Walking into an art center, you might expect to find students crafting clay pots and dipping paint brushes into watercolor palettes. But what about a group of writers studiously scribbling away? More and more over the past two years, the classrooms at White Bear Center for the Arts have been home to groups of writers as they experiment with their chosen art form: writing. This is thanks in large part to Amber Guetebier. In her less than three years as a writing teacher at WBCA, Amber has cultivated a vibrant, inclusive space, making WBCA a place where writers of all ages and stages can grow, thrive, and most importantly have fun while doing it.

Though to her students and others who know her, it might feel like Amber was born into this role, the truth is that she stumbled across it through a series of happy accidents. When she first moved to the area, Amber was looking for art classes for her young son. She found a youth summer camp at WBCA, but what she didn’t expect was to find a creative calling of her own at the art center. She recalls hearing bells and a choir of angels singing the moment she walked through the door and feeling like, “ah, this is my place.” That feeling led her to join the writer’s group, and she began teaching writing classes in 2022. 

In the last few years, her vision for WBCA’s writing program has started to take shape, grounded in the belief that writing is just another art form. It’s a creative entity that requires space, time, and dedication as well as community. “There’s something magical about a group of writers when they find their people.” She said that a collective writer’s mindset is transformative. “To know they’re not alone in a cabin in the woods, but if they wanted to be, the other writers would get it.”

While Amber’s classes cover technical subjects, like the nitty gritty of book proposals, and how to dig deep to discover the characters you’re writing about, her main goal in teaching is to keep it light. “I try to make it fun,” she said. “I personalize the class as much as I can and keep it at a pace that allows for creativity, spontaneity, and lots of laughter.” Because no one wants to be bored in a class, teachers and students alike get more out of a class if it’s entertaining. This comes in handy when teaching teen writers.

Since her love of writing started very early, Amber has experience being the kid who wouldn’t stop writing when everyone else went to the playground. And while we think of writing as a solitary activity, it’s important for young writers to know it doesn’t have to be. In this catalog’s offerings, she’s expanded her youth writing classes to more include more offerings beyond the teen writers club, the Pen & Ink Society. “The writers that I knew [at that age] were gatekeepers, they were happy to lecture about their own successes but reticent to share their wisdom with young writers.” Amber wants to turn the tide, “I am not a gatekeeper,” she said. “I want to break the lock and kick the gate in so my Pen & Ink Society members can dance around on their mountains of words.”

In the last year, she’s engaged over a hundred local writers in her writing classes from casual writing sessions with other writers, discovering their voices at events like Writer’s Speak: An Open Mic Night for the Community, or putting their nose down for a writing intensive. Keith Harrower, a writer who has attended writing classes at WBCA for over 5 years attests to the power of the writing community that Amber has built. “Amber has created a safe space for writers of all levels and ages,” he said. “[She] is dedicated to making each writer feel welcomed and respected for their abilities. This safe environment nurtures a flourishing writer’s community right here in White Bear Lake. It is amazing and fun to be a part of.” Some of her loyal Writer’s Well students, Jo Prouty and Terri Kaiser have even grown to be instructors themselves, teaching a class on self-publishing this spring.

As more students and teaching artists join the ranks, Amber is excited to see what the writing program will evolve into. “Every teacher brings a new perspective to aspects of writing and this allows us to look at our writing from a new place,” which is important because, as she said, “the best writers never stop writing and they never stop learning.”

Find all writing classes at WhiteBearArts.org/classes.