What a great place. I go to WCMS regularly and know many adult students and parents of school-age…read moremusic students but have never heard a complaint. It's in a warm and inviting setting in a beautifully restored home filled with gorgeous woodwork. The teachers are wonderful, and when you enter you can hear the muted sounds of piano, violin, and cello coming from beyond the studio doors upstairs. Downstairs are rock, electric, and group/ensemble lessons. On the main level there are spacious waiting areas and a performance hall for recitals. The School also presents numerous performances for the community including free faculty recitals throughout the year featuring classical music, and a faculty rock band that does covers of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and U2 at a local theater auditorium. The faculty are very gifted musicians. If you're looking for high quality instruction in a great location that's well-run and very welcoming, I highly recommend it.

As an adult learner, I highly recommend WCMS. I retired over a year ago and decided to learn the…read morepiano. I devoted nine months to self study and after nearly six months of making very little progress, I decided that I needed a teacher. Initially, Laura focused on helping me correct the technical errors that prevented my progress and, before the semester ended, I saw that I was making real progress. I should note that I only stayed at WCMS for that one semester. Thanks to Laura, I saw enough improvement and enjoyed the experience enough to matriculate in the Associates in Music at Bunker Hill Community College. Had I not done that, I would have continued at WCMS and gotten a good workout, too (I took the train to Wedgemere).

Einstein's Workshop is a creative kid's dream. It's basically an indoor play area, filled with…read morecreative type toys, as well as a computer room where every kid plays, you guessed it, Minecraft. - There are lego tables, tables for Kinex toys, others whose names I forget. Two ramps for testing out lego car creations. A 3D printer, printing stuff. Neat room. Off to the side are other classrooms or private rooms for parties. The kids mainly hung out in the main room working on legos, and others stayed on Minecraft for the whole time. - My one caveat was that it's very boy-oriented stuff. The girls we took didn't find much interest in legos or Minecraft. So, they weren't that thrilled to be there. - There is a 3D scanner in an adjacent building; you can have your body scanned and turned into a 3-D sand sculpture. Creepy/cool! -

Outstanding - great staff, great offerings. Signed my nephew up for a week-long Lego/robotics…read moreclass (for grades 4 to 8). Was concerned that it might be too advanced for him (he's just going into 4th grade this fall). The instructor (Sarah - she's terrific) assured me he'd do great. And she was right - he loved it. At the end of the week I asked him to rate his experience on a scale of 1 to 10. His answer - 'infinity!' Next up - I'll be signing him up for a Mindcraft/into to electronics class. Can't recommend this place highly enough.

Highly recommend Lucien. He's a very good teacher who taught a complete novice. He' has never…read moremissed a lesson, always shows up on time and is a very good man. Thanks Lucien.

Lucien has many positive reviews, so I think his teaching style clearly works well for some…read morestudents--it just didn't work for me. I'm not trying to criticize his technique as a whole, but I do want others to have a clear sense of what to expect. Booking a session was quick and easy, and I was able to get an appointment the very next day, which I really appreciated. I understand that driving instructors sometimes need to be curt and direct for safety reasons. However, I think the type of feedback also needs to match the situation and the student's experience level. For me, the lesson felt like an hour of being yelled at. I was constantly aware that I was doing something wrong, but not always what I had done wrong or how to fix it. My impression was that Lucien overestimated my prior driving experience. This could likely have been resolved by taking a few moments to pause, talk through what we were about to do, and ask whether I had done it before. When I asked questions, Lucien was willing to demonstrate, but many of his instructions weren't clear to me, and his tone made me feel as though I was being scolded, even if that wasn't his intention. If I made the same mistake multiple times, that suggested I didn't understand something, not that I wasn't trying. Instead, he seemed frustrated that I didn't get it immediately and would tell me I was doing it wrong without giving concrete, descriptive feedback about how to correct it. For example, when I was practicing turning, he would yell that I was doing it wrong and grab the wheel, which didn't help me understand what I needed to change. It would have been far more helpful to pull over, explain the steps clearly, and then practice on a quiet street where I could try again safely and independently. There were also times when I misunderstood his instructions (for instance, going into the leftmost lane instead of going to the leftmost lane that eventually turns right). His immediate response was to yell that I hadn't listened, rather than clarify what I had misunderstood. This approach felt infantilizing and made me upset and distracted, which wasn't conducive to learning. Pedagogically, it also didn't make much sense to me. I wasn't paying $70 an hour to ignore instructions; if I wasn't following them correctly, it meant something about the instructions wasn't clear. A more helpful response would have been to ask what part I had misunderstood and adjust the explanation so I could succeed next time. Overall, Lucien may be a good fit for students who thrive under very direct and high-pressure instruction, are very good at articulating the specific skills that they already have and are hoping to gain, and are better at interpreting his feedback. For others, his style may be stressful and difficult to learn from.

We had a terrible experience with New England Chess, and specifically with Jared Becker as a…read moreteacher. My son was dismissed after two classes because he only showed marginal improvement in his ability to sit still and raise his hand. Jared showed no classroom control, was unwilling to work with my eager, excited, and happy child to help him adjust to the classroom. Jared also did not communicate with me directly, and I learned only after the second class that my son had been dismissed through the school's secretary. Terrible intolerance for different personalities and learning styles. Terrible communication. It is also in a terrible location, in a tiny dark building. Horrible experience.

Very bad experiences. Two of my kids enrolled into their program and quit deciding it is not a good…read morefit. They already charged for the following month. We requested to save credit for future use and they did not reject this when we requested this. Now after a few years, we like to use the credit for the other kid. They told us there is NO credit at all due to the late cancellation notice and refused to honor the two month's classes we have paid. My two older kids did not like their classes. We had wanted to have my younger kid who is new to chess to try a few months to see if he could like it. They told us their students are multi-year serious learner and we are not good fit. It seems that they do not care about you if you can't promise to stay with them long term.

it's a great dance studio kids are happy having fun and getting better it's a great space great…read moreteachers and the teams and classes are very good

I've been bringing my daughter here for 2 years. We love it! Miss Elizabeth is a fantastic teacher,…read morethe recitals are amazing, and the support staff are so helpful. The studio is clean and bright, and the waiting area is comfortable. The prices are reasonable too. We're very happy at ASD and plan to be here for many more years!

I've been a member at Artisan's Asylum since 2017, and it's been one of the most meaningful…read morecreative communities I've been part of. I started out pretty tentatively, just learning and exploring. Over time, I got more involved and eventually became the laser shop lead for four years. That experience opened the door for me to build a small business creating bamboo candle lanterns and piggy banks--something I never would have been able to do on my own without access to the tools and support there. That's really what makes a makerspace like this so special. You get access to equipment that would be wildly expensive (and impractical) to own yourself, and you're surrounded by people who are both learning and generously sharing what they know. A recent moment really drove that home for me. I needed to test out my tent system for an upcoming show, but the weather outside was terrible. I was able to set everything up in the common space and run a full test. Honestly--such a small thing, but incredibly helpful, and exactly the kind of flexibility that makes this place so valuable. These days, my focus has shifted to painting, and having studio space at the Asylum has been just as important for this next chapter. I have the room I need to work in encaustic, lay out panels, prep surfaces, and wrap finished pieces for transport. The shared spaces make all of that possible in a way that would be hard to replicate anywhere else. It's a welcoming, diverse environment with something for everyone--whether you're just curious or looking to build something serious. If you've ever thought about trying something new, take a class and see where it leads. You might surprise yourself. Time to get creative.

completed the jewelry 101 course. Fantastic instructor who led us through a series of steps…read morelearning the correct techniques on every tool in the Artisan's Asylum jewelry shop. We completed a ring (which my wife liked) over the two day 6 hour course. I have had some previous experience but this was an excellent learning process that taught me many things that improved my skills. Highly recommend taking this learning journey!! Great value for your money.

Awesome place for a fun crafternoon!…read more I came with a few friends on a rainy day to do a project, and had never done anything with mosaics before. We bought about 3 hours of time which is really the minimum amount of time it will take for a project. They had all of the supplies and colors and textures you could ever want and helped us every step of the way! It was about $15/hour plus the cost of the actual item you are putting the mosaics on. And note, you will need to let the tiles dry for 24 hours and grout it at home (if you are not local and can't return) The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful, and it was a great experience.

Nice teacher, good glass selection, good choice of shapes for making fused plates and bowlsread more