Madeira Education Center Madeira Education Center The Madeira Education Center hosts a wide variety of art classes and workshops year round. The MEC boasts two art studios – the Mary Ann Melton Studio and the Mr. and Mrs. John Thatcher Studio – both of which are bathed in natural light, making them ideal venues for the making of art; en plein air, or open air classes, are regularly held just outside the studios as well as elsewhere on the 407 acre campus. In 2005, more than 400 out-of-town students traveled to Manchester to attend week-long classes at the Madeira Education Center.