Fun new classes (and teachers) this fall!
The Guild is excited to roll out our education classes for the fall and would like to highlight just some of the new and exciting offerings and introduce some of our new or returning teachers.
Mar Valdecantos is a new teacher to the Guild who is delighted to be offering the “Little Picassos Club” which is “an art class that is also a Spanish class”. As she explains, “I’ve been thinking of a Summer Spanish program in town for some time, so that people don’t have to send their children away to camp to continue learning Spanish. This summer, it occurred to me that the best idea would be to teach a regular class during the school year at the Guild and a Summer Camp Art and Spanish in June”. Mar is a native of Spain who is an accomplished writer, artist and translator. She has taught Spanish at Carleton and St Olaf for many years before becoming the translator for the Northfield School District. She also has been a guest artist, in the Summer and Winter Plus programs at the elementary and middle school levels. Mar has been a member for many years and participated in the Annual Member’ Show for several years as well. Her talented daughter Diana Montero, participated in the Young People’s Theater Workshop in the summer and has been already in two NAG theater productions. The Little Picassos Club is suited for children five years and above that love art and love to learn about other cultures and foreign languages. As Mar explains “The Little Picassos Club is a club where the students will create wonderful art while learning or improving their Spanish. From creating our own flag to do a self-portrait Picasso style, in the club exploring the great masters from Spain and Latin America is part of the journey”. Classes will be on Thursday’s 5-6pm starting on September 24th.
Elaine Schaffner will be teaching an “Art is 4Every1® Acrylic Painting” class for teens to adults with little to no experience. As she states, “What’s unique about my approach is that I breakdown the process of building a painting into comprehensible steps while bringing foundational understandings of color, form, space and composition to the learner.” Elaine, a previous K-8 Visual Art teacher, is new to Northfield but had visited the town numerous times prior to moving here from Massachusetts. She had seen the facilities and galleries at the Guild and knew it would be a great place to teach. She is very excited to help her students (delete “how to) “learn to paint with acrylics and to ‘see’ like an artist in a non-intimidating studio setting”. The classes are on Wednesdays, 7:00-8:00pm.
Mary Schaubschlager is teaching “Trace Monotyping (not as boring as it sounds).” This is class for adults who are new to the world of printmaking. She explains that “ink is always fun! It can be a very impulsive and playful process; students can easily experiment with composition, repeat and layer images, and play with line and texture. This class can be an opportunity to discover how you compose a two dimensional piece and because it is based on play- you can change everything about your print from proof to proof and end up with a set of similar but varied prints. Through this experimentation you can better understand what makes a piece interesting. And I will teach you some new jokes.” This class is offered on Friday, September 25 from 7:00-9:00 pm.
After a six year hiatus, the Guild is excited to welcome Jim Haas back to teaching his “Intermediate Wheel Throwing and Hand-building for Adults.” As Jim explains “The class will be about exploring new techniques like altering thrown forms, adding handles and lids, layering, stamping, cutting, and more. Mostly, we’ll try to just have fun with clay! Mistakes are OK and often turn out to be kind of cool!” This class is offered on Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30 pm beginning on September 29th.
