A Brief History of the Belle Ame Dream
A message from Marlene Peterson, founder and president of Belle Ame Center for Artful Living
The Belle Ame Dream started as most dreams do—with a restlessness and a yearning for something better. In this case, I felt something was missing in education. In my search, I stumbled upon the writings of a group of men and women who I now fondly refer to as my Heart Educator friends, who lived about a hundred years ago. They taught me what it means to have a Well-Educated Heart (WEH). We have become a world focused on the Mind. What we need is to pay more attention to the Heart.
What has gone missing in education and our lives are the Arts: Music, Visual Arts, Poetry, and Story. The Arts civilize us. The Arts are the languages that the Heart understands.
Libraries of Hope was created as a place to share the many wonderful resources I was finding for nurturing hearts. The Forgotten Classics Family Library is comprised of over 250 volumes of stories I collected from the writings of the Heart Educators and brought back into print to inspire and uplift the hearts of our young people. Audio versions of many of the stories are found at fcbelmonde.com. Simple Joy Art is largely a collection of beautiful art from a lost era of classical realism, organized by topic.
The resources are organized around a 12-month rotation schedule, which is simply a layered approach to learning about the whole world and everything in it.
As I started sharing the lessons I learned from my Heart Educator friends with others, they felt their hearts softening and warming, and mothers from all over the world started gathering in a Facebook group where we continued to learn together.
Soon, they started forming mothers’ study groups—circles—and we gave ourselves a name: Mothers of Influence (MOI). Recognizing the limited options for building a community within Facebook, we formed a community in Mighty Networks, where we have live discussions, guest presenters, and classes. This platform makes it possible for mothers to find other mothers and MOI circles nearby or to make friends virtually. Mothers can go through the introductory course together—Catch the Vision—and talk about what they are learning and how to apply it. The Mother’s University carries their understanding to a deeper level.
The Well-Educated Heart Academy was created to satisfy the academic needs of high schoolers without losing the foundational aspects of the Well-Educated Heart way of learning and life.
As the message of heart education spread, I could see the value of a home for our work—a center for artful living where members of our community could meet in person. I was inspired by the writings of Nicolas Grundtvig, who started the folk school movement in Denmark, and could see the value of a similar campus, especially for our young adults. We have acquired a beautiful 160-acre property in the heart of America—Missouri—where we are growing the Belle Ame Center for Artful Living.
Belle Ame is French for "beautiful soul," and this now gives the reason for all we are doing. We are trying to build a more beautiful world by cultivating beautiful souls.
The campus is being funded by the families who will be the ones who are prepared to benefit most from what will take place there. They are invited to join the Belle Ame at Home community, where they can connect with other families and continue to receive instruction in Music, Storytelling, Drawing and Painting, Creating through crafts and sewing, knitting, crocheting, and more—all of which serve to help our children slow down, pay attention, and engage in real things in a world that is becoming more and more artificial. We are learning to fall in love with our world by paying attention. The funds generated from participating in this family community are being used to grow our campus, and the intention and dream is that the Spirit of Belle Ame will reach communities and neighborhoods near you.
This is a brief story of the Belle Ame Dream. By small and simple means, we believe great things will be accomplished.
OUR TEAM
Meet a few of the amazing people working so hard to make the Belle Ame dream come true!
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Marlene Peterson - President
Marlene Peterson is President of Libraries of Hope, as well as the finder of the Well-Educated Heart philosophy of learning and life. A believer in the power of stories, she has compiled and published over 250 volumes of stories from the Golden Age of Children's Literature. She created a manual on storytelling called Restoring the Art of Storytelling in the Home. A graduate of Brigham Young University with a degree in Child Development and Family Relations, she and her husband, Brent, have raised eight daughters and one son and enjoy spending time with their many grandchildren. The important role of mothers is central to her message. She is co-founder of Mothers of Influence and has created a Mother's University where mothers can re-learn the lost arts of educating hearts through the Arts. The core philosophy is found in Catch the Vision of the Well-Educated Heart, available as a free online course and in her book. She represented Virginia as the 2024 Mother of the Year.
Rachel von Niederhausern
Rachel von Niederhausern’s passion is people, and she believes the arts and agriculture have the power to heal hearts and bless families with abundant, joyful living. Rachel received her MBA from Utah State University and used it as a catalyst for social entrepreneurship, managing large for-profit and non-profit projects. She co-founded Loaves and Fishes Community Meal in 2010, which brings families together to feed the human spirit with food and friendship. The organization has served 28,000 meals and brought together over 5,000 volunteers from diverse civic and religious backgrounds. She also co-founded Family Humanitarian in 2011, which has provided over 200 clean water projects for families and reached 400K people through education and community driven projects. In her own community and in rural villages in Guatemala and Africa, Rachel’s family has learned that love is the universal language. She has also loved serving in the MOI and Belle Ame at Home communities. Rachel has a great love for the soil and growing things. This love began on her family's wheat farm as a child in Northern Utah, where she spent many summers walking and surveying the land. As an adult her love of the soil grew, and she has studied regenerative agriculture and taught gardening and food forest classes in her local community. Raising her seven children with her husband of 23 years brings her the greatest joy and chances for growth. She is striving to use the arts and the soil to teach them that all things and all people are connected in one beautiful circle of life.
Natalie Hunsaker
Natalie Hunsaker is a wife, a mother of four, a professional artist, and a dedicated lifelong explorer of both scripture and history. Her artwork has been featured in juried shows including the Springville Art Museum's Annual Spring Salon, the LDS International Art Competition, and publications such as the "Ensign" and "Work and Wonder." She has written art history curriculum for homeschoolers, and is currently working on two big painting projects: (1) “My Place in HIStory” is sponsored by American Heritage School, and teaches through historical examples how to find and fulfill your divine purpose in life; (2) “Isaiah’s Imagery” demonstrates how to find an emotional connection to the writings of Isaiah. Each artwork has a corresponding YouTube video to share the story and research behind the work. Her greatest desire is that her paintings will not only spark a deep love of learning, but also provide daily visual reminders of how beautiful our world and families can be. In her time off, you will catch her with her kids enjoying clean comedy sketches or cool documentaries, drawing in nature, or working on DIY projects around her house.
Shannon Whiteley
People often ask Shannon what it was like to be raised in a Well-Educated Heart home since she is Marlene Peterson's daughter. Her answer is always, "I don't know," because Marlene didn't meet her heart educator friends until the youngest sister was out of the house. Shannon thinks it is because her mom finally had time to herself instead of running every which way caring for all of the family. But Shannon is so grateful her mom started sharing what she learned as she began deep-diving into the teachings of educators from over a hundred years ago. Thomas Tapper said, "The moment (the seed) feels it has grasped the mother-earth securely with its roots, it turns its strength to making something beautiful." As Shannon learned from Marlene and all the resources she's gathered, she has felt the seed in her heart growing. Also, because she uses these things to nourish the soil for the seeds in her children's hearts, she's seen the beautiful things they are becoming. The Whiteley girls are the original WEH guinea pigs. While Marlene found the philosophy, Shannon has had the opportunity to try and implement it in real life. It's been wonderful and she can't imagine raising her girls in any other way. Occasionally, she shares homeschooling adventures on her blog: 100 Days of WEH. Shannon earned degrees in Education from George Wythe College and Management from Brigham Young University. She also had the opportunity to spend a semester studying at BYU-Jerusalem. After college, she taught English to kids in Russia and Japan through playing games, singing songs, and reading stories (very WEH). She also has read the entire Delphian Study Course, which is equivalent to a four-year liberal arts degree. She and her husband met at GWC, and now twenty-five years later, he is an officer in the U.S. Army. They have six amazing daughters who love horses, drawing and painting, acting, singing, playing guitar, flute, piano, harp, poetry tea times, storytimes, and walks in nature. Shannon loves learning about anything and everything, which is why reading is one of her favorite things to do. Going on adventures, whether in her own backyard, local sites, or foreign countries, is also a favorite thing to do--so much so that her mom used to call her the "buh-bye" girl. She has visited 49 states (just not Hawaii), 15 countries, and while she's moved over 40 times, she claims Virginia as home.
Tim Hall
Tim is the grateful father of five children and the astonished husband of one radiant wife. His inclination toward education sprouted in a childhood of books and conversation, survived a BA in teacher education, ripened in a MA in second-language acquisition, and now thrives in practice. Tim has taught English and Spanish at private and public schools, managed a team of instructional designers at a nuclear energy lab, and overseen curriculum and learning at American Heritage School Worldwide. He is most interested in what he terms production-based learning, where students learn in the context of creating something of genuine value to others. In practice this production-based approach brings education together with his other great interest: regenerative agriculture.
MOTHERS OF INFLUENCE
Marley Billings - MOI Director
Marley grew up on the side of a mountain where her family never had to close their drapes. They played Little House on the Prairie, had picnics in the treehouse, and sledded down the hills with wild abandon. She didn’t know it then, but it was idyllic—a gift her parents gave her and one she still treasures today. Marley always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She graduated from college with one-half credit more than was needed and started teaching in the very school she had attended as a girl. She loved her teaching days, but what she really wanted was to be a mother. Parenthood was more elusive for her and her husband than for their friends, but through a miraculous chain of events, a baby boy joined their family. That pattern repeated until they were a little shocked themselves to be the parents of five charming, feisty, independent, delightful children with strong personalities and ambitions of their own. Marley is as introverted as they come but always loves spending time with her MOI friends. She has a strange obsession with all things Scandinavian, an affinity for beagles, a penchant for collecting books, and a hidden bird of some kind in every room of her house.
BELLE AME CAMPUS
Tim Hall - Campus Director
Tim and Irene Hall have 5 children, and have implemented the Well-Educated Heart philosophy in their home every day since 2017. Tim was born and raised near Idaho Falls, Idaho, and grew up in a "Well-Educated Heart" home before WEH ever existed. As a homeschooled child, he read classics, learned the violin, piano, and guitar, and performed in theatrical productions starting at age 6. After studying theater and acting professionally for a brief stint, he gave missionary service in Mexico for two years before completing a BA in Education at Brigham Young University - Idaho. Tim and his wife, Irene, first settled in Alaska, where Tim taught in the local high school while managing a 7-acre hobby farm. Those experiences sewed the foundations for his own educational philosophy, production-based learning, which states that people learn best in the act of creating, producing, or doing something of genuine aesthetic or practical value to others. This was also where Tim and Irene decided to immerse themselves in learning the practical skills of food production and storage. They've been homesteading whenever possible since. The Halls then spent two years between Provo, Utah, and Nanjing, China, while Tim completed a MA in Linguistics at Brigham Young University, focused on improving second-language acquisition programs. Tim studied Mandarin, and researched Mandarin language learning in Nanjing. Tim then taught middle and high school at a private school near Kirtland, OH, then oversaw a team of instructional designers in the training department of the Idaho National Laboratory - the Department of Energy's premier nuclear energy research facility. Most recently, he has served as Assistant Director and Director of Curriculum and Learning at American Heritage School Worldwide, developing an innovative learning platform to support micro-schools and homeschools worldwide. In addition to being a professional educator, Tim and Irene have a deep love for and experience in soil regeneration, as well as the arts. Tim has studied soil microbiology in Dr. Elaine Ingham's Soil Food Web program, and the Halls have implemented the principles of regenerative agriculture on the Hall family homestead in Idaho, both with crops and animals. Irene holds a BS degree in Dietetics, and has mastered food production, preservation, and cooking. Together, they have long been involved in the arts, participating in and leading local performance choirs, and participating in community theater productions.
Ruth Ashby - Campus Administrative Assistant
Ruth Ashby is an enthusiastic reader, artist and musician from Georgia. She grew up as the oldest of five children in a home where singing, crafting, and reading aloud were a big part of the family culture. Her love for books grew into a love for classics through her participation in TJEd High, an online mentoring program that uses the Leadership Education philosophy. She had the great privilege of singing with the Spivey Hall Children's Choir for eight years, where she learned about professionalism as well as musicianship. Her family has used Belle Ame At Home as an important resource in their homeschooling for the past several years, and she was an apprentice at Belle Ame Campus in the late summer of 2024. She is currently studying graphic design at Brigham Young University - Idaho.
Brinley Chambers - Agriculture Apprentice (2025)
Brinley Chambers was born and raised in Idaho Falls Idaho with her parents and four sisters. She is the proud aunt of eight nieces and nephews and has always had a love for children. Brinley also has a love for farming, sustainable agriculture, homesteading, plants, and everything related. This began on a southern Utah buffalo ranch where she and her sister worked for eight months. An 18-month religious mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fresno California deepened her resolve to learn how to work with the beautiful earth God has created for us. Brinley spent the summer after her missionary service doing just that at an intensive residential Georgics program located in the Clover Valley of Nevada. After a fall apprenticeship at Belle Ame Center, she was invited to return in 2025 to manage campus food production and agricultural design. She looks forward to furthering her knowledge and gaining the experience necessary to one day feed, sustain, and teach others.
CAMPUS ADVISORY BOARD
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Steve Hall
Steve has been a practicing attorney, primarily in Idaho, since 1979. He has decades of experience in civil law and is currently employed as general counsel by Integra CRE LLC, a multi-state real estate development company. He is married to his one-and-only bride, Valerie, and they have 4 sons, 2 daughters, and 18 grandchildren, who are all the love of their lives. Throughout his career Steve has supported non-profit organizations, including those involved in child protection, assistance to the disabled, and promotion of the arts. He and Valerie have emphasized "artful living" in their home with their children for decades, and have daughters and a daughter-in-law involved in Mothers of Influence groups. With the Sounds Choir in Idaho Falls, he has sung, acted, presided, produced, and served across three decades. He is glad to be of assistance to and involved with the Belle Ame Center for Artful Living.
Elizabeth Thompson
Elizabeth Thompson doesn’t remember a time in her life when she hasn’t loved planting things and helping them grow. Over the years that passion has led her down a 20+ year journey in the horticulture industry which has included receiving a degree in Ornamental Horticulture from Brigham Young University, working at a large retail nursery, Castle Pines PGA golf course, Hudson Gardens and Event Center, Temple Square Gardens and was the Grounds manager at the Atlanta Georgia LDS temple. Her career has exercised her skills in adaptability as she has gardened in five states throughout the Mountain West, Mid-West and the Deep South. Her latest venture was starting a backyard specialty cut flower farm and landscape design and consultation business. Here she has the joy of sharing her passion with her family as they run their family business, Scatter Sunshine Flower Farm. Elizabeth’s greatest joys have come from learning the principles of The Well-Educated Heart and raising her four children in an art and nature rich home environment. Her husband is her hero who has moved more loads of mulch then you can count. Elizabeth is a firm believer that learning to work with and listen to nature can bring healing and deep personal growth. She looks forward to applying the principles of permaculture and regenerative farming to the campus. These principles invite us to truly connect and work with nature in a way which creates abundance in our lives, our relationships and in the ecosystem and community we live in.