood-working tools stand in rows to either side. The walls are covered in shelves holding all manner of strange objects that some would call junk, but those in the know might call “school supplies.” And Minca, a chocolate lab/chow mix acts as “hall monitor,” carefully sniffing each student as they arrive.
“What is Toole Skool?” Toole asked, reflecting my query back at me as we sat down in his equally full and unusual office space at the back of his workshop. “That’s an interesting question.”
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The accomplished local sculptor’s latest endeavor only recently took on its clever moniker, as Toole had never intended on teaching again after a decade spent doing just that at one of the local universities. But folks just kept showing up at his door, and the gregarious Savannahian kept finding reasons for them to stay.
“It’s starting to be a thing from a joke,” he said. “People were approaching me from various backgrounds to ask if I would teach them how to be a sculptor, weld, or show them how to design and build lights. And the answer when they were asking was emphatically, ‘Yeah, sure, happy to. And we can exchange work for work. I’ll teach you about this and you work on projects with me.'”
Toole’s first apprentice didn’t have far to travel: Michelle Muller worked at Victory Gardens and said that she was “curious about the loud noises coming from his shop.” Stopping by to check out the space, she and Toole immediately hit it off, and she told him of how she wanted to turn a bus into a living space, and of her desire to learn how to weld to turn her dream into a reality.
“So after work she came over and I gave her the lowdown on welding,” Toole explained. “And she just kept practicing and working.”
Muller has now been at Toole Skool for over a year, and her role has evolved from just being a student to being more of a collaborator. Toole described her as his “Jonathan Frakes,” a reference to an actor from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” who the captain referred to as “Number One.”
“She’s a great problem solver,” he said. “I will often consult with her before we do certain projects.”
The Toole Skool educational program isn’t set in stone, both by design and by necessity. On the one hand, Toole makes sure to spend a lot of time explaining how to safely use the various machines and tools, and some of what he does, like design and welding, is so commonplace at his studio that every new apprentice will learn at least a little bit of those skills. On the other hand, what a specific person ends up learning and engaging with is largely dependent on they’re interests and the needs of the studio at any given time.
Kelley Lowe, another of Matt’s apprentices, came to Toole Skool soon after COVID hit. She was equipped with “several degrees,” but found that, post graduation, she was missing the studio environment that a place like Toole’s studio provides. One of her former professors, Craig Anton, suggested that they go visit the workshop.
“We went,” she recalled, “and it was like a kid walking into a candy shop.”
For the well-trained but untested young artist, it was a way for her not only to grow, but to also put her skills toward a more practical application.
“In school you’re working on kind of theoretical things, or you’re given project prompts, and it’s meant to stretch maybe your creativity and your creative thinking,” Lowe said. “And we do that at Matt’s, as well, but all of it needs to be applied to a real-life situation.”
She added that they’ll often face challenges like the need to repair a trailer hitch and having to figure out the correct place to apply a new weld, or navigating building codes when designing fences or staircases. They’ve also recently had to figure out how to recreate the classic Savannah orange and black bus stop signs for the Ardsley Park neighborhood, build an arbor for The Sunshine Park andHealing Garden at MemorialHealth University Medical Center'schildren's hospital, and complete a number of custom metalwork projects for a container home on Tybee Island.
“In terms of being able to craft a curriculum,” said Toole, “it largely has to do with what they’re interested in, and what we have on the table.”
Matt openly admits that there is a limit to how many apprentices he can take on, but he’s always open to new folks coming by for a conversation about how they might be able to partner, as long as they have an interest and a passion for whatever it is they hope to learn from the longtime artist and metal worker. But if they possess those two things, as well as a willingness for hard work, he’d be happy to have them at Toole Skool, where there are no desks, the whiteboard has a list of jobs, and the hall monitor is a “chocolate princess” named Minca.
“I want creative people who want to know how to make things,” he said.
Rob Hessler is a contributing lifestyles columnist for the Savannah Morning News. He is an artist, executive director of the arts advocacy organization Bigger Pie, and host of the radio show Art on the Air, which broadcasts on WRUU 107.5. He can be reached at give@robhessler.com.
If you go
What: Toole Skool
Where: 2500 Tennessee Ave.
Contact: Matt Toole at 912-713-5934
Online: toolesculptureworks.com
Next workshops: Aug. 19-25
Info/register: themountainrlc.org/visual-arts-weekor 828-526-5838
