For years, before iPhones and selfie-sticks, Greenfield and Turners Falls residents could often spot small knots of energetic young people with large cameras and tripods, modeling for each other and trying to capture the moment on film.
Oh … Hallmark students.
Come October, Hallmark Institute of Photography in Montague says goodbye to graduates for the last time. The 41-year-old vocational school on Millers Falls Road is closing, leaving behind a mostly positive local legacy, having trained hundreds of professional photographers.
For many years since it was started in 1975, Hallmark was touted as a national leader in photography education. Past guest speakers at the school include Life Magazine photographers Mary Ellen Mark and Douglas Kirkland and National Geographic Society photographer Joe McNally.
In later years, the founder’s son, George Rosa III, sold the institution to a national vocational education company called Premier Education Group. Such transitions of ownership from local founding families to outside conglomerates are always fraught with anxiety, and in this case such concerns ultimately proved justified.
Under new owners, the school continued to enjoy its good reputation, but its name was tarnished by scandal in 2014 when Rosa pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud and tax evasion. According to the Department of Justice, the former owner had spent $2.6 million of company funds on personal purchases before selling the school.
Now, two years later, Premier is closing the school, declining to offer any public explanation. Its final handful of students are guaranteed by the state to get their certificates as the final 10-month course of study ends.
Hallmark’s closing will be felt more widely in Montague in tangible and less tangible ways.
“Anytime a business decides to leave, it’s a big loss,” observed Town Administrator Frank Abbondanzio. “Some very creative people are associated with the school, and they’ve made a major contribution to the town.”
In particular, Abbondanzio said, Hallmark had a big impact on the revitalization of downtown. It ran a gallery on Avenue A for a time and added a layer to the creative ambience of a downtown that has been staging a cultural resurgence in recent years.
In a more concrete way, the school has paid about $55,000 annually in property taxes to the town.
We hope town economic development officials will be able to quickly fill the vacuum, assuming Premier has no plans for another school on Millers Falls Road.
Former students expressed sadness and disappointment at the closing of the school, which was for many a good educational experience.
“I’m heartbroken to hear it’s closing,” Michelle McGrady, a Hallmark alumna, told The Recorder. “It’s upsetting that no one else will experience its top-notch photography courses or be part of the Hallmark ‘family’ anymore.”
Indeed.