Online Adult Summer Art Classes
Month-long art classes for adults! Offered on Zoom, these classes feature hands-on art and literacy. Each session is full of interactive lessons, connecting, and learning with a multi-sensory learning experience.
Classes Offered for Adults
June
Modern Collage
Tuesdays in June, 930am-1030am (CT)
We will explore and make all things collage. Each class will feature a different era of the collage genre, from Picasso and found objects, to Annegret Soltau and sewing thread onto canvas, to more modern collage approaches like picture juxtapositions. Students can expect a fun, and unexpected approach to art.
July and August
Artifacts: a Cultural Response to Trauma
Sundays in July and August, from 10am-11am.
Our first class will be Sunday, July 12 and our last class will beSunday, August 16.
Trauma is often characterized as “too much, too fast.” We are living in a time that will be written about in history books. We are living in a time of collective trauma. Between unemployment, the recession, Covid, and the Black Lives Matter Movement, there is a lot going on in the world.
As artists, and as people, I am thinking about how the art and culture that will be noted, and the culture and art that will emerge from this time. What books will be written, narratives formed, what art will document the fractured state of our existence? These resources act as artifacts of these times - the diaries, newspapers, letters, news clips, murals and spray paint pieces, protest signs - these will be studied for years to come. This class is a studio art practice of an artifact collection/creation and cultural response to these movements and this time period.
Whether you are uncomfortable, panic-stricken, hopeful, energized, this class is for you. Weekly presentations will introduce a number of past and present artists' work, writing, and tactics used by artists and designers to find the generative potential that was created out of other collective trauma in history - war, Great Depression, 9/11, and others.
Each week, we will make art of our own in class and outside of class. This is a prompt based class, with open ended ideas that will be explored. These prompts are intended to spur small, bold creative moves - ones that might be repeated, developed, or discarded. All will be discussed. The goal is not necessarily to create elaborate, refined projects, but to allow yourself to trial approaches you might not normally consider, to learn from failures, as well as successes, and to explore this time.
An art journal will be provided, and materials that you have in your space and/or materials that you buy will be encouraged. Students may use photography, video, music, fiber arts, oil pastel, spray paint, acrylic paint, charcoal, pencil or pen, collage, or anything else that would suit your needs. This class will be structured within an art journal, so that we can create full pieces and/or ideas that can be further generated into larger, more fleshed out pieces. Prompts on these various ideas will be provided, and conversations about our fractured state of existence will be explored. Exchange and shared learning will also be available outside of weekly Zoom sessions as students are encouraged to share work via the Google Classroom learning platform at any time.
This class will be on Sundays to grant space to explore throughout the week to feel, read, and take time with your response. Starting the week with art is a powerful way to begin and set your intention for your studio art/artifact making practice.
30% of proceeds will be donated to Urban Triage, a local Madison nonprofit that fosters Black families' self-sufficiency, community leadership, advocacy, and student success through parent engagement and cultural heritage.
A work and style that we will be studying and practicing in Modern Collage. Artist is Jose Romussi
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the class buy?
Each class registration buys the month-long class.
How long are the classes?
Classes are one month long each. Sessions are once a week, for one hour.
How do we receive Zoom Links, etc?
After registration, you will immediately receive the digital download with a welcome letter and all the links for the class.
How do the kits work for some classes?
Some classes include kits for activities we will do. I will drop off these kits to houses/spaces the week before class starts. Each child will receive their own kit, so please email how many children will be in the class.
Can people outside of Madison take classes?
Definitely! That's one of the great benefits of Zoom classes. There have been kids in different states and even different countries!
I don't live in Madison, can you mail a kit?
It varies with the class. If you live outside Madison and the class has a kit, please contact me to figure out options. If I cannot ship a kit, I will reduce the class fee and email the materials list.
What is the refund policy?
Any class that needs to be dropped can do so up to a week before the class starts, and have a full refund minus a $10 administrative fee. There are no refunds on classes after the start date unless there are extenuating circumstances.
Do you have scholarships?
Yes! Thanks to a very generous sponsor, there are scholarships available this summer. Please email me to learn more.
Online Classes at Other Cool Organizations
Classes I am teaching this summer
@ Communication
Community Art
Ages 8-13
Community art is calling the community to engage in art practices. After learning about different practices and types, the kids in this class will organize and execute a community art project in the city of Madison. We will also “meet” different community art artists in Madison and learn how they bring art into people’s lives.
Making Monsters
Ages 5-9
Make all things monsters! Sew a monster stuffed animal with fabric. Make monsters out of paper mache and cardboard. Draw comic book monsters and write a short comic. And make a game about monsters! This class includes a kit that will be dropped off for kids.
Graffiti Art
Ages 8-13
We will learn and explore elements and styles of graffiti art - why do people do it? Why is it awesome? How did people do a certain piece? And how do we do it ourselves? Graffiti artists use spray paint, acrylic paint, and paint pens. In this class, we will practice the styles with acrylic paint, stencils, and paint pens. (A handout will be sent to parents/guardians on safety measures and practices if they choose to purchase and practice spray paint at their own houses, outside of class. We will not be using spray paint during this class.)
See these and other classes for kids, teens, and adults at Communication
@Gilda's Club Madison
You must be a member of Gilda's Club Madison to register for the following classes.
Victory Gardening
Transform your community spaces and support your community with food! In this four week class, we will explore and learn about victory gardens, and a twist on them - potager gardens. A potager (po-toe-jhay), or kitchen garden, can be created with a community garden, containers, or a front or back yard. It includes annuals, perennials, herbs, and vegetables in one space. This class will learn to design a garden with a myriad of colors, blooming, and harvest times. Participants will learn about soil, what to plant in their areas, how to care for and maintain these plants, and how to support themselves, their homes, and their communities with food.
We'll go over your personal goals for gardening - container, community garden, backyard, and how to work on what you need/want. Those goals will vary per person and space, but we will go over soil, garden design, how to support the plants and garden that you are looking for, as well as supporting the community through a victory garden/Potager garden design and execution.
We will also go over modifications for gardening to serve your body’s needs. Whether that is changing the way we use a trowel, using container gardens instead of the heavy work in an in-ground garden, hanging baskets on pulley systems to ease watering, but most importantly designing and working in a space that works for you.
Art Journaling Class for Young Survivors
In this class, we'll explore journaling with art. What does this mean? It can be as simple as documenting each day’s activities with art, doodling feelings, or creating pages that respond to the larger events of your life - cancer, COVID, family or friends, etc. It can be light, deep, sweet, funny, the beautiful. The mission is to make a regular, creative practice of sharing and honoring yourself and your life.
We'll start with an exercise as we open up our minds and hearts, and warm up our hands for movement. Next, we'll have prompts that you can visually answer with whatever materials you have in your spaces - collage, painting, drawing, stickers, etc.
This is an intentionally welcoming creative space, where there are no wrong answers, and any expression of creativity is wonderful.
Drawing Class
In this weekly one-hour intro to drawing class, participants will have a one-hour session to practice old skills, develop new techniques, and have fun! This class is designed for adults.
There are different lessons and practices every week, inviting participants to join in for one class, or every class. Each week, we will start with a warm-up exercise, where we open up our hands and minds, and one or two larger projects where we delve into either still life and/or portraiture. We will learn how to observe an object with lines, light, color, and value, and how to take the object or character we have in our minds and translate it to the page.