10/12/2026
TBWoodturner, Toby Bouder of Liverpool, PA, recently attended the 50th Reunion of the inaugural year of the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts (PGSA) at Bucknell University in Lewisburg. The PGSA was a group of five-week summer academies for high school students gifted in creative writing, dance, music, theater, or visual arts. It was started under Governor Shapp in 1973 and ended, due to lack of funding, in 2009 under Governor Rendell.
Toby was a junior at Harrisburg High’s John Harris campus when he was selected to attend the PGSA in 1974. At that time his art was photography. Many of his photos were used in the school yearbooks in his junior and senior year. Since he retired from the Harrisburg post office in 2012, his art medium has been woodturning.
The 23 reunion attendees toured the Art Barn at Bucknell, revisited the campus, dined at a local restaurant, and visited Artists & Artisans—A Cooperative Gallery on Lewisburg's Market Street where Toby is part owner. At the farmhouse they rented for the occasion, they visited and showed some of what they learned during their time at the PGSA and since—reciting poetry, singing and playing musical instruments, performing mimes, reading aloud a short story, and displaying paintings, sculptures, and woodturnings. The group also phoned 94-year-old artist Clyde McGeary, of Camp Hill, who was instrumental in starting the PGSA and has been a great supporter of the arts in the Harrisburg area and beyond. Clyde fondly explained his role in the beginnings of the PGSA to his appreciative audience.
Currently, Toby is a member and VP of the Susquehanna Woodturners Club (Harrisburg), the American Association of Woodturners, a board member of the Mid-Atlantic Woodturners Association, the Susquehanna Valley Chapter (Halifax) of the PA Guild of Craftsmen, Perry County Council of the Arts (Newport), and the Millersburg Area Art Association. You’ll find his work at many shops and galleries in central PA.