Classical music pours out of a radio in the gift shop and every creaky step on the old wooden floors seems to complement both the music and the surrounding artwork in a rustic aesthetic of Ames’ first art center.

The Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Ave., provides Ames and surrounding communities with a haven for artists and a venue for educational outreach programs.

Most community art centers are funded by the city or by an endowment, said Teresa Albertson, executive director of the Octagon.

“Ours was created on a kitchen table by four good-hearted ladies and our support has grown from there,” she said.

The idea for an Ames art center was developed in 1965 by several local residents. In 1966, the Octagon became a nonprofit organization and moved into a house on Sumner Avenue. By purchasing the octagonal-shaped house, the only art center in Ames at the time was christened.

The Octagon functions to provide service education classes and a free public art gallery, Albertson said.

“We also serve artists professionally and provide for them an opportunity to come together and work together,” she said.

The Octagon Center grew out of the small house in only two years, Albertson said.

The founders began renting space on Main Street to use as galleries and bought the four-story building in which the Octagon now resides one floor at a time.

The Octagon has a dance studio, several galleries and workshop rooms, an adult art studio, two children’s studios, a children’s library and a gift shop.

The shop is a place for local artists to sell their works. More than 150 artists from around the world take advantage of the opportunity, Albertson said.

“Literally hundreds of artists are represented in the gallery in any given year,” she said.

The center provides services for more than 20,000 people in Story County and seven other surrounding counties, Albertson said.

Classes for people from 18 months old to the elderly are available year-round and more than 1,000 students enroll in the workshops each year. Community members often give class ideas and qualified parents and local artists teach many of the classes, Albertson said.

“It’s not unusual for someone to come and want to teach an art class,” she said. “We invite the community to come in and make an activity.”

Special events are organized for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, Halloween and other holidays, she said, but art, writing, photography, dance and pottery classes are also available during the year.

In addition to the local artists who teach many of the classes, a recent program provides for three artists-in-residence and private studios where they can work.

Albertson said the only difference with an artist-in-residence is 24-hour access to the studio “to create and develop their artwork.”

Carl Watson teaches life drawing and figurative sculpture classes as an artist-in-residence. He has taught at the Octagon for 12 years and owns his own drywall repair company, where he works during the day.

Watson obtained his bachelors degree of fine arts in 1987 from Iowa State and applied to teach at the Octagon.

“I split my time between my teaching, which is my first love, and going back to the drywall business,” he said.

Watson said he teaches a broad spectrum of students.

“It’s not unusual for me to have a class where I have a 16-year-old high school student and a 75-year-old grandmother,” he said. “Most of the people that come for classes don’t necessarily want to become artists, but wish to have a hobby to supplement to what they do during the day.”

Watson said he enjoys teaching at the Octagon and loves the changes he makes in the lives of his students.

“You live for that student that struggles,” he said “One day there’s a light in their eye – they got it, and that makes it all worthwhile.”