By MARY GREENE

NARROWSBURG - Many of us know it best as Camp Wel-Met, the 200-acre property and lake nestled in the back woods of Beaverbrook. Wel-Met went through several existences under that name, first as a Jewish children's camp and then (upon purchase by the Goddard Riverside social work agency in New York City in 1985) as a year-round residency camp for senior citizens, children and the homeless. In 1997, Wel-Met (now known as The Lake Conference Center) was purchased by the New York chapter of the Gurdjieff Foundation, an international organization that studies, through mind, body and emotional practices, the teachings of Russian philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff, who died in 1949.

Over the weekend of July 7 - 9, The Lake Conference Center is hosting "A Traditional Crafts Retreat" which offers an exciting slate of art and craft workshops by a variety of teachers. Included in the line up are: pottery; stone carving, billed as "the most ancient and meditative way to create sculpture;" landscape painting that emphasizes color rather than form; silk painting, using an ancient dying technique suitable for expressing the natural beauty of foliage and flowers; gold leafing, or "traditional water gilding;" a writing course that emphasizes "writing from one's truth;" freeing the voice (for singers, actors and public speakers); ethnobotany, focusing on how to identify and prepare native plants; Asian cooking; and song and dance from the Balkans.

Participants sign up for one intensive workshop. The courses run Saturday and Sunday, with an option of meeting at the conference center Friday evening for a meal and orientation. Participants can live on or off campus, and can choose to pay for meals at the center or not.

A special one-day course, Song and Dance from the Balkans, is offered on Saturday July 8.

Those who will be leading the workshops, many of whom are members of the Foundation, have impressive credentials. Many are college professors (Barnard, NYU, Vermont College.) Some have museum experience or affiliation, or are artisians with international acclaim. All are passionate about their field.

	Contributed photo Suzan Donleavy-Johnson, who will teach the ethnobotany workshop, points out local wild edible plants. (Click for larger iamge)

"You have to work with other people to learn what it is that you love," said Suzan Donleavy-Johnson, who is teaching the workshop on ethnobotany. "And also, to learn that what you love can be communicated to other people.

The idea for the crafts retreat came after several of the teachers began exploring what they as a group of artisans could do in and for the community. "The main thing is," she said, "is that we [the teachers] are all friends... and we want to develop our craft."

Johnson has a Ph.D. in ethnobotony and currently teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, associated with Columbia University. She described her course as "offering the tools we need to look at our environment more carefully.

"Participants will be looking at the area with an eye for what native peoples did, how they collected and used traditional medicines. Students will be taught not only how to recognize, but also how to prepare safe, wild medicinal plants," said Donleavy-Johnson.

Lillian Firestone will be teaching the course on writing. A writer herself, and the founder of Firestone Associates, a public relations business, she is interested in freeing the student voice from the "censor within"-that internal cop who tells us constantly that what we are writing is stupid or not good enough. Her course uses many of the same methods found in Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones."

"I am not offering this for professional writers, but for people who are interested in expressing their truth beyond clichés," said Firestone. About the workshop setting, she said, "It is useful to be in a seminar with other people just to get courage and reassurance-you can see how many approaches there are and that they are all valid."

Firestone, who received her degree from Barnard College and has written non-fiction for Fawcett Books, home decorating journals and technical journals, looks to Tolstoy to express the heart of her beliefs about writing. "To paraphrase," she said, "Tolstoy said that any person could write the greatest book ever written if he could tell the story of one day in his life with entire truthfulness."

"What is the meaning of the delirium, the happiness of daily life," she continued, "if we don't love stories?"

Bill Tapley is another of the teachers at the crafts weekend, teaching landscape painting. He, like Firestone and Donleavy-Johnson, is a member of the Gurdjieff Foundation. Interestingly, Tapley purchased land in the Beechwoods area of Callicoon before the Foundation purchased the property in Beaverbrook. He has been building a home on the property for the past five years.

What drew him to the region?

"Well," he said, "I love [the area of] Tuskany, Italy. I began searching in a 75-mile radius of New York City trying to find a spot that would provide some of the same qualities. When I saw this area, I just really liked the feeling of the rolling hills."

Does it remind him of Tuskany?

"Oh definitely. It is also similar to where I grew up [in northeast Texas] not in the sense that it looks the same, but that both are dairy communities, with a homey appeal."

Tapley has a degree from Baylor University and has lived and worked in Paris and London. His course focuses more on color in landscape painting than on shape or form. "Overall color" of a landscape, he said, can be "quite different depending on time of day, season and so on... the workshop is about the 'non-effort' of seeing the color that is right in front of you."

Will The Lake Conference Center host similar events in the future?

	TRR Photo by Mary Greene A rustic chair fronting Silver Lake provides a setting for peaceful reflection. (Click for larger image)

"We hope so," said Tapley. "We are hoping to have theatre here, music and more."

"We basically want to reach out to the community and get to know the people we are living near," said Donleavy-Johnson. She hopes that, in the future, children's workshops such as storytelling, theatre and survival skills, can be added. Donleavy-Johnson emphasized, "The workshops are not oriented toward making money, but an exploration of craft."

Cost for workshop registration is $100. A meal packet (including Friday dinner, three meals on Saturday and two on Sunday) can be had for an additional $65, or meals can be purchased individually. Dormitory-style housing is an additional $20 per night. For information and registration write Suzan Donleavy Johnston, 15 Hidden Meadow, Weston, CT, 06883, call 203/226-8161or e-mail Lake Conference@aol.com.