by Becca Manning in the Pembroke Express
“It’s kind of like an Olympics for homemaking,” said Kelly O’Leary, a member of the executive committee and one of the creators of The Art of Living conference. “Our original idea was that there are a lot of women out there in the world today who would love to be terrific cooks and who would love to be great homemakers but lack the skills, and they find it really frustrating.”
To help young women fill that gap in their education, O’Leary and her coworkers decided to start the conference and hold it at Arnold Hall, where O’Leary used to work. She is now a chef at a women’s dorm in Boston.
“At first, the conference wasn’t a huge success because all we had were seminars and teaching classes. So one of us came up with the idea of having a competition, and that made it much more exciting for the girls,” O’Leary said.
The Art of Living conference is now in its sixth year, still held at Arnold Hall, and brings together women from all over the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, for a weekend of learning and celebrating those home arts. Among them are teams from the South Shore, Boston and New Hampshire that meet at Arnold Hall once a month during the school year to prepare for the annual event.
The girls, all high school age, stay the weekend in rooms at the conference center and attend seminars and compete in events centered around five basic themes: culinary art, home health, fashion, event planning and interior design.
“It really kind of resonates with them, the idea that someday, no matter what you do with your life, you’re going to have people that you love that you’re going to want to be able to take care of,” O’Leary said. “It’s a part of life, and you want to be able to do it well, with confidence, with artistry … and not to have to start from scratch when you’re 35.”
On Saturday afternoon, the main hall was bustling with activity, as teams of girls competed in two cooking events. In the Meals to Go event, teams had to prepare a portable meal for six, arriving with a plan and ingredients, and being judged on both the final product and preparation skills.
For the culinary competition, girls arrive knowing the meat — this year, it was flank steak — but are given a “mystery basket” on Friday night.
“With their coach, they have to make up a menu, how they’re going to cook it, and a theme. They have to put a whole meal together for four people,” said Tracy Vendetti, who helps coach the New England teams. “They’re judged on how well they work as a team, if they’re sanitary, if they keep to their space [within the kitchen], on their culinary skills and, if problems come up, how they deal with the problems.”
Her Meals to Go team from New Hampshire prepared a meal with items that represent their home state, including pumpkin soup, apple chutney, sharp cheddar and bacon from local farms.
“They’ve been working intensely on this mini meal for about two or three months,” she said.
In the kitchen, the team from Boston was turning their mystery basket — which included soy sauce, pomegranates, grapefruit, leeks, potatoes, brussels sprouts and bacon — into a cohesive meal.
“It was kind of eclectic, and it was hard to find a theme for it,” said coach Margarita Reyes, who lives and works at Arnold Hall. The girls finally decided on an early fall dinner and planned to marinate and grill the flank steak.
During the Dare to Repair competition, girls used their interior design skills to reupholster a chair, refinish a tabletop and install hooks, hardware and other items to a brightly colored door, using given tools and materials, according to Tricia Kelly, business manager at Arnold Hall.
The girls also can prepare a project fitting one or all of the Art of Living themes to be judged in a project gallery.
“The thought behind it is to think about your home and other people that you live with and to put care — and your heart — into those things, with an artistic flair and professional preparation,” Kelly said.
The weekend also includes a special Saturday night presentation — last year, it was an international fashion show, and this year, the executive committee planned a trip through the origins of Western civilization, with stations set up as “the seven hills of Rome,” Kelly said.
Though Arnold Hall is part of the Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei, and most of the retreats held there are affiliated with that group, the Art of Living program is nondenominational and open to any young woman who is interested, Kelly said. Coaches are professionals who work in Opus Dei facilities around the country.
“There’s perhaps a supernatural undertone in the sense that there’s a purpose for being here. It’s not just self-seeking but really looking for the meaning in life,” she said.
Ana Buckley, a senior at Montrose School in Medfield, has been involved in The Art of Living since she was in eighth grade.
“It’s really cool to see girls that are trying to do the same thing, to make a difference in … the simple things you can do every day, like making a meal or just fixing a light-bulb — all the little things you can do to make other people’s lives better,” she said.
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