Youth & Continuing Studies Courses

In this exciting workshop, your child's creativity will flourish as they learn to draw, sculpt, model, mold, sew, and prototype unique toys, stuffed animals, and action figures. Campers will begin by developing their characters through traditional illustrations before transitioning to 3D media. They will draw inspiration from classic and contemporary toys and accompanying cartoons or stories. Throughout the camp, students will explore various techniques and creative approaches to bring their toy designs to life.

This immersive experience offers a stimulating environment where young artists can develop as creative individuals while learning to solve problems innovatively. In addition to daily studio art projects, students will keep a sketchbook to capture their research, ideas, and reactions during visits to the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, where they will explore captivating exhibits that inspire new ideas and fuel their imaginations. Campers will enjoy diverse artistic adventures with friends through experiments in painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture, printmaking, and more, creating lasting memories and friendships. Each session will have a different focus, allowing students who enroll in multiple sessions to encounter new studio projects each time.

This immersive experience offers a stimulating environment where young artists can develop as creative individuals while learning to solve problems innovatively. In addition to daily studio art projects, students will keep a sketchbook to capture their research, ideas, and reactions during visits to the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, where they will explore captivating exhibits that inspire new ideas and fuel their imaginations. Campers will enjoy diverse artistic adventures with friends through experiments in painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture, printmaking, and more, creating lasting memories and friendships. Each session will have a different focus, allowing students who enroll in multiple sessions to encounter new studio projects each time.

Join fellow campers in imagining, designing, and creating a brand-new fantastical world filled with unique characters, vibrant wildlife, complex structures, captivating histories, and more. In this mixed-media course, students will complete projects in illustration and comics, sculpture, 3D modeling, and creative writing. Visits to the Art Institute of Chicago will enhance studio activities and showcase the work of artists who have also crafted imaginative worlds. With hands-on guidance and endless opportunities for self-expression, this camp offers young creators the perfect way to turn their wildest ideas into a stunning, interactive universe.

This immersive experience offers a stimulating environment where young artists can develop as creative individuals while learning to solve problems innovatively. In addition to daily studio art projects, students will keep a sketchbook to capture their research, ideas, and reactions during visits to the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, where they will explore captivating exhibits that inspire new ideas and fuel their imaginations. Campers will enjoy diverse artistic adventures with friends through experiments in painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture, printmaking, and more, creating lasting memories and friendships. Each session will have a different focus, allowing students who enroll in multiple sessions to encounter new studio projects each time.

This immersive experience offers a stimulating environment where young artists can develop as creative individuals while learning to solve problems innovatively. In addition to daily studio art projects, students will keep a sketchbook to capture their research, ideas, and reactions during visits to the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, where they will explore captivating exhibits that inspire new ideas and fuel their imaginations. Campers will enjoy diverse artistic adventures with friends through experiments in painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture, printmaking, and more, creating lasting memories and friendships. Each session will have a different focus, allowing students who enroll in multiple sessions to encounter new studio projects each time.

This immersive experience offers a stimulating environment where young artists can develop as creative individuals while learning to solve problems innovatively. In addition to daily studio art projects, students will keep a sketchbook to capture their research, ideas, and reactions during visits to the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, where they will explore captivating exhibits that inspire new ideas and fuel their imaginations. Campers will enjoy diverse artistic adventures with friends through experiments in painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture, printmaking, and more, creating lasting memories and friendships. Each session will have a different focus, allowing students who enroll in multiple sessions to encounter new studio projects each time.

This immersive experience offers a stimulating environment where young artists can develop as creative individuals while learning to solve problems innovatively. In addition to daily studio art projects, students will keep a sketchbook to capture their research, ideas, and reactions during visits to the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, where they will explore captivating exhibits that inspire new ideas and fuel their imaginations. Campers will enjoy diverse artistic adventures with friends through experiments in painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture, printmaking, and more, creating lasting memories and friendships. Each session will have a different focus, allowing students who enroll in multiple sessions to encounter new studio projects each time.

The places where you live, go to school and shop significantly affect your daily life. In this camp, students will explore their environments and analyze how fundamental human needs, desires, and behaviors shape architectural design. The focus will be on the methods architects use to develop their ideas while also looking at the structures, materials, and technologies in historical and modern architecture. Through perspective drawing, drafting, model making, and digital software programs, students will explore the world-renowned architecture of Chicago. In addition to visiting the Art Institute of Chicago, they will engage in on-site sketching at historic buildings designed by architects such as Louis Sullivan and Mies van der Rohe. Students will study contemporary masterpieces such as Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavilion and Renzo Piano's Modern Wing to enrich their studio work.

Ignite your child's artistic potential in a summer art camp that fosters skill development and creativity by exploring diverse materials in a stimulating environment. Students draw inspiration from the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, local architecture, public art, and current events as they develop skills across multiple mediums, including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpting, and mixed media. Additionally, they enhance their critical thinking, time management, and problem-solving abilities in a fun, safe, and nurturing environment. Projects foster personal expression and collaborative skills while introducing students to contemporary and historical art. Each session has a unique focus, ensuring that students who enroll in multiple sessions will experience entirely new studio projects every time.

In this camp, young artists have the opportunity to bring their imaginations to life through a variety of illustration techniques. Students will explore traditional and digital media as they experiment with graphic markers, illustration pens, watercolors, ink, sculpting materials, digital drawing tablets, and programs like Procreate. Whether they are designing unique characters, animals, objects, vehicles, or immersive environments, this hands-on experience encourages them to innovate, experiment, and express themselves creatively. It's the perfect opportunity for your child to unleash their creativity and build an impressive portfolio.

Ignite your child's artistic potential in a summer art camp that fosters skill development and creativity by exploring diverse materials in a stimulating environment. Students draw inspiration from the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, local architecture, public art, and current events as they develop skills across multiple mediums, including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpting, and mixed media. Additionally, they enhance their critical thinking, time management, and problem-solving abilities in a fun, safe, and nurturing environment. Projects foster personal expression and collaborative skills while introducing students to contemporary and historical art. Each session has a unique focus, ensuring that students who enroll in multiple sessions will experience entirely new studio projects every time.

The places where you live, go to school and shop significantly affect your daily life. In this camp, students will explore their environments and analyze how fundamental human needs, desires, and behaviors shape architectural design. The focus will be on the methods architects use to develop their ideas while also looking at the structures, materials, and technologies in historical and modern architecture. Through perspective drawing, drafting, model making, and digital software programs, students will explore the world-renowned architecture of Chicago. In addition to visiting the Art Institute of Chicago, they will engage in on-site sketching at historic buildings designed by architects such as Louis Sullivan and Mies van der Rohe. Students will study contemporary masterpieces such as Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavilion and Renzo Piano's Modern Wing to enrich their studio work.

In this camp, young artists have the opportunity to bring their imaginations to life through a variety of illustration techniques. Students will explore traditional and digital media as they experiment with graphic markers, illustration pens, watercolors, ink, sculpting materials, digital drawing tablets, and programs like Procreate. Whether they are designing unique characters, animals, objects, vehicles, or immersive environments, this hands-on experience encourages them to innovate, experiment, and express themselves creatively. It's the perfect opportunity for your child to unleash their creativity and build an impressive portfolio.

Ignite your child's artistic potential in a summer art camp that fosters skill development and creativity by exploring diverse materials in a stimulating environment. Students draw inspiration from the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, local architecture, public art, and current events as they develop skills across multiple mediums, including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpting, and mixed media. Additionally, they enhance their critical thinking, time management, and problem-solving abilities in a fun, safe, and nurturing environment. Projects foster personal expression and collaborative skills while introducing students to contemporary and historical art. Each session has a unique focus, ensuring that students who enroll in multiple sessions will experience entirely new studio projects every time.

Ignite your child's artistic potential in a summer art camp that fosters skill development and creativity by exploring diverse materials in a stimulating environment. Students draw inspiration from the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, local architecture, public art, and current events as they develop skills across multiple mediums, including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpting, and mixed media. Additionally, they enhance their critical thinking, time management, and problem-solving abilities in a fun, safe, and nurturing environment. Projects foster personal expression and collaborative skills while introducing students to contemporary and historical art. Each session has a unique focus, ensuring that students who enroll in multiple sessions will experience entirely new studio projects every time.

Ignite your child's artistic potential in a summer art camp that fosters skill development and creativity by exploring diverse materials in a stimulating environment. Students draw inspiration from the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, local architecture, public art, and current events as they develop skills across multiple mediums, including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpting, and mixed media. Additionally, they enhance their critical thinking, time management, and problem-solving abilities in a fun, safe, and nurturing environment. Projects foster personal expression and collaborative skills while introducing students to contemporary and historical art. Each session has a unique focus, ensuring that students who enroll in multiple sessions will experience entirely new studio projects every time.

Ignite your child's artistic potential in a summer art camp that fosters skill development and creativity by exploring diverse materials in a stimulating environment. Students draw inspiration from the renowned Art Institute of Chicago, local architecture, public art, and current events as they develop skills across multiple mediums, including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpting, and mixed media. Additionally, they enhance their critical thinking, time management, and problem-solving abilities in a fun, safe, and nurturing environment. Projects foster personal expression and collaborative skills while introducing students to contemporary and historical art. Each session has a unique focus, ensuring that students who enroll in multiple sessions will experience entirely new studio projects every time.

Bring artwork to life using traditional and digital media to create one-of-a-kind animations. In this exciting camp, students learn principles of animation while exploring various techniques, including stop-motion, frame-by-frame methods, digitally modified video, and computer-aided techniques. Students will use digital tools such as laptops, still cameras, video cameras, sound recorders, iPads, sketchbook work, and other traditional processes to express contemporary artistic hybrid methods.

Bring artwork to life using traditional and digital media to create one-of-a-kind animations. In this exciting camp, students learn principles of animation while exploring various techniques, including stop-motion, frame-by-frame methods, digitally modified video, and computer-aided techniques. Students will use digital tools such as laptops, still cameras, video cameras, sound recorders, iPads, sketchbook work, and other traditional processes to express contemporary artistic hybrid methods.

Bring artwork to life using traditional and digital media to create one-of-a-kind animations. In this exciting camp, students learn principles of animation while exploring various techniques, including stop-motion, frame-by-frame methods, digitally modified video, and computer-aided techniques. Students will use digital tools such as laptops, still cameras, video cameras, sound recorders, iPads, sketchbook work, and other traditional processes to express contemporary artistic hybrid methods.

This camp introduces young designers to the fashion world, helping them discover their unique style while learning the technical skills necessary to transform their designs from concept to reality. Activities guide students through developing original ideas, finding inspiration from their surroundings, and responding to the work of other artists and designers. Students will build fundamental skills in fashion research, drawing, draping, garment construction, and machine and hand sewing. They will also explore sculptural draping using paper to create exciting experimental looks and deconstruct garments to invent new forms. Each session features different projects, allowing students to enroll in multiple camps throughout the summer.

This camp introduces young designers to the fashion world, helping them discover their unique style while learning the technical skills necessary to transform their designs from concept to reality. Activities guide students through developing original ideas, finding inspiration from their surroundings, and responding to the work of other artists and designers. Students will build fundamental skills in fashion research, drawing, draping, garment construction, and machine and hand sewing. They will also explore sculptural draping using paper to create exciting experimental looks and deconstruct garments to invent new forms. Each session features different projects, allowing students to enroll in multiple camps throughout the summer.

This camp introduces young designers to the fashion world, helping them discover their unique style while learning the technical skills necessary to transform their designs from concept to reality. Activities guide students through developing original ideas, finding inspiration from their surroundings, and responding to the work of other artists and designers. Students will build fundamental skills in fashion research, drawing, draping, garment construction, and machine and hand sewing. They will also explore sculptural draping using paper to create exciting experimental looks and deconstruct garments to invent new forms. Each session features different projects, allowing students to enroll in multiple camps throughout the summer.

This advanced camp invites students aged 10-11 with prior drawing experience to explore various materials and techniques that will expand their artistic abilities. While continuing to develop their technical skills, students will focus on using drawing to organize their thoughts and feelings and express their ideas. Students will work with various materials, including pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, and mixed media. Visiting the Art Institute of Chicago will allow campers to observe and sketch from a vast collection of paintings, sculptures, and other objects to inspire their studio work. Students will explore endless possibilities in a supportive environment that fosters growth and artistic confidence¿whether experimenting with innovative processes or refining their unique style.

This advanced camp invites students aged 10-11 with prior drawing experience to explore various materials and techniques that will expand their artistic abilities. While continuing to develop their technical skills, students will focus on using drawing to organize their thoughts and feelings and express their ideas. Students will work with various materials, including pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, and mixed media. Visiting the Art Institute of Chicago will allow campers to observe and sketch from a vast collection of paintings, sculptures, and other objects to inspire their studio work. Students will explore endless possibilities in a supportive environment that fosters growth and artistic confidence¿whether experimenting with innovative processes or refining their unique style.

Video games are renowned for their unforgettable characters, captivating narratives, and stunning visuals. They offer an immersive experience that provides an exciting escape and engages players in unique and interactive ways. In this dynamic and challenging camp, students explore video game production by experimenting with coding and illustrating playable computer games. They even have the opportunity to share their creations with friends online! Students will use traditional and digital media to engage in activities such as sketching in their notebooks, storyboarding narratives, editing sound effects, and digital drawing. By exploring different platforms for game creation, students will unlock their creativity and develop one-of-a-kind video games.

This advanced camp invites students aged 12-13 with prior drawing experience to explore various materials and techniques that will expand their artistic abilities. While continuing to develop their technical skills, students will focus on using drawing to organize their thoughts and feelings and express their ideas. Students will work with various materials, including pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, and mixed media. Visiting the Art Institute of Chicago will allow campers to observe and sketch from a vast collection of paintings, sculptures, and other objects to inspire their studio work. Students will explore endless possibilities in a supportive environment that fosters growth and artistic confidence¿whether experimenting with innovative processes or refining their unique style.

Young designers will learn to enhance and embellish existing garments using exciting surface design techniques like embroidery, beading, and applique. They'll also experiment with non-traditional materials to create one-of-a-kind accessories that complement their style. Activities will guide students through developing original ideas, finding inspiration in their surroundings, and engaging with the works of other artists and designers.

Young designers will learn to enhance and embellish existing garments using exciting surface design techniques like embroidery, beading, and applique. They'll also experiment with non-traditional materials to create one-of-a-kind accessories that complement their style. Activities will guide students through developing original ideas, finding inspiration in their surroundings, and engaging with the works of other artists and designers.

This advanced camp invites students aged 12-13 with prior drawing experience to explore various materials and techniques that will expand their artistic abilities. While continuing to develop their technical skills, students will focus on using drawing to organize their thoughts and feelings and express their ideas. Students will work with various materials, including pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, and mixed media. Visiting the Art Institute of Chicago will allow campers to observe and sketch from a vast collection of paintings, sculptures, and other objects to inspire their studio work. Students will explore endless possibilities in a supportive environment that fosters growth and artistic confidence¿whether experimenting with innovative processes or refining their unique style.

This camp allows students aged 10-11 to focus on their drawing and painting skills in a highly creative and challenging environment. Through individual and collaborative projects, students explore a range of traditional and experimental materials and techniques. They will learn various drawing methods, building their technical, spatial, and creative abilities while focusing on essential elements of 2D design and art. Students investigate contemporary subjects and themes using pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, gouache, water-based paint, and mixed media through skills such as line, perspective, tone, proportion, composition, value, gesture, and contour. Inspiration comes from visits to the Art Institute of Chicago Museum to observe and sketch various paintings, sculptures, and objects. This camp, designed for beginners and those looking to develop their drawing and painting skills further, can be repeated for ongoing skill enhancement and idea building.

Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have created a vibrant new landscape for young artists eager to explore their creativity. This camp empowers students to elevate their video production skills by producing short videos through various contemporary techniques. Participants will explore video production principles and learn essential elements such as storyboarding, the filming process, basic special effects, and editing. Using iPads and video equipment from the SAIC media centers, students will gain hands-on experience to practice these skills at home using standard digital devices. Through this immersive experience, they will develop their artistic voice while fully embracing the digital age of storytelling.

This camp allows students aged 10-11 to focus on their drawing and painting skills in a highly creative and challenging environment. Through individual and collaborative projects, students explore a range of traditional and experimental materials and techniques. They will learn various drawing methods, building their technical, spatial, and creative abilities while focusing on essential elements of 2D design and art. Students investigate contemporary subjects and themes using pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, gouache, water-based paint, and mixed media through skills such as line, perspective, tone, proportion, composition, value, gesture, and contour. Inspiration comes from visits to the Art Institute of Chicago Museum to observe and sketch various paintings, sculptures, and objects. This camp, designed for beginners and those looking to develop their drawing and painting skills further, can be repeated for ongoing skill enhancement and idea building.

This camp allows students aged 10-11 to focus on their drawing and painting skills in a highly creative and challenging environment. Through individual and collaborative projects, students explore a range of traditional and experimental materials and techniques. They will learn various drawing methods, building their technical, spatial, and creative abilities while focusing on essential elements of 2D design and art. Students investigate contemporary subjects and themes using pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, gouache, water-based paint, and mixed media through skills such as line, perspective, tone, proportion, composition, value, gesture, and contour. Inspiration comes from visits to the Art Institute of Chicago Museum to observe and sketch various paintings, sculptures, and objects. This camp, designed for beginners and those looking to develop their drawing and painting skills further, can be repeated for ongoing skill enhancement and idea building.

This camp allows students aged 12-13 to focus on their drawing and painting skills in a highly creative and challenging environment. Through individual and collaborative projects, students explore a range of traditional and experimental materials and techniques. They will learn various drawing methods, building their technical, spatial, and creative abilities while focusing on essential elements of 2D design and art. Students investigate contemporary subjects and themes using pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, gouache, water-based paint, and mixed media through skills such as line, perspective, tone, proportion, composition, value, gesture, and contour. Inspiration comes from visits to the Art Institute of Chicago Museum to observe and sketch various paintings, sculptures, and objects. This camp, designed for beginners and those looking to develop their drawing and painting skills further, can be repeated for ongoing skill enhancement and idea building.

This camp allows students aged 12-13 to focus on their drawing and painting skills in a highly creative and challenging environment. Through individual and collaborative projects, students explore a range of traditional and experimental materials and techniques. They will learn various drawing methods, building their technical, spatial, and creative abilities while focusing on essential elements of 2D design and art. Students investigate contemporary subjects and themes using pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, gouache, water-based paint, and mixed media through skills such as line, perspective, tone, proportion, composition, value, gesture, and contour. Inspiration comes from visits to the Art Institute of Chicago Museum to observe and sketch various paintings, sculptures, and objects. This camp, designed for beginners and those looking to develop their drawing and painting skills further, can be repeated for ongoing skill enhancement and idea building.

This camp allows students aged 12-13 to focus on their drawing and painting skills in a highly creative and challenging environment. Through individual and collaborative projects, students explore a range of traditional and experimental materials and techniques. They will learn various drawing methods, building their technical, spatial, and creative abilities while focusing on essential elements of 2D design and art. Students investigate contemporary subjects and themes using pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, gouache, water-based paint, and mixed media through skills such as line, perspective, tone, proportion, composition, value, gesture, and contour. Inspiration comes from visits to the Art Institute of Chicago Museum to observe and sketch various paintings, sculptures, and objects. This camp, designed for beginners and those looking to develop their drawing and painting skills further, can be repeated for ongoing skill enhancement and idea building.

In this camp, students explore traditional and contemporary painting techniques. Projects include painting from observation and the imagination and experimental approaches to mark-making. Students explore various materials, such as pastels, acrylic and watercolor paint, charcoal, graphite, gouache, and colored pencils, while developing skills in rendering, composition, use of shading, color blending, and layering processes. Regular visits to the Art Institute of Chicago to observe and sketch from paintings and sculptures inspire studio work. This camp is suitable for participants of all skill levels.

Students elevate their illustration skills in this camp by creating unique comics and graphic novels. Emphasis is placed on storytelling, introducing students to character development, plot structure, scripting, and storyboarding. The course teaches skills in drawing and illustration, focusing on techniques such as penciling, inking, coloring, and understanding space and perspective. Students will explore various traditional and non-traditional mediums, including colored pencils, oil pastels, watercolors, digitally edited drawings, and handmade zines. Inspiration also comes from artist presentations, trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, and visits to downtown Chicago, where a vast array of public art sparks creativity. These experiences will provide opportunities for drawing practice and serve as an introduction to the fundamentals of comic narratives and stylistic expression.

Students elevate their illustration skills in this camp by creating unique comics and graphic novels. Emphasis is placed on storytelling, introducing students to character development, plot structure, scripting, and storyboarding. The course teaches skills in drawing and illustration, focusing on techniques such as penciling, inking, coloring, and understanding space and perspective. Students will explore various traditional and non-traditional mediums, including colored pencils, oil pastels, watercolors, digitally edited drawings, and handmade zines. Inspiration also comes from artist presentations, trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, and visits to downtown Chicago, where a vast array of public art sparks creativity. These experiences will provide opportunities for drawing practice and serve as an introduction to the fundamentals of comic narratives and stylistic expression.

Students elevate their illustration skills in this camp by creating unique comics and graphic novels. Emphasis is placed on storytelling, introducing students to character development, plot structure, scripting, and storyboarding. The course teaches skills in drawing and illustration, focusing on techniques such as penciling, inking, coloring, and understanding space and perspective. Students will explore various traditional and non-traditional mediums, including colored pencils, oil pastels, watercolors, digitally edited drawings, and handmade zines. Inspiration also comes from artist presentations, trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, and visits to downtown Chicago, where a vast array of public art sparks creativity. These experiences will provide opportunities for drawing practice and serve as an introduction to the fundamentals of comic narratives and stylistic expression.

Delve into the world of architecture, where creativity meets innovation. This course invites students to explore how architects transform concepts into captivating shapes, immersive spaces, and iconic buildings. Engage in a dynamic process that encourages experimentation with diverse forms and techniques, including foundational drawing, perspective, drafting, and advanced 3D modeling. During the course, you will tackle a variety of thought-provoking prompts and design challenges, utilizing materials such as chipboard, basswood, and foam core to bring your imaginative ideas to life in three-dimensional form. As a culmination of your journey, you will showcase your final projects, including compelling prints and drawings, tangible 3D models, or polished digital presentations. To enrich your understanding, you will also explore the influence of visionary artists, designers, and architects like Frank Gehry and Robert Irwin, examining how their work shapes digital and atmospheric experiences in design. While prior experience is not required, a familiarity with computers will enhance your creative process. Join us in this collaborative environment where art and architecture intersect, igniting your passion for design in exciting new directions.

This course is designed for students with little to no experience in oil painting and introduces the specific materials and processes of this medium. You'll get hands-on experience with essential skills through demonstrations on stretching canvases, setting up your paint palette, and applying various techniques. You'll also learn how to mix colors. These foundational skills will prepare you to create work for your portfolio. Throughout the course, you'll delve into color theory, composition, structure, proportion, and perspective while painting from observation. Experiment and discover your unique artistic voice and style in a supportive and encouraging environment. Basic drawing and water-based painting experience is required.

In this dynamic course, you'll explore drawing as a powerful way to express your thoughts, feelings, and unique ideas. Whether new to the medium or looking to sharpen your skills, you'll investigate contemporary themes and subjects while developing essential techniques like line, perspective, tone, proportion, composition, value, gesture, and contour. Get hands-on with various traditional and modern drawing materials, experimenting with everything from charcoal and graphite to ink and vibrant water-based paints. You'll also visit the Art Institute of Chicago, interact with professional artists, and take virtual tours of museums when available, all designed to inspire your artistic journey. This course emphasizes personal expression and creative exploration, making it the perfect space for beginners and experienced artists to discover their artistic voice.

In this course, students will explore their creativity and develop a unique voice through engaging exercises such as journaling, freewriting, writing inspired by music, and exploring memories and dreams. Participants will experience the exhilarating process of editing, revising, and workshopping their writing alongside their peers, fostering a supportive and collaborative environment. They will learn to provide constructive feedback on others' work and craft captivating short stories, monologues, poetry, and personal essays. Students will push the boundaries of original and individual expression throughout the course while preparing for college-level writing. With guidance from faculty and peer support, students will share their literary creations in class and complete assigned reading and writing exercises designed to clarify, expand, and challenge their written expressions.

This engaging course invites you to unleash your creativity as you explore innovative design methods and materials, focusing on illustration, styling, draping, and fabric selection rather than the construction of specific garments. You'll learn about the rich history of fashion and discover research techniques that will spark your imagination. Plus, you'll examine contemporary works and practices currently reshaping the fashion industry. Visits to SAIC's Fashion Resource Center, a treasure trove of fashion history and stunning collection of garments and accessories, and the Art Institute of Chicago's collection of art and textiles will inspire your designs. Throughout this course, you'll create unique textile and garment designs while exploring how clothing communicates who you are. You'll develop skills in fashion illustration, draping, and even patternmaking while gaining a deeper understanding of garment history and contemporary designers. Whether you're new or have some experience, this course will help you unlock your design potential and express yourself through the powerful medium of fashion.

This class is perfect for artists eager to explore the thrilling world of digital art. Start with traditional drawing techniques and then transition into the digital realm using software like Procreate. As you progress through the course, you'll have the chance to build a portfolio filled with digital creations, perfect for showcasing online or in print¿think posters and zines. Projects will cover everything from designing unique characters and creating merch, such as enamel pins, stickers, and tees, to crafting vibrant digital paintings and illustrations for children's books. Gain inspiration by guest presentations from contemporary illustrators influencing the art world with their boundary-pushing styles and innovative techniques.

This class is perfect for artists eager to explore the thrilling world of digital art. Start with traditional drawing techniques and then transition into the digital realm using software like Procreate. As you progress through the course, you'll have the chance to build a portfolio filled with digital creations, perfect for showcasing online or in print¿think posters and zines. Projects will cover everything from designing unique characters and creating merch, such as enamel pins, stickers, and tees, to crafting vibrant digital paintings and illustrations for children's books. Gain inspiration by guest presentations from contemporary illustrators influencing the art world with their boundary-pushing styles and innovative techniques.

This engaging course invites you to unleash your creativity as you explore innovative design methods and materials, focusing on illustration, styling, draping, and fabric selection rather than the construction of specific garments. You'll learn about the rich history of fashion and discover research techniques that will spark your imagination. Plus, you'll examine contemporary works and practices currently reshaping the fashion industry. Visits to SAIC's Fashion Resource Center, a treasure trove of fashion history and stunning collection of garments and accessories, and the Art Institute of Chicago's collection of art and textiles will inspire your designs. Throughout this course, you'll create unique textile and garment designs while exploring how clothing communicates who you are. You'll develop skills in fashion illustration, draping, and even patternmaking while gaining a deeper understanding of garment history and contemporary designers. Whether you're new or have some experience, this course will help you unlock your design potential and express yourself through the powerful medium of fashion.

In this dynamic course, you'll explore drawing as a powerful way to express your thoughts, feelings, and unique ideas. Whether new to the medium or looking to sharpen your skills, you'll investigate contemporary themes and subjects while developing essential techniques like line, perspective, tone, proportion, composition, value, gesture, and contour. Get hands-on with various traditional and modern drawing materials, experimenting with everything from charcoal and graphite to ink and vibrant water-based paints. You'll also visit the Art Institute of Chicago, interact with professional artists, and take virtual tours of museums when available, all designed to inspire your artistic journey. This course emphasizes personal expression and creative exploration, making it the perfect space for beginners and experienced artists to discover their artistic voice.

In this dynamic course, you'll explore drawing as a powerful way to express your thoughts, feelings, and unique ideas. Whether new to the medium or looking to sharpen your skills, you'll investigate contemporary themes and subjects while developing essential techniques like line, perspective, tone, proportion, composition, value, gesture, and contour. Get hands-on with various traditional and modern drawing materials, experimenting with everything from charcoal and graphite to ink and vibrant water-based paints. You'll also visit the Art Institute of Chicago, interact with professional artists, and take virtual tours of museums when available, all designed to inspire your artistic journey. This course emphasizes personal expression and creative exploration, making it the perfect space for beginners and experienced artists to discover their artistic voice.

In this exciting course, you'll have the chance to bring your fashion ideas to life, from inspiration to finished garments. You'll start crafting original pattern blocks, then explore drafting and draping techniques. Along the way, you'll document your journey with dynamic photography and sketches that capture your creative process. Inspiring field trips to places like the Art Institute of Chicago and the Fashion Resource Center at SAIC help you transform your flat patterns into stunning fabric creations. You'll be free to experiment with various materials, including paper, muslin, secondhand clothing, and fabric off the bolt. This hands-on approach will allow you to express your unique style and vision. By the end of the course, you will create pieces that showcase your aesthetic and equip you with essential skills in garment construction.

This course is a rigorous exploration of contemporary sculptural practices, emphasizing critical relationships between form, material, and content. Students use research, instructor feedback, and peer support to realize their unique visions in three dimensions. Discussions of materials, processes, and hands-on practice empower students to move from concept to completed work, generating a better understanding of how sculpture is situated within the context of culture and society at large. Projects allow for investigating traditional and contemporary materials and methods, including installation, carving, casting, fabrication, mold making, and construction. Demonstrations of SAIC's digital tools, field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, and artist presentations supplement the studio experience. Artwork and/or performances that are temporary or cannot be easily transported will be documented through photography and/or video.

NOTE: Previous experience in sculpture is helpful, but not required. SAIC will provide basic equipment. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

In this course, students are introduced to concepts and processes utilized to produce digital 2D animation. They turn drawings into moving images using compositing, layering, and collaging. Students are encouraged to experiment while building skills in software programs such as Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and others. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago and local galleries/studios, artist presentations, and group critiques supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Basic drawing and computer experience required. Previous experience in animation or with Adobe Creative Suite is helpful. SAIC provides computers with the appropriate software during class. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hour projects.

In this exciting course, you'll have the chance to bring your fashion ideas to life, from inspiration to finished garments. You'll start crafting original pattern blocks, then explore drafting and draping techniques. Along the way, you'll document your journey with dynamic photography and sketches that capture your creative process. Inspiring field trips to places like the Art Institute of Chicago and the Fashion Resource Center at SAIC help you transform your flat patterns into stunning fabric creations. You'll be free to experiment with various materials, including paper, muslin, secondhand clothing, and fabric off the bolt. This hands-on approach will allow you to express your unique style and vision. By the end of the course, you will create pieces that showcase your aesthetic and equip you with essential skills in garment construction.

In this course, students are introduced to concepts and processes utilized to produce digital 2D animation. They turn drawings into moving images using compositing, layering, and collaging. Students are encouraged to experiment while building skills in software programs such as Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and others. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago and local galleries/studios, artist presentations, and group critiques supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Basic drawing and computer experience required. Previous experience in animation or with Adobe Creative Suite is helpful. SAIC provides computers with the appropriate software during class. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hour projects.

In this course, students bring drawings and characters to life using digital imaging (compositing, layering, collaging), illustration, and motion graphics. Students are encouraged to experiment while building skills in software programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and After Effects. Projects integrating color, line, form, image, and text include digital drawings, manipulated still images, animation, and multimedia screen-based works. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago and local galleries/studios, artist presentations, and group critiques supplement the studio experience.

*NOTE* Basic drawing and computer experience required. Previous experience in animation or with Adobe Creative Suite is helpful. SAIC provides computers with the appropriate software, but students are also encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Drawing inspiration from live models and the exquisite garments housed in SAIC's Fashion Resource Center, create eye-catching fashion illustrations that showcase your unique style. You'll learn the essentials of illustration tailored for different fashion applications, whether for retail or editorial work. Explore body proportions, movements, and poses to help you bring your designs to life. Mastering perspective is critical; you'll discover how to apply just the right amount of exaggeration and stylization for captivating results. You'll also learn about the textures and drapes of various fabrics and how they relate to body form and movement. To inspire your work, you'll study the techniques of influential fashion illustrators throughout history and today. Plus, you'll get to experiment with various creative media like colored pencils, pastels, pens, markers, and water-based paints. While some drawing experience is helpful, what matters is your passion and imagination. Prepare for a dynamic learning environment where you can express yourself and elevate your fashion illustration skills.

3D animation is a versatile and fast-growing industry used in applications from video games to movies to virtual immersive environments. Students in this course learn how to build three-dimensional spaces, audio, interactivity, life forms, and/or objects using Maya software. Looking to 3D artists such as Alex McLeod, Jennifer Steinkamp, and the Zeitguised, students research how 3D animation can be used in traditional and non-traditional ways. The course begins with introductory exercises to explore the possibilities in 3D modeling and animation, ultimately focusing on the skills necessary to complete individually-driven final project(s).

NOTE: Previous experience with computers and digital imaging software such as Adobe Photoshop is preferred. Experience with animation is helpful but not required. SAIC provides computers with the appropriate software during class. Students are encouraged to bring a laptop with software for after-studio hours and homework.

In this fiber-focused course, students will turn secondhand materials into bold, original artworks. Beginning with a trip to a local thrift store, students will collect discarded materials and deconstruct them using scissors, seam rippers, rotary cutters, and their hands¿creating a personal palette of raw materials. These elements become the foundation for creative projects using techniques such as soft sculpture, hand and machine stitching, dyeing, wrapping, appliqué, tapestry weaving, and collage. Photography and video will be used to document any wearable, performative, or temporary work. Inspired by artists like Nick Cave, Tara Donovan, Isa Genzken, and Samantha Bittman, students will explore reuse, transformation, and storytelling through materials. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, local galleries, artist studios, artist presentations, and group critiques supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Students do not need prior experience for this course, but basic hand sewing skills are helpful. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, students in this advanced course explore various creative strategies contemporary artists use to develop new ideas and create strong, portfolio-quality work. This course introduces students to new media, materials, and methods to expand skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance. With extensive faculty guidance and peer support, students will develop individual projects, learn to clearly articulate their ideas, and produce work that fully represents them as artists. Artist presentations, critiques, and field trips supplement studio coursework. This course is intended for students with previous experience and a deep interest in the visual arts who want to add new work to their portfolio and are comfortable working independently from specific assignments using interdisciplinary practices. Artwork and performances that are temporary or cannot be easily transported will be documented through photography and video.

NOTE: Previous experience in art/design and the ability to work independently are required. SAIC provides basic equipment for this course. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, students in this advanced course explore various creative strategies contemporary artists use to develop new ideas and create strong, portfolio-quality work. This course introduces students to new media, materials, and methods to expand skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance. With extensive faculty guidance and peer support, students will develop individual projects, learn to clearly articulate their ideas, and produce work that fully represents them as artists. Artist presentations, critiques, and field trips supplement studio coursework. This course is intended for students with previous experience and a deep interest in the visual arts who want to add new work to their portfolio and are comfortable working independently from specific assignments using interdisciplinary practices. Artwork and performances that are temporary or cannot be easily transported will be documented through photography and video.

NOTE: Previous experience in art/design and the ability to work independently are required. SAIC provides basic equipment for this course. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, students in this advanced course explore various creative strategies contemporary artists use to develop new ideas and create strong, portfolio-quality work. This course introduces students to new media, materials, and methods to expand skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance. With extensive faculty guidance and peer support, students will develop individual projects, learn to clearly articulate their ideas, and produce work that fully represents them as artists. Artist presentations, critiques, and field trips supplement studio coursework. This course is intended for students with previous experience and a deep interest in the visual arts who want to add new work to their portfolio and are comfortable working independently from specific assignments using interdisciplinary practices. Artwork and performances that are temporary or cannot be easily transported will be documented through photography and video.

NOTE: Previous experience in art/design and the ability to work independently are required. SAIC provides basic equipment for this course. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, students in this advanced course explore various creative strategies contemporary artists use to develop new ideas and create strong, portfolio-quality work. This course introduces students to new media, materials, and methods to expand skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance. With extensive faculty guidance and peer support, students will develop individual projects, learn to clearly articulate their ideas, and produce work that fully represents them as artists. Artist presentations, critiques, and field trips supplement studio coursework. This course is intended for students with previous experience and a deep interest in the visual arts who want to add new work to their portfolio and are comfortable working independently from specific assignments using interdisciplinary practices. Artwork and performances that are temporary or cannot be easily transported will be documented through photography and video.

NOTE: Previous experience in art/design and the ability to work independently are required. SAIC provides basic equipment for this course. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Drawing inspiration from live models and the exquisite garments housed in SAIC's Fashion Resource Center, create eye-catching fashion illustrations that showcase your unique style. You'll learn the essentials of illustration tailored for different fashion applications, whether for retail or editorial work. Explore body proportions, movements, and poses to help you bring your designs to life. Mastering perspective is critical; you'll discover how to apply just the right amount of exaggeration and stylization for captivating results. You'll also learn about the textures and drapes of various fabrics and how they relate to body form and movement. To inspire your work, you'll study the techniques of influential fashion illustrators throughout history and today. Plus, you'll get to experiment with various creative media like colored pencils, pastels, pens, markers, and water-based paints. While some drawing experience is helpful, what matters is your passion and imagination. Prepare for a dynamic learning environment where you can express yourself and elevate your fashion illustration skills.

Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, students in this advanced course explore various creative strategies contemporary artists use to develop new ideas and create strong, portfolio-quality work. This course introduces students to new media, materials, and methods to expand skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance. With extensive faculty guidance and peer support, students will develop individual projects, learn to clearly articulate their ideas, and produce work that fully represents them as artists. Artist presentations, critiques, and field trips supplement studio coursework. This course is intended for students with previous experience and a deep interest in the visual arts who want to add new work to their portfolio and are comfortable working independently from specific assignments using interdisciplinary practices. Artwork and performances that are temporary or cannot be easily transported will be documented through photography and video.

NOTE: Previous experience in art/design and the ability to work independently are required. SAIC provides basic equipment for this course. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, students in this advanced course explore various creative strategies contemporary artists use to develop new ideas and create strong, portfolio-quality work. This course introduces students to new media, materials, and methods to expand skills in drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance. With extensive faculty guidance and peer support, students will develop individual projects, learn to clearly articulate their ideas, and produce work that fully represents them as artists. Artist presentations, critiques, and field trips supplement studio coursework. This course is intended for students with previous experience and a deep interest in the visual arts who want to add new work to their portfolio and are comfortable working independently from specific assignments using interdisciplinary practices. Artwork and performances that are temporary or cannot be easily transported will be documented through photography and video.

NOTE: Previous experience in art/design and the ability to work independently are required. SAIC provides basic equipment for this course. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

This course explores contemporary thinking and making within architecture and its impact on public life. Students will develop skills in hand drawing, digital modeling, and physical modeling in 3D. Through collaborative work and one-on-one mentorship, students learn how architects develop design ideas, conduct research, and present proposals. Conceptual thinking is emphasized as students work to envision new approaches to the built environment through multiple design approaches. An active studio practice will feature drawing and hand-built models of proposed spaces, buildings, sculptures, and/or future environments. In addition, students examine the works of artists, architects, and writers for inspiration. Students can expect to gain knowledge of the contemporary architectural landscape and the appreciation of the impact other disciplines have on architecture and design. Students will create a portfolio-quality collection of sketches, technical drawings, physical models, and design presentation boards.

This course is for students interested in exploring contemporary fashion design methods and materials rather than constructing specific garments. Students develop skills in illustrating the fashion figure, styling, draping, and fabric selection, are introduced to the history of fashion design and new research and documentation methods, and are exposed to contemporary designers and design practices. Students may explore resources such as SAIC's Fashion Resource Center, which houses a library on fashion and the history of costume, several individual garments and accessories of significant historical importance, and a rich collection of visual material not accessible to the general public, as well as the AIC's collection of art and textiles to develop an informed, thoughtful, and creative approach to design. The class will draw on these resources to develop unique textile and garment designs and to learn about clothing as a language, how garments communicate, and what they signify.

NOTE: Basic drawing skills and figure drawing/illustration experience are beneficial. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

Turn walls into canvases and streets into galleries in this high-impact studio course. You will explore the powerful world of public art, from graffiti and murals to large-scale visual storytelling and community building. Experiment with techniques like spray paint, stenciling, wheat pasting, and bold graphic drawing, while developing work that reflects your voice and point of view. Students will create individual works through live demonstrations, virtual artist talks, critiques, and portfolio-focused projects, and contribute to collaborative public concepts. This is a drawing and painting course at its core, but students are encouraged to push boundaries and combine media that suit their vision. Whether you're interested in murals, design, comics, or street culture, this course offers a dynamic path to producing bold, portfolio-worthy work that stands out.

NOTE: Some basic drawing experience is preferred, but not required. SAIC provides basic equipment for this course. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Turn walls into canvases and streets into galleries in this high-impact studio course. You will explore the powerful world of public art, from graffiti and murals to large-scale visual storytelling and community building. Experiment with techniques like spray paint, stenciling, wheat pasting, and bold graphic drawing, while developing work that reflects your voice and point of view. Students will create individual works through live demonstrations, virtual artist talks, critiques, and portfolio-focused projects, and contribute to collaborative public concepts. This is a drawing and painting course at its core, but students are encouraged to push boundaries and combine media that suit their vision. Whether you're interested in murals, design, comics, or street culture, this course offers a dynamic path to producing bold, portfolio-worthy work that stands out.

NOTE: Some basic drawing experience is preferred, but not required. SAIC provides basic equipment for this course. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

This course provides students with the opportunity to blend traditional techniques with cutting-edge digital methods, as they experiment with a range of media, including drawing, sculpture, image transfer, collage, laser cutting, and 3D printing. Begin with exciting mini-projects and hands-on demonstrations to spark your imagination and get ideas flowing, then refine concepts through engaging discussions before completing a final project that reflects your unique style and interests. Additionally, students will discover the latest trends in art, featuring inspiring work from contemporary artists who are pushing boundaries today.

Learn how to give form and shape to flat materials. Experiment with materials including fabric, cardboard, paper, wire, plaster, and plastic, while referencing the work of artists including Amanda Browder, Taylor Hokanson, Anila Quayyum Agha, Claes Oldenburg, and Martin Puryear. Projects include representational and abstract approaches, challenging students to think critically about form, structure, and the viewer¿s experience. Field trips, artist talks, and critiques deepen understanding of how scale, dimension, and balance give sculpture its voice. Visits to the Art Institute of Chicago allow students to study iconic works up close and connect classroom learning to world-renowned collections. Performances and artwork that are temporary or that cannot be easily transported will be documented through photography and/or video.

This course explores contemporary thinking and making within architecture and its impact on public life. Students will develop skills in hand drawing, digital modeling, and physical modeling in 3D. Through collaborative work and one-on-one mentorship, students learn how architects develop design ideas, conduct research, and present proposals. Conceptual thinking is emphasized as students work to envision new approaches to the built environment through multiple design approaches. An active studio practice will feature drawing and hand-built models of proposed spaces, buildings, sculptures, and/or future environments. In addition, students examine the works of artists, architects, and writers for inspiration. Students can expect to gain knowledge of the contemporary architectural landscape and the appreciation of the impact other disciplines have on architecture and design. Students will create a portfolio-quality collection of sketches, technical drawings, physical models, and design presentation boards.

Designed for students with little or no experience in oil painting, this course introduces the specific materials and processes of the medium. Demonstrations on stretching a canvas, laying out a palette, various paint application techniques, and color mixing provide the fundamentals of oil painting and a strong foundation for creating portfolio-quality work. In addition, color theory, composition, structure, proportion, and perspective are explored through observational painting, as well as exercises that encourage students to confidently experiment and find their own direction and style.

NOTE: Basic drawing and water-based painting experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

This course explores contemporary thinking and making within architecture and its impact on public life. Students will develop skills in hand drawing, digital modeling, and physical modeling in 3D. Through collaborative work and one-on-one mentorship, students learn how architects develop design ideas, conduct research, and present proposals. Conceptual thinking is emphasized as students work to envision new approaches to the built environment through multiple design approaches. An active studio practice will feature drawing and hand-built models of proposed spaces, buildings, sculptures, and/or future environments. In addition, students examine the works of artists, architects, and writers for inspiration. Students can expect to gain knowledge of the contemporary architectural landscape and the appreciation of the impact other disciplines have on architecture and design. Students will create a portfolio-quality collection of sketches, technical drawings, physical models, and design presentation boards.

Designed for students with little or no experience in oil painting, this course introduces the specific materials and processes of the medium. Demonstrations on stretching a canvas, laying out a palette, various paint application techniques, and color mixing provide the fundamentals of oil painting and a strong foundation for creating portfolio-quality work. In addition, color theory, composition, structure, proportion, and perspective are explored through observational painting, as well as exercises that encourage students to confidently experiment and find their own direction and style.

NOTE: Basic drawing and water-based painting experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

Designed for students with little or no experience in oil painting, this course introduces the specific materials and processes of the medium. Demonstrations on stretching a canvas, laying out a palette, various paint application techniques, and color mixing provide the fundamentals of oil painting and a strong foundation for creating portfolio-quality work. In addition, color theory, composition, structure, proportion, and perspective are explored through observational painting, as well as exercises that encourage students to confidently experiment and find their own direction and style.

NOTE: Basic drawing and water-based painting experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

This course is for students who want to learn how to design, construct, and sew their own garments, including pattern making. Students begin by developing original pattern blocks, exploring pattern drafting and draping, and then document their three-dimensional exploration with photography and/or drawing. Combining inspirational visits to SAIC's Fashion Resource Center and the Art Institute of Chicago with research and sketchbook assignments, students develop their own concepts and designs from flat and paper patterns to final fabric construction. Students utilize various materials to build conceptual and construction skills, including paper, muslin, second-hand clothing, and fabric off the bolt. The work produced in this class allows students to reflect and expand on their personal style while learning the skills to construct a garment from start to finish.

NOTE: Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

This course, designed for students newly exploring their painting and drawing practice, will allow them to experience how these subjects are taught in SAIC classrooms. The curriculum addresses basic skills related to painting and drawing through contemporary and traditional methodologies. Topics and curricular goals may include use of materials, mark making and paint application, technique, space, color, and concept development. Students will explore various creative strategies through technical exercises, material explorations, and individual projects. Structured classroom critiques will bring painting and drawing concepts into personal student work. Additional resources supplement the course curriculum, such as artist presentations and visits to the Art Institute of Chicago.

NOTE: No previous experience is required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

Learn the fundamentals of freehand architectural sketching to document and interpret the built environment through essential drawing techniques, including orthographic, axonometric, and perspective. Through guided walking tours of downtown Chicago, students will explore the city's iconic urban fabric, developing skills in on-site observation and visual documentation.
As they sketch key landmarks and urban spaces, students will gain insight into Chicago¿s architectural legacy, shaped by visionaries such as Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The course also highlights the city¿s evolving skyline through the work of contemporary architects and firms, including Jeanne Gang (Studio Gang), Dirk Denison, Legat Architects, Moss Design, and bKL Architecture.
By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of architecture as a visual language and will be equipped with the foundational skills to record and analyze the built environment thoughtfully.

This course, designed for students newly exploring their painting and drawing practice, will allow them to experience how these subjects are taught in SAIC classrooms. The curriculum addresses basic skills related to painting and drawing through contemporary and traditional methodologies. Topics and curricular goals may include use of materials, mark making and paint application, technique, space, color, and concept development. Students will explore various creative strategies through technical exercises, material explorations, and individual projects. Structured classroom critiques will bring painting and drawing concepts into personal student work. Additional resources supplement the course curriculum, such as artist presentations and visits to the Art Institute of Chicago.

NOTE: No previous experience is required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

This course is for students who want to learn how to design, construct, and sew their own garments, including pattern making. Students begin by developing original pattern blocks, exploring pattern drafting and draping, and then document their three-dimensional exploration with photography and/or drawing. Combining inspirational visits to SAIC's Fashion Resource Center and the Art Institute of Chicago with research and sketchbook assignments, students develop their own concepts and designs from flat and paper patterns to final fabric construction. Students utilize various materials to build conceptual and construction skills, including paper, muslin, second-hand clothing, and fabric off the bolt. The work produced in this class allows students to reflect and expand on their personal style while learning the skills to construct a garment from start to finish.

NOTE: Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

This course is for students who want to learn how to design, construct, and sew their own garments, including pattern making. Students begin by developing original pattern blocks, exploring pattern drafting and draping, and then document their three-dimensional exploration with photography and/or drawing. Combining inspirational visits to SAIC's Fashion Resource Center and the Art Institute of Chicago with research and sketchbook assignments, students develop their own concepts and designs from flat and paper patterns to final fabric construction. Students utilize various materials to build conceptual and construction skills, including paper, muslin, second-hand clothing, and fabric off the bolt. The work produced in this class allows students to reflect and expand on their personal style while learning the skills to construct a garment from start to finish.

NOTE: Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

In this hands-on studio course, students will develop new works of art to round out their portfolios for upcoming college applications and select, revise, and edit their existing works. Through dynamic workshops with SAIC faculty and admissions staff, students will discover the most effective way to document and organize their work and represent their unique points of view as artists to the colleges of their choice. This course also strongly emphasizes studio time and faculty support to create final projects to enhance students' overall portfolio presentation. Additional resources, such as artist presentations and visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, supplement the course curriculum.

NOTE: We recommend that students bring several works-in-progress to be completed in class, and at least one or two completed artworks to document.

This course is for students with a fundamental knowledge of digital photography who want to push themselves technically and conceptually. Students will be asked to challenge photographic cliches and the function of enhanced digital techniques while deepening their understanding of digital workflow, photo manipulation, Adobe Photoshop editing, and digital output. The course starts with projects that explore the possibilities in digital photography, such as collage, montage/compositing, time-lapse, long exposure, and still-to-video, ultimately focusing on the skills necessary to complete individually-driven final projects. Students research photography¿s potential and limitations as a language when looking to historical artists like Moholy-Nagy, Hannah Hoch, and Gordon Matta-Clark, combined with contemporary artists such as Daniel Gordon, Steffi Klenz, and Erin Shirreff. Visits to the Art Institute of Chicago's world-renowned photographic print study room, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and regular critiques supplement the studio experience. Using the city of Chicago as both subject and inspiration, students will explore and respond to its architecture, culture, and visual energy¿an experience made possible only in a city with such a rich photographic legacy.

*NOTE* Previous experience in digital photography, including knowledge of manual camera functions/exposure, digital workflow, photographic vocabulary, and basic Adobe Photoshop editing, is required. Students must provide their own digital SLR camera with manual functions (no point-and-shoot). SAIC provides computers with the appropriate software, but students are also encouraged to bring a laptop with software for after-studio hours and homework.

In this hands-on studio course, students will develop new works of art to round out their portfolios for upcoming college applications and select, revise, and edit their existing works. Through dynamic workshops with SAIC faculty and admissions staff, students will discover the most effective way to document and organize their work and represent their unique points of view as artists to the colleges of their choice. This course also strongly emphasizes studio time and faculty support to create final projects to enhance students' overall portfolio presentation. Additional resources, such as artist presentations and visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, supplement the course curriculum.

NOTE: We recommend that students bring several works-in-progress to be completed in class, and at least one or two completed artworks to document.

In this hands-on studio course, students will develop new works of art to round out their portfolios for upcoming college applications and select, revise, and edit their existing works. Through dynamic workshops with SAIC faculty and admissions staff, students will discover the most effective way to document and organize their work and represent their unique points of view as artists to the colleges of their choice. This course also strongly emphasizes studio time and faculty support to create final projects to enhance students' overall portfolio presentation. Additional resources, such as artist presentations and visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, supplement the course curriculum.

NOTE: We recommend that students bring several works-in-progress to be completed in class, and at least one or two completed artworks to document.

This course introduces students to traditional and nontraditional materials and techniques used in water-based painting. Projects involve painting from observation and imagination, drawing inspiration from contemporary artists and historical masters. Explore a variety of subjects using materials like ink, acrylic, watercolor, and mixed media. You'll enhance your understanding of color, tone, volume, contrast, and temperature as you bring your ideas to life. Visits to the Art Institute of Chicago will provide further inspiration. Students should have previous drawing experience, but no painting experience is necessary.

Discover the powerful language and history behind visual storytelling through engaging demonstrations and hands-on exercises to spark your imagination and inspire your creativity. You'll have the opportunity to research and discuss the works of groundbreaking artists, culminating in a final project that reflects your unique vision. Throughout the course, you'll blend traditional techniques¿like sketching in your journal¿with digital tools such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere. Inspiring field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago and SAIC's extensive video resources deepen your understanding of the art form. Lively discussions about influential time-based artists like Tony Oursler, Shirin Neshat, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jennifer Steinkamp will enrich your creative journey. No prior experience is necessary, but being comfortable with computers will give you a helpful edge.

This course introduces students to traditional and nontraditional materials and techniques used in water-based painting. Projects involve painting from observation and imagination, drawing inspiration from contemporary artists and historical masters. Explore a variety of subjects using materials like ink, acrylic, watercolor, and mixed media. You'll enhance your understanding of color, tone, volume, contrast, and temperature as you bring your ideas to life. Visits to the Art Institute of Chicago will provide further inspiration. Students should have previous drawing experience, but no painting experience is necessary.

This course is perfect for students passionate about drawing but new to painting. Build on your drawing skills as a solid foundation to explore exciting painting techniques as you define your unique artistic vision with the guidance of your instructor. You will explore essential skills such as line, volume, space, materiality, form and function, and color. Various traditional and contemporary materials will be utilized, including graphite, charcoal, pastels, water-based paints, mixed media, and collage. Additionally, visits to the Art Institute of Chicago and discussions about contemporary artists will enhance the studio experience and inspire students to develop conceptual ideas in their artworks. By the end of this course, you'll have a deeper understanding of different art materials and the confidence to transition from drawing to painting. This course is beneficial for beginners as well as those looking to refine and enhance their skills.

This course covers the elements and principles of graphic design and provides students with the technical and conceptual tools to develop effective design strategies. Students expand their understanding of what surrounds them and learn how to look at and evaluate products, graphics, architecture, advertisements, and more. Class discussions challenge students to consider the world of design through a contemporary art lens, drawing upon the work of Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Paula Scher, and others. In addition to using traditional materials like sketchbooks, students use Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop, and output work using high-quality digital printers. Students can expect to create portfolio-quality works that explore symbols, logos, typography, layout, image and text integration, and sequential design.

NOTE: Basic computer experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

Chicago has unparalleled architecture, innovative public art, world-class museums and galleries, and outstanding parks, making it the ideal location to explore landscape drawing in new and exciting ways. From using the landscape as a medium to abstraction in space to inventing new landscapes through collage, students build skills in form, shape, line, perspective, and composition while exploring Chicago and interpreting the environment. With a shared emphasis on traditional and non-traditional drawing techniques, students may experiment with various wet and dry materials, including charcoal, pastels, ink, collage, and water-based paints. The course covers the history of landscape drawing and how contemporary artists approach and depict the urban environment.

*NOTE* Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

This course is perfect for students passionate about drawing but new to painting. Build on your drawing skills as a solid foundation to explore exciting painting techniques as you define your unique artistic vision with the guidance of your instructor. You will explore essential skills such as line, volume, space, materiality, form and function, and color. Various traditional and contemporary materials will be utilized, including graphite, charcoal, pastels, water-based paints, mixed media, and collage. Additionally, visits to the Art Institute of Chicago and discussions about contemporary artists will enhance the studio experience and inspire students to develop conceptual ideas in their artworks. By the end of this course, you'll have a deeper understanding of different art materials and the confidence to transition from drawing to painting. This course is beneficial for beginners as well as those looking to refine and enhance their skills.

This course is perfect for students passionate about drawing but new to painting. Build on your drawing skills as a solid foundation to explore exciting painting techniques as you define your unique artistic vision with the guidance of your instructor. You will explore essential skills such as line, volume, space, materiality, form and function, and color. Various traditional and contemporary materials will be utilized, including graphite, charcoal, pastels, water-based paints, mixed media, and collage. Additionally, visits to the Art Institute of Chicago and discussions about contemporary artists will enhance the studio experience and inspire students to develop conceptual ideas in their artworks. By the end of this course, you'll have a deeper understanding of different art materials and the confidence to transition from drawing to painting. This course is beneficial for beginners as well as those looking to refine and enhance their skills.

This course is designed for students with previous drawing experience who want to explore a range of materials and processes to expand their work in new directions and improve their portfolios. While building on technical abilities, students also investigate the creative process and ways to use drawing as a language and a tool for organizing thoughts and ideas. Students experiment with media (black/white, color, wet/dry, found materials), scale, arrangement, presentation/installation, and consider aesthetic design decisions, materials selections, and cultural concerns during the creative process. Field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, artist presentations, and discussions focusing on the work of significant historic and contemporary artists such as Sol LeWitt, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, William Kentridge, and others supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

This course is designed for students with previous drawing experience who want to explore a range of materials and processes to expand their work in new directions and improve their portfolios. While building on technical abilities, students also investigate the creative process and ways to use drawing as a language and a tool for organizing thoughts and ideas. Students experiment with media (black/white, color, wet/dry, found materials), scale, arrangement, presentation/installation, and consider aesthetic design decisions, materials selections, and cultural concerns during the creative process. Field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, artist presentations, and discussions focusing on the work of significant historic and contemporary artists such as Sol LeWitt, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, William Kentridge, and others supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

This course is designed for students with previous drawing experience who want to explore a range of materials and processes to expand their work in new directions and improve their portfolios. While building on technical abilities, students also investigate the creative process and ways to use drawing as a language and a tool for organizing thoughts and ideas. Students experiment with media (black/white, color, wet/dry, found materials), scale, arrangement, presentation/installation, and consider aesthetic design decisions, materials selections, and cultural concerns during the creative process. Field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, artist presentations, and discussions focusing on the work of significant historic and contemporary artists such as Sol LeWitt, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, William Kentridge, and others supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

This course is designed for students with previous drawing experience who want to explore a range of materials and processes to expand their work in new directions and improve their portfolios. While building on technical abilities, students also investigate the creative process and ways to use drawing as a language and a tool for organizing thoughts and ideas. Students experiment with media (black/white, color, wet/dry, found materials), scale, arrangement, presentation/installation, and consider aesthetic design decisions, materials selections, and cultural concerns during the creative process. Field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, artist presentations, and discussions focusing on the work of significant historic and contemporary artists such as Sol LeWitt, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, William Kentridge, and others supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

Working from the nude model, students learn to draw the human form from direct observation. The essential elements of life drawing, including anatomy, proportion, volume, composition, gesture, and the accurate and expressive use of line and tone, are addressed to provide a focus for increasing skill. With a shared emphasis on traditional and non-traditional drawing techniques, students experiment with various wet and dry materials, including charcoal, conte crayon, pastels, ink, and water-based paints. The course is also designed to provide a forum for students to explore new conceptual directions related to contemporary figuration, while developing a more mature artistic practice through individual attention from the instructor, peer feedback, trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, critiques, and artist presentations.

NOTE: Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

In this course, students will focus their interests and refine their skills to create strong, portfolio-quality work. This advanced course is intended for students with previous drawing and/or painting experience who are ready to experiment, take risks, and push their skills to the next level. The organization of ideas and development of self-directed work is emphasized with instructor guidance and peer support. Students explore contemporary artistic practices through interdisciplinary approaches that cultivate material exploration, image-making strategies, and traditional and non-traditional drawing and painting techniques. Led by their individual projects and goals, students may work in various media, such as water-based paint, oil paint, ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, or a combination of media. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, contemporary artist presentations, group critiques, daily writing exercises, and class discussions supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Painting and/or drawing experience and ability to work independently required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

Working from the nude model, students learn to draw the human form from direct observation. The essential elements of life drawing, including anatomy, proportion, volume, composition, gesture, and the accurate and expressive use of line and tone, are addressed to provide a focus for increasing skill. With a shared emphasis on traditional and non-traditional drawing techniques, students experiment with various wet and dry materials, including charcoal, conte crayon, pastels, ink, and water-based paints. The course is also designed to provide a forum for students to explore new conceptual directions related to contemporary figuration, while developing a more mature artistic practice through individual attention from the instructor, peer feedback, trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, critiques, and artist presentations.

NOTE: Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

In this course, students will focus their interests and refine their skills to create strong, portfolio-quality work. This advanced course is intended for students with previous drawing and/or painting experience who are ready to experiment, take risks, and push their skills to the next level. The organization of ideas and development of self-directed work is emphasized with instructor guidance and peer support. Students explore contemporary artistic practices through interdisciplinary approaches that cultivate material exploration, image-making strategies, and traditional and non-traditional drawing and painting techniques. Led by their individual projects and goals, students may work in various media, such as water-based paint, oil paint, ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, or a combination of media. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, contemporary artist presentations, group critiques, daily writing exercises, and class discussions supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Painting and/or drawing experience and ability to work independently required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

In this course, students will focus their interests and refine their skills to create strong, portfolio-quality work. This advanced course is intended for students with previous drawing and/or painting experience who are ready to experiment, take risks, and push their skills to the next level. The organization of ideas and development of self-directed work is emphasized with instructor guidance and peer support. Students explore contemporary artistic practices through interdisciplinary approaches that cultivate material exploration, image-making strategies, and traditional and non-traditional drawing and painting techniques. Led by their individual projects and goals, students may work in various media, such as water-based paint, oil paint, ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, or a combination of media. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, contemporary artist presentations, group critiques, daily writing exercises, and class discussions supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Painting and/or drawing experience and ability to work independently required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

In this course, students will focus their interests and refine their skills to create strong, portfolio-quality work. This advanced course is intended for students with previous drawing and/or painting experience who are ready to experiment, take risks, and push their skills to the next level. The organization of ideas and development of self-directed work is emphasized with instructor guidance and peer support. Students explore contemporary artistic practices through interdisciplinary approaches that cultivate material exploration, image-making strategies, and traditional and non-traditional drawing and painting techniques. Led by their individual projects and goals, students may work in various media, such as water-based paint, oil paint, ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, or a combination of media. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, contemporary artist presentations, group critiques, daily writing exercises, and class discussions supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Painting and/or drawing experience and ability to work independently required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

In this course, students will focus their interests and refine their skills to create strong, portfolio-quality work. This advanced course is intended for students with previous drawing and/or painting experience who are ready to experiment, take risks, and push their skills to the next level. The organization of ideas and development of self-directed work is emphasized with instructor guidance and peer support. Students explore contemporary artistic practices through interdisciplinary approaches that cultivate material exploration, image-making strategies, and traditional and non-traditional drawing and painting techniques. Led by their individual projects and goals, students may work in various media, such as water-based paint, oil paint, ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, or a combination of media. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, contemporary artist presentations, group critiques, daily writing exercises, and class discussions supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Painting and/or drawing experience and ability to work independently required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

In this course, students will focus their interests and refine their skills to create strong, portfolio-quality work. This advanced course is intended for students with previous drawing and/or painting experience who are ready to experiment, take risks, and push their skills to the next level. The organization of ideas and development of self-directed work is emphasized with instructor guidance and peer support. Students explore contemporary artistic practices through interdisciplinary approaches that cultivate material exploration, image-making strategies, and traditional and non-traditional drawing and painting techniques. Led by their individual projects and goals, students may work in various media, such as water-based paint, oil paint, ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, or a combination of media. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, contemporary artist presentations, group critiques, daily writing exercises, and class discussions supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Painting and/or drawing experience and ability to work independently required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

In this course, students will focus their interests and refine their skills to create strong, portfolio-quality work. This advanced course is intended for students with previous drawing and/or painting experience who are ready to experiment, take risks, and push their skills to the next level. The organization of ideas and development of self-directed work is emphasized with instructor guidance and peer support. Students explore contemporary artistic practices through interdisciplinary approaches that cultivate material exploration, image-making strategies, and traditional and non-traditional drawing and painting techniques. Led by their individual projects and goals, students may work in various media, such as water-based paint, oil paint, ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, or a combination of media. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, contemporary artist presentations, group critiques, daily writing exercises, and class discussions supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Painting and/or drawing experience and ability to work independently required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

In this course, students will focus their interests and refine their skills to create strong, portfolio-quality work. This advanced course is intended for students with previous drawing and/or painting experience who are ready to experiment, take risks, and push their skills to the next level. The organization of ideas and development of self-directed work is emphasized with instructor guidance and peer support. Students explore contemporary artistic practices through interdisciplinary approaches that cultivate material exploration, image-making strategies, and traditional and non-traditional drawing and painting techniques. Led by their individual projects and goals, students may work in various media, such as water-based paint, oil paint, ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, or a combination of media. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, contemporary artist presentations, group critiques, daily writing exercises, and class discussions supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Painting and/or drawing experience and ability to work independently required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

In this course, students will focus their interests and refine their skills to create strong, portfolio-quality work. This advanced course is intended for students with previous drawing and/or painting experience who are ready to experiment, take risks, and push their skills to the next level. The organization of ideas and development of self-directed work is emphasized with instructor guidance and peer support. Students explore contemporary artistic practices through interdisciplinary approaches that cultivate material exploration, image-making strategies, and traditional and non-traditional drawing and painting techniques. Led by their individual projects and goals, students may work in various media, such as water-based paint, oil paint, ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, or a combination of media. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, contemporary artist presentations, group critiques, daily writing exercises, and class discussions supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Painting and/or drawing experience and ability to work independently required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework/research and after-studio hours projects.

Discover the exciting world of animation as you bring your drawings and ideas to life. In this course, you'll explore traditional and digital animation techniques, such as frame-by-frame and stop-motion. Get ready to work on various cool projects that let you express your imagination through motion studies, character and environment design, and captivating storytelling. You'll learn cinematic techniques, including composition, set design, and prop creation, while developing a final project that reflects your unique goals and interests. To enhance your experience, enjoy artist presentations, take inspiring trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, and engage in dynamic group discussions.

Investigate visual storytelling strategies through the contemporary art forms of alternative comics and graphic novels. This course introduces various illustrative approaches, such as writing, storyboarding, penciling, inking/coloring, and prepress preparations, with a diverse exploration of materials including pencil, pen, ink, and collage. Building on this foundation, students learn research methods to develop ideas and produce conceptually-driven, portfolio-quality works through projects that examine narrative structures, material choices, and the integration of text and image. Students are introduced to contemporary artists, illustrators, and designers who transcend the traditional approaches of comics and graphic novels to generate their own audiences. Regular critiques and field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, and/or local galleries and comic shops supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Investigate visual storytelling strategies through the contemporary art forms of alternative comics and graphic novels. This course introduces various illustrative approaches, such as writing, storyboarding, penciling, inking/coloring, and prepress preparations, with a diverse exploration of materials including pencil, pen, ink, and collage. Building on this foundation, students learn research methods to develop ideas and produce conceptually-driven, portfolio-quality works through projects that examine narrative structures, material choices, and the integration of text and image. Students are introduced to contemporary artists, illustrators, and designers who transcend the traditional approaches of comics and graphic novels to generate their own audiences. Regular critiques and field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, and/or local galleries and comic shops supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Investigate visual storytelling strategies through the contemporary art forms of alternative comics and graphic novels. This course introduces various illustrative approaches, such as writing, storyboarding, penciling, inking/coloring, and prepress preparations, with a diverse exploration of materials including pencil, pen, ink, and collage. Building on this foundation, students learn research methods to develop ideas and produce conceptually-driven, portfolio-quality works through projects that examine narrative structures, material choices, and the integration of text and image. Students are introduced to contemporary artists, illustrators, and designers who transcend the traditional approaches of comics and graphic novels to generate their own audiences. Regular critiques and field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, and/or local galleries and comic shops supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Investigate visual storytelling strategies through the contemporary art forms of alternative comics and graphic novels. This course introduces various illustrative approaches, such as writing, storyboarding, penciling, inking/coloring, and prepress preparations, with a diverse exploration of materials including pencil, pen, ink, and collage. Building on this foundation, students learn research methods to develop ideas and produce conceptually-driven, portfolio-quality works through projects that examine narrative structures, material choices, and the integration of text and image. Students are introduced to contemporary artists, illustrators, and designers who transcend the traditional approaches of comics and graphic novels to generate their own audiences. Regular critiques and field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, and/or local galleries and comic shops supplement the studio experience.

NOTE: Previous drawing experience required. Students are encouraged to bring a digital camera, tablet, and/or laptop for homework and after-studio hours projects.

Investigate visual storytelling through the dynamic art forms of comics and graphic novels. This course invites you to explore a range of creative techniques, including writing, storyboarding, penciling, inking, and coloring. Building a solid foundation in research methods will help you brainstorm and develop your ideas. You'll create compelling projects that explore narrative structures and seamlessly blend text with stunning visuals. Regular critiques will allow you to sharpen your skills. At the same time, inspiring visits to the Art Institute of Chicago will allow you to connect with contemporary artists, illustrators, and designers. Whether you're a seasoned artist or a beginner, this class is about unleashing your creativity and finding your unique voice in the art world.

This online studio course is designed for students with prior experience in drawing and/or painting who are ready to refine their skills and develop portfolio-quality work. Students will pursue self-directed projects with individualized faculty mentorship, while engaging with contemporary drawing, painting, and visual storytelling practices. Students may work in various media, such as ink, watercolor, acrylic, graphite, charcoal, or mixed media. Students are encouraged to experiment, take creative risks, and expand their visual language. The course includes live online demonstrations, artist talks, virtual museum resources, and weekly critiques, fostering a collaborative and supportive studio environment. Students will receive tailored feedback to help elevate their work, clarify artistic intentions, and prepare compelling pieces for inclusion in college admissions portfolios.

Work alongside our incredible faculty of artists, designers, and scholars to continue to refine your work in this intensive course, for students interested in exploring contemporary fashion design and introductory pattern making and construction methods. Students build skills in design research, styling, draping, fabric selection, patternmaking, and sewing. You¿ll be introduced to the history of fashion as well as contemporary designers and design practices. The course will include online demonstrations geared to your passions, visiting artist presentations, online museum resources, as well as time for self-directed work and comprehensive faculty advising. You¿ll engage in discussions and critiques with a vibrant online community of other students from throughout the country and around the world, create portfolio-quality work, and receive comprehensive guidance on developing competitive applications for college admissions to art and design programs.

*Note: A sewing machine is required for this course

In this hands-on course, students will develop new works of art to round out their portfolios for upcoming college applications and select, revise, and edit their existing works. Through dynamic workshops with SAIC faculty and admissions staff, students will discover the most effective way to document and organize their work and represent their unique points of view as artists to the colleges of their choice. This course also places emphasis on studio time with support from faculty to create one final project that will enhance the student's overall portfolio presentation.

In this course, you will learn about contemporary design, focusing on Architecture. Through collaborative work and one-on-one mentorship, students learn how architects develop design ideas, conduct research, draft and develop their projects, and present proposals. You will be introduced to using traditional materials and software such as Adobe, Rhino 3D, or others. You will learn about contemporary designers and build design skills from drawing, drafting, researching, and ideation. The course will include online demonstrations geared to your passions, time for self-directed work, and comprehensive faculty advising. You'll engage in discussions and critiques with a vibrant online community of other students from throughout the country and around the world, create portfolio-quality work, and receive comprehensive guidance on developing competitive applications for college admissions to art and design programs.

Investigate visual storytelling strategies through the contemporary art forms of drawing, painting, and alternative comics and graphic novels. You may work with various wet and dry media, including ink, pencil, charcoal, collage, observational drawing, storyboarding, or a combination of different materials. The course will include online demonstrations geared to your passions, time for self-directed work, and comprehensive faculty advising. You will engage in discussions and critiques with a vibrant online community of other students from throughout the country and around the world, create portfolio-quality work, and receive comprehensive guidance on developing competitive applications for college admissions to art and design programs.

You bring your creative interests in 2D animation, 3D animation, and video, and our incredible faculty of artists, designers, and scholars will work one-on-one with you to push your skills to the next level. You will build skills using software programs such as Adobe (Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects) and be introduced to concepts and processes to storyboard and develop narratives. The course will include online demonstrations geared to your passions, visiting artist presentations, online museum resources, time for self-directed work, and comprehensive faculty advising. You will engage in discussions and critiques with a vibrant online community of other students from throughout the country and around the world, create portfolio-quality work, and receive comprehensive guidance on developing competitive applications for college admissions to art and design programs.

This course introduces the skills and insights needed to be a successful interior designer and examines why some designs are more successful than others. More than a style-selection course, you will learn what is required to design and build an interior space, gain a general knowledge of how interior designers work, and examine what it takes to move creative designs from idea to reality. Included is a survey of important and innovative designs happening today.

This course examines the fundamentals of two-dimensional design in the digital age. Students will explore principal design elements, including composition, color, and typography, through projects introducing Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop as primary graphic design tools. The importance of effective visual communication in commercial and experimental design is stressed as students understand the professional design process from the client brief to the finished digital project. Students will leave this course with a solid foundation in strategies for solving design problems, a basic design vocabulary, and an understanding of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop's specific role in creating professional work. Before starting this course, students should be comfortable creating, deleting, renaming, and moving files and directories without assistance.

This course introduces the skills and insights needed to be a successful interior designer and examines why some designs are more successful than others. More than a style-selection course, you will learn what is required to design and build an interior space, gain a general knowledge of how interior designers work, and examine what it takes to move creative designs from idea to reality. Included is a survey of important and innovative designs happening today.

These one-week institutes offer opportunities for high school art teachers who work with Advanced Placement students. Developing in-depth, stronger art history and studio portfolios is stressed. Participants also work with a School of the Art Institute admissions counselor and a representative of the College Board.

Want to use Adobe Illustrator to create sophisticated and complex designs and illustrations while you hone your skills? Learn the basics of the program before moving on to master transparency, feathering, masking, compound paths, gradients, layering techniques, and the specifics of the pen tool. This course will feature dynamic class demonstrations, and group critiques, as well as personalized feedback from your instructor on each assignment and throughout the creative process. Students should have basic computer skills before signing up for this course.

This course emphasizes the development of observational drawing skills and hand-eye coordination. The learning sequence progresses from simple forms and skill levels toward more complex compositions. Basic drawing elements such as line, proportion, perspective, composition, texture, and the study of light and shade are investigated through various perceptual and conceptual approaches. Open to beginning students and those who want to refresh their skills before moving on to more advanced studio courses.

Learn the skills you need to manipulate and enhance photographs and digital images. Explore the principal elements of design, including composition, color, and typography, as you develop strategies for solving design problems, a design vocabulary, and an understanding of the key role Photoshop can play in creating professional work. Students should have basic computer skills before signing up for this course.

Examine the many possibilities of creating woven forms using a simple frame loom. Students begin by experimenting with the basic techniques of tapestry and plain weave as they explore ways of creating surface, image, texture, and various color effects within a woven form. Contemporary weaving projects, along with historical references, will be presented through discussions, visual presentations, demonstrations, and readings. This course is open to all levels.

This course focuses on the foundations of photography and the various ways to use a digital camera. Students examine how to choose and shoot personally meaningful subjects in content and contemporary contexts. Instruction includes capturing and printing images in black and white and color, and investigating digital photo editing. Discussions on the history of photography and individual and group critiques are included. Students must supply their digital SLR (single-lens reflex) or mirrorless camera with manual functions; no point-and-shoot cameras.

Discover how creativity can become a powerful tool for self-reflection, mindfulness, and personal growth. This engaging, noncredit online course invites adults of all backgrounds to explore the creative process through hands-on art-making, personal writing, and meaningful group discussions.

Each session offers a thoughtfully designed blend of guided artistic exercises, reflective journaling, and conversation. Participants will explore weekly themes that connect art, self, and society¿building a supportive, welcoming community along the way. Whether you're picking up a paintbrush or pen (or both), you'll be encouraged to express yourself in authentic and inspiring ways.

While this is not a therapy or clinical training course, it provides a structured yet flexible space to deepen your creative and reflective practices. No previous art or writing experience is needed, just a willingness to explore and connect.

This course emphasizes the development of observational drawing skills and hand-eye coordination. The learning sequence progresses from simple forms and skill levels toward more complex compositions. Basic drawing elements such as line, proportion, perspective, composition, texture, and the study of light and shade are investigated through various perceptual and conceptual approaches. Open to beginning students and those who want to refresh their skills before moving on to more advanced studio courses.

Gain a competitive edge as a designer, artist, or maker by advancing your understanding of color theory. Learn about the various ways that color is considered and used as a design element. Working with current color theory principles and models, develop color plans and concepts for individual and group projects. This research is compiled in sketchbook/notebook format and is used as a reference for independent projects. Studies and hands-on studio work reveal how color can transform concepts with cohesive and expressive results.

Gain a competitive edge as a designer, artist, or maker by advancing your understanding of color theory. Learn about the various ways that color is considered and used as a design element. Working with current color theory principles and models, develop color plans and concepts for individual and group projects. This research is compiled in sketchbook/notebook format and is used as a reference for independent projects. Studies and hands-on studio work reveal how color can transform concepts with cohesive and expressive results.

Learn to observe color and capture changing light along the city¿s lakefront and in its parks. Intended for those with no outdoor painting experience, this course will cover the basics of equipment, materials, subject selection, and techniques for painting outdoors in acrylics, oils or watercolor. Observe and apply color to render forms in natural light settings working with a variety of subjects¿landscape, cityscape, figure in landscape, portraiture, and still life. Students will be required to provide their own supplies, including a collapsible easel, which will be discussed in the first class meeting. Basic drawing experience is helpful.

This course is for students that have a background in drawing, but little to no painting experience. Drawings serve as the foundation for acquiring new painting skills, and students are encouraged to develop their own ideas and goals with instructor guidance. Skills such as line, volume, space, materiality, form and function, and palette are explored through both drawing and painting. A variety of traditional and contemporary materials are used, and may include graphite, charcoal, pastels, water-based paints, mixed media, and/or collage. Trips to the Art Institute of Chicago museum and discussions of practicing artists will supplement the studio experience and encourage inspiration and development of concepts in student artworks. By the end of the course, students will have a greater knowledge of material options and acquire the ability to transition from drawing to painting. Prerequisite(s): Introduction to Drawing or equivalent experience.

Part seminar and part workshop, this course will introduce students to both the fundamentals and possibilities of the poetic form. Through close study of the works and lives of three masters of poetic craft¿Lucie Brock-Broido, Louise Glück, and Marie Howe¿students will engage in lively discussions, practical experimentation, and in-class critiques, building the skills necessary to developing their own poetic voices. No prior poetry experience is required¿all skill levels are welcome.

¿Willem de Kooning Drawing¿ is the first exhibition to examine the expansive drawing practice of this renowned American artist. This exhibition marks the first solo presentation of the artist¿s work at the Art Institute of Chicago in more than 50 years.

The exhibition spans de Kooning¿s career. Visitors will gain insight into his experimental process, revealing his dynamic engagement with line, form, and movement.

Note: AIC policy prohibits teaching in special exhibitions. When visiting the exhibition, the instructor will facilitate small group discussions and individual study. Additional instruction will occur in the classroom and other museum galleries.

This course is designed for those seeking to expand their Adobe After Effects knowledge, including videographers who want to integrate motion design techniques. Though not intended to address character animation specifically, students will explore fundamental principles as they apply to motion design, emphasizing developing work that reflects their unique vision.

While video editing experience is recommended, it is not a requirement. Basic knowledge of After Effects is advised.

How do we form an opinion about what we see around us? How do we make decisions that are relevant in the design world? In this course, students discuss, analyze, and discover design principles by exploring successful projects envisioned by artists, architects, theorists, and authors. This course examines problem-solving for various project types and will include lectures, readings, and individual assignments. Class discussions will explore new aesthetic trends and examine how ideas have evolved to address new issues.

Students will explore both traditional and modern approaches to watercolor, including gouache. The course will introduce various techniques, types of paper, alternative painting surfaces, and mixed media processes. It is designed for those with basic drawing skills and previous painting experience, encouraging experimentation with scale, subject matter, and formats. Critiques and discussions will support and guide each student in their artistic direction.

Do you want to develop a proposal for a grant, residency, exhibition, or curatorial project? Are you applying to graduate school? This is the course for you! Learn how to research and identify opportunities, write an artist statement, and document and present your work. Upon completion, students will have a competitive advantage when it comes to securing new opportunities in today's contemporary art world.

The emphasis of the course is on developing expressive paintings from life, as students continue to refine their skills in representing the figure. Throughout the course, students will paint from the nude model in a faculty-guided group environment. Critiques and discussions including historical and contemporary approaches to figurative art to deepen understanding, support personal direction, and aid in the execution of ideas. Students may work with acrylic or oil paint. Students should have basic painting skills and prior figure drawing.

SAIC ACE courses that would provide you with introductory experience include Introduction to Oil Painting or Introduction to Figure Painting

Joining fabrics to cover the body and create shelter has been a prized skill in the progress of civilization. Students will build on that tradition by learning fundamental seams and finishes used in modern-day garment construction. Industry standards of sewing are emphasized, and techniques are taught and practiced. In addition to creating a personal library of seam samples, students will apply the techniques in two basic projects. The class will also discuss fabric characteristics and proper copying and cutting patterns. Once mastered, these techniques can be used to sew garments from patterns, create original designs, or explore fabric as a medium for soft sculpture. No previous sewing experience is necessary.

Note: A sewing machine is required if taking this course online.

Learn how to properly light your work for photo documentation and for creating photographic works. By studying a variety of lighting scenarios, you will make specific choices about existing or ambient light conditions, as well as lighting augmented by other sources. You will develop skills in metering and mixing light sources, and explore fantastical lighting schemes with strobe systems and LED lights. Spend class time on demonstrations, individual projects, digital image manipulation, printing, critiques, and lectures. You must supply your digital SLR (single-lens reflex) or mirrorless camera with manual functions; no point-and-shoot cameras. Prerequisite(s): Introduction to Digital Photography or equivalent experience.

Joining fabrics to cover the body and create shelter has been a prized skill in the progress of civilization. Students will build on that tradition by learning fundamental seams and finishes used in modern-day garment construction. Industry standards of sewing are emphasized, and techniques are taught and practiced. In addition to creating a personal library of seam samples, students will apply the techniques in two basic projects. The class will also discuss fabric characteristics and proper copying and cutting patterns. Once mastered, these techniques can be used to sew garments from patterns, create original designs, or explore fabric as a medium for soft sculpture. No previous sewing experience is necessary.

Note: A sewing machine is required if taking this course online.

Engage with the unique architecture and urban landscape of Chicago in this digital photography course. Develop your style and perspective while capturing the city's essence through practical shooting assignments. Look to renowned photographers for inspiration as you refine your practice and gain insight into how photography has evolved and shaped our understanding of Chicago. Students must provide their own digital SLR (single-lens reflex) camera with manual functions; point-and-shoot cameras won't be suitable. Prerequisite(s): Introduction to Digital Photography or equivalent experience.

This course explores graphic narrative storytelling, a recent cultural phenomenon that takes several forms and has roots in many cultures, including graphic novels, manga, comics, and film sequences, as well as Renaissance fresco and tapestry cycles. Weekly projects include drawing exercises, ideation through sketching, and research or writing as you investigate new ways to express a more personal vision realized as a short pictorial narrative.

The Art Institute of Chicago's collection includes nearly 300,000 works of art. Spend five weeks with an experienced guide exploring highlights from several periods. Each day you will meet in the Art Institute galleries to view artworks, share perspectives, ask questions and learn engaging stories and important information about some of the most revered artists and art movements in western history. Lectures will provide insight into the lives of artists and will build connections across various art periods highlighted in our world-class museum.

Week one: Old Masters
Week two: Impressionists
Week three: American Art
Week four: Early Modern
Week five: Newer Trends

This course meets outside the gift shop at the benches, entering the museum from Michigan Avenue.

During this week-long intensive, students will explore contemporary approaches to designing and developing experimental garments. Activities will guide them through the process of developing original ideas, finding inspiration in the world around them, and responding to the work of other artists and designers. Students will also explore sculptural draping by deconstructing and reconstructing thrift store garments to create designs on the dress form. The School's Fashion Resource Center will provide inspiration and supplement the studio experience. This course will function as a working lab where experimentation and risk taking are encouraged to broaden technical and conceptual skills.

Transform your favorite photographs into expressive paintings using contrast, gesture, and color harmony. Designed for beginning painters with little or no experience working from life, this studio course introduces techniques such as grid and projection methods to translate photographic images onto painting surfaces. Students will learn to interpret their subjects by focusing on shape masses rather than outlines, and by developing form rather than fine detail. Bring photographs that inspire you, whether landscapes, pets, still lifes, or portraits, to use as reference material.

This class will guide students on a deep dive into the possibilities of monoprint and monotype - painterly printmaking processes that lend themselves to immediacy and experimentation while producing finessed and complex imagery. The class will introduce a variety of monotyping processes, as well as elements of collagraph and chine collé, then cover multi-layer registration, allowing for the planning and production of more complex compositions. Student work may incorporate elements of drawing, painting, and collage in combination with printmaking techniques, with the option to use SAIC laser cutters to produce photo-based printing plates. Students will have the opportunity to draw upon both the collections of the Art Institute and the immediate environment of downtown Chicago in their work as they produce several unique prints and variable editions during this one-week intensive.

Designed for students who want to explore and experiment with contemporary and interdisciplinary processes in drawing and painting, while developing a daily artistic practice to sustain creativity. Work outside your comfort zone with feedback and support from your instructor and peers as you explore a variety of experimental techniques and concepts, including poetics, mark making, space, and embodiment prior to undertaking an independent project of your own choosing. This is an ideal course for those who want to think differently about their creative practice.

Intended for students with prior figure drawing experience, this course is ideal for those who want to draw from the nude model in a faculty-guided group environment. The emphasis of the course is on developing expressive, interpretive drawings from life, while continuing to refine one?s skills. Critiques and discussions including historical and contemporary approaches to figurative art deepen understanding, support personal direction, and aid in the execution of ideas. Prerequisite(s): Introduction to Figure Drawing or equivalent experience.

This course introduces students to materials, methods, and tools used in oil painting while helping them develop observational skills. Demonstrations will cover stretching canvas, setting up a palette, applying different painting techniques, and mixing colors. These sessions provide a solid foundation in the fundamentals of oil painting, preparing students for future projects.

Improve your ability to draw, paint, or sculpt human forms. This workshop examines how human proportion, motion, and balance are affected by the skeletal and muscular systems of the body. Draw from the live model throughout the workshop, exploring ways to amplify your understanding of the mechanics and aesthetics of the body. All levels are welcome and encouraged to join; previous figure drawing experience is beneficial.

This course will introduce students to acrylic painting by exploring traditional and contemporary approaches to the medium. Students will learn to work with acrylic paints through demonstrations, individual dialogue, class discussions, and critiques. Artists including Mark Bradford, Helen Frankenthaler, and Mark Rothko will inspire as participants complete a series of paintings on paper, canvas, and wood.

Focus on the intimate relationship between drawing and painting as you experiment with a wide range of multi-disciplinary approaches that will help build a bridge between the two. Experiment with traditional and non-traditional drawing and painting materials to deepen your connection to contemporary studio practices and develop technical and conceptual skills to expand your personal visual language. This immersive experience is intended for students that want to advance an existing painting and drawing practice. Independent studio time is supplemented by lectures and demonstrations, as well as opportunities to engage with your instructor and peers through discussions and critique.

Discover the exciting world of urban¿or on-site¿sketching as you hone your observational drawing skills and connect with your environment for creative inspiration. Field trips will immerse you in Chicago's dynamic cityscape, including iconic landmarks like the Garfield Park Conservatory, scenic Lakefront Trail, and artistic wonders of Millennium Park. You will choose your preferred medium and be encouraged to experiment with color as you experience Chicago's historically significant architecture and cultural attractions like never before.

Feeling like you've lost your studio groove? Wish you could start a solid studio practice? Maybe you cant get to your studio or you've fashioned one within your home but its not quite working? Join with other artists who feel similarly and support one another in getting back on track and vibrant again.

In this class, well look at what it takes to build a solid, ongoing studio practice. You'll gather with other artists and go through a series of steps that will have you designing an ideal space within your home and/or working out best practices for your outside studio. You'll revive your drawing practice and learn new strategies for researching artists and getting inspired by their work. You'll learn some practical tips for keeping your studio work in a flow rather than being stalled. Finally, you'll get ideas for how to get your work out into the world.

Your instructor has maintained a consistent studio practice for 25 years and is ready to share her successful strategies with you. Make this time one of rich and generative studio progress.

In this class, students will have the opportunity to design, propose, and implement a large outdoor mural that will beautify and celebrate Ox-Bow. Visible from the main entrance road into campus, the mural will greet all visitors and participants.
w inspiration from the style and signage of Ox-Bow and consider the work of muralists Diego Rivera, Ben Shahn, Seymour Fogel, Thelma Johnson Streat, Keith Haring, and Bernard Williams, among others.
In the first few days of the course, students and faculty will work together to design three proposals, to be reviewed and approved by Ox-Bow¿s Built & Natural Environment Committee. The remainder of the course will center on implementation of the selected design.

In this class, students will have the opportunity to design, propose, and implement a large outdoor mural that will beautify and celebrate Ox-Bow. Visible from the main entrance road into campus, the mural will greet all visitors and participants.
w inspiration from the style and signage of Ox-Bow and consider the work of muralists Diego Rivera, Ben Shahn, Seymour Fogel, Thelma Johnson Streat, Keith Haring, and Bernard Williams, among others.
In the first few days of the course, students and faculty will work together to design three proposals, to be reviewed and approved by Ox-Bow¿s Built & Natural Environment Committee. The remainder of the course will center on implementation of the selected design.

This course investigates painting as a spatial and dimensional practice. Participants will examine the interplay between abstraction and representation while extending painting into relief and three-dimensional form. Collage serves as both source material and conceptual framework¿borrowing images and ideas from the world, disrupting dominant narratives, and constructing new meanings through layering and juxtaposition. Through a series of projects, participants will move between surface and structure, exploring how cutting, assembling, and building can transform the painted image into sculptural space. The course emphasizes experimentation, material exploration, and critical dialogue, offering students the opportunity to expand their understanding of what painting can be.
We will discuss paintings that have been made in the expanded field, considering color, line, composition, form, beauty, and content beyond traditional painting materials. We will take inspiration from artists who have experimented with unexpected materials, whose pieces have stretched onto the wall, and who use three-dimensional forms. We will look at the work of Anne Truitt, Mickalene Thomas, Cady Noland, Rachel Harrison, Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, and Cauleen Smith, among others. Likewise, we will glean inspiration from artists who have used collage to rupture methods of looking, including Hannah Wilke, Jess, Frida Orupabo, Wangechi Mutu, and the filmmaker Robert Bresson.
Assignments will prompt participants to explore where meaning emerges in their work¿through materials, imagery, and personal connection. Participants will bring personal items, forage for materials across the Ox-Bow landscape, and build a sculpture or relief using paper-mâché, cardboard, and wire as foundational structures for painting. To quickly generate energy and begin thinking through form, students will create four to six collages during the first few days. Following a mid-session critique, participants will develop a final project consisting of two to three experimental, sculptural paintings that integrate their discoveries in material, process, and meaning.

This course investigates painting as a spatial and dimensional practice. Participants will examine the interplay between abstraction and representation while extending painting into relief and three-dimensional form. Collage serves as both source material and conceptual framework¿borrowing images and ideas from the world, disrupting dominant narratives, and constructing new meanings through layering and juxtaposition. Through a series of projects, participants will move between surface and structure, exploring how cutting, assembling, and building can transform the painted image into sculptural space. The course emphasizes experimentation, material exploration, and critical dialogue, offering students the opportunity to expand their understanding of what painting can be.
We will discuss paintings that have been made in the expanded field, considering color, line, composition, form, beauty, and content beyond traditional painting materials. We will take inspiration from artists who have experimented with unexpected materials, whose pieces have stretched onto the wall, and who use three-dimensional forms. We will look at the work of Anne Truitt, Mickalene Thomas, Cady Noland, Rachel Harrison, Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, and Cauleen Smith, among others. Likewise, we will glean inspiration from artists who have used collage to rupture methods of looking, including Hannah Wilke, Jess, Frida Orupabo, Wangechi Mutu, and the filmmaker Robert Bresson.
Assignments will prompt participants to explore where meaning emerges in their work¿through materials, imagery, and personal connection. Participants will bring personal items, forage for materials across the Ox-Bow landscape, and build a sculpture or relief using paper-mâché, cardboard, and wire as foundational structures for painting. To quickly generate energy and begin thinking through form, students will create four to six collages during the first few days. Following a mid-session critique, participants will develop a final project consisting of two to three experimental, sculptural paintings that integrate their discoveries in material, process, and meaning.

n this hands-on workshop, students will explore the ancient Korean art of hanji, a traditional craft that transforms mulberry bark into beautiful, durable paper. For centuries, hanji has been an integral part of Korean culture, used in applications ranging from calligraphy and interior design to fashion and contemporary art. Through guided instruction, students will learn the process of preparing natural fibers, forming sheets, and drying the paper. The work is highly tactile and physically engaging, reflecting the labor and rhythm central to traditional papermaking. This class emphasizes both traditional techniques and modern adaptations, encouraging participants to create custom papers that reflect their personal aesthetic while connecting with the deep historical and cultural significance of hanji. Students will also be encouraged to consider how papermaking can intersect and collaborate with other media, including ink drawing, printmaking, and weaving with natural fibers.
This workshop will explore the historical and contemporary significance of hanji, with special emphasis on its use in art and design. We will study the work of renowned hanji artist Lee Seung Chul, whose innovative installations and sculptures push the boundaries of this traditional material, and Yang Sang Hoon, known for intricate, geometric compositions that merge craftsmanship with modern abstraction. Readings will include selections from Hanji Unfurled: One Journey into Korean Papermaking by Aimee Lee, which offers a comprehensive look at hanji traditions. A screening of the film Hanji (2011) by Im Kwon-taek will further illuminate the material¿s enduring cultural relevance.
project, the class will work together to produce a large-scale hanji sculpture for the Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists¿ Residency, celebrating the medium¿s expressive and communal potential.

n this hands-on workshop, students will explore the ancient Korean art of hanji, a traditional craft that transforms mulberry bark into beautiful, durable paper. For centuries, hanji has been an integral part of Korean culture, used in applications ranging from calligraphy and interior design to fashion and contemporary art. Through guided instruction, students will learn the process of preparing natural fibers, forming sheets, and drying the paper. The work is highly tactile and physically engaging, reflecting the labor and rhythm central to traditional papermaking. This class emphasizes both traditional techniques and modern adaptations, encouraging participants to create custom papers that reflect their personal aesthetic while connecting with the deep historical and cultural significance of hanji. Students will also be encouraged to consider how papermaking can intersect and collaborate with other media, including ink drawing, printmaking, and weaving with natural fibers.
This workshop will explore the historical and contemporary significance of hanji, with special emphasis on its use in art and design. We will study the work of renowned hanji artist Lee Seung Chul, whose innovative installations and sculptures push the boundaries of this traditional material, and Yang Sang Hoon, known for intricate, geometric compositions that merge craftsmanship with modern abstraction. Readings will include selections from Hanji Unfurled: One Journey into Korean Papermaking by Aimee Lee, which offers a comprehensive look at hanji traditions. A screening of the film Hanji (2011) by Im Kwon-taek will further illuminate the material¿s enduring cultural relevance.
project, the class will work together to produce a large-scale hanji sculpture for the Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists¿ Residency, celebrating the medium¿s expressive and communal potential.

In this online performance-based studio course, we will explore the intersections of body, gesture, and screen as tools to unravel the trope of the starving artist and explore pathways toward both material and psychological abundance through a queer, anti-capitalist, interdisciplinary lens. Through readings, discussions, and workshops rooted in performance, institutional critique, and collective experimentation, students will investigate how artists stage, embody, and disrupt systems of value and exchange.
Together, we¿ll explore how queer approaches to care, redistribution, and collectivity can reimagine abundance beyond material wealth. We¿ll look to artists such as Andy Warhol, Maurizio Cattelan, and Monét X Change as models for how we can reveal and subvert the institutional and financial structures that shape our lives.
Assignments will translate these ideas into multidisciplinary studio projects rooted in performance. Students will complete two major works: a visual art project that maps financial realities and emotional economies, and a conceptual work of institutional critique informed by class discussions. By the end of the course, students will also produce a practical financial plan for their future and a portfolio of studio work that situates their practice in dialogue with the histories and strategies explored in class.

In this online performance-based studio course, we will explore the intersections of body, gesture, and screen as tools to unravel the trope of the starving artist and explore pathways toward both material and psychological abundance through a queer, anti-capitalist, interdisciplinary lens. Through readings, discussions, and workshops rooted in performance, institutional critique, and collective experimentation, students will investigate how artists stage, embody, and disrupt systems of value and exchange.
Together, we¿ll explore how queer approaches to care, redistribution, and collectivity can reimagine abundance beyond material wealth. We¿ll look to artists such as Andy Warhol, Maurizio Cattelan, and Monét X Change as models for how we can reveal and subvert the institutional and financial structures that shape our lives.
Assignments will translate these ideas into multidisciplinary studio projects rooted in performance. Students will complete two major works: a visual art project that maps financial realities and emotional economies, and a conceptual work of institutional critique informed by class discussions. By the end of the course, students will also produce a practical financial plan for their future and a portfolio of studio work that situates their practice in dialogue with the histories and strategies explored in class.

In this collaborative, hands-on course, students will write, shoot, and edit short experimental films inspired by the Ox-Bow landscape, exploring storytelling through image, movement, and sound. Working individually and in small crews, students will learn the fundamentals of camera work, lighting, editing, and sound design while embracing the improvisational and resourceful spirit of independent filmmaking. Students may use any type of camera¿including phones¿and will have access to a studio equipped with free editing software. The class will emphasize play, experimentation, and the power of collaboration, celebrating the DIY energy that defines Ox-Bow¿s creative community.
We¿ll look at a wide range of artists and filmmakers who merge performance, humor, and fantasy to challenge traditional cinematic forms, including Jacolby Satterwhite¿s digital dreamscapes, Mika Rottenberg¿s absurdist labor worlds, and Shana Moulton¿s surreal explorations of self-help and desire. Additional screenings may feature works by Julio Torres and Miranda July, Jean Cocteau¿s La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) (1946), and documentaries such as Divine Trash (1998), It Came from Kuchar (2009), and Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2006)¿films that highlight collaborative, low-budget, and experimental approaches to cinema.
Assignments will invite students to experiment with form and process. In FOUND, students will create a one- to three-minute video using found footage or audio to generate new meaning from existing materials, exploring remix culture, collage, and the poetics of recontextualization. In ACTION, they will make a short video that foregrounds movement through performance, choreography, or dynamic camera work. Finally, in FAKE, students will construct a one- to three-minute film using artificial or handmade elements¿painted backdrops, thrifted props, or miniature sets¿to build imaginative, performative worlds. The course will culminate in an end-of-session screening where students share their finished films with the Ox-Bow community, celebrating the collective energy of making movies together.

Join legendary painter and performance artist John Kilduff¿best known for his exuberant live-streaming persona ¿Mr. Let¿s Paint¿¿for a wild, high-energy dive into painting, performance, and process. In this experimental, highly interactive course, students will learn how to set up a home studio for both painting and streaming, transforming their creative spaces into dynamic sites of art and action. Students will be expected to have their cameras on during class sessions as they participate in real-time painting challenges and group activities that emphasize spontaneity, humor, and endurance as pathways to creative freedom. Materials can include anything from oils, acrylics, watercolors, spray paint, markers, and musical instruments to canvas, paper, cardboard, blank T-shirts, and caps¿students are encouraged to work across multiple media and make their studios as dynamic as the performances themselves.
Situating Kilduff¿s practice within a lineage of performance-based and process-oriented painters, this course draws inspiration from artists such as Allan Kaprow, Carolee Schneemann, and Bob Ross¿figures who reimagined what it means to make and share art in public. Through this lens, students will examine how painting can exist as both a live act and a broadcast, dissolving the boundaries between artist, audience, and environment.
Assignments will include a full calendar of alternative painting exercises: painting while cooking, running on a treadmill, or singing. Students will also venture into their local landscapes to create rapid-fire paintings of shifting scenes and moving subjects. The course will culminate in a final performance built around a painting idea, celebrating the intersection of artmaking, movement, and play. Students should plan to work with a computer or phone and free streaming software such as OBS (while Kilduff uses Wirecast, a paid option, free tools are encouraged).

In this collaborative, hands-on course, students will write, shoot, and edit short experimental films inspired by the Ox-Bow landscape, exploring storytelling through image, movement, and sound. Working individually and in small crews, students will learn the fundamentals of camera work, lighting, editing, and sound design while embracing the improvisational and resourceful spirit of independent filmmaking. Students may use any type of camera¿including phones¿and will have access to a studio equipped with free editing software. The class will emphasize play, experimentation, and the power of collaboration, celebrating the DIY energy that defines Ox-Bow¿s creative community.
We¿ll look at a wide range of artists and filmmakers who merge performance, humor, and fantasy to challenge traditional cinematic forms, including Jacolby Satterwhite¿s digital dreamscapes, Mika Rottenberg¿s absurdist labor worlds, and Shana Moulton¿s surreal explorations of self-help and desire. Additional screenings may feature works by Julio Torres and Miranda July, Jean Cocteau¿s La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) (1946), and documentaries such as Divine Trash (1998), It Came from Kuchar (2009), and Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2006)¿films that highlight collaborative, low-budget, and experimental approaches to cinema.
Assignments will invite students to experiment with form and process. In FOUND, students will create a one- to three-minute video using found footage or audio to generate new meaning from existing materials, exploring remix culture, collage, and the poetics of recontextualization. In ACTION, they will make a short video that foregrounds movement through performance, choreography, or dynamic camera work. Finally, in FAKE, students will construct a one- to three-minute film using artificial or handmade elements¿painted backdrops, thrifted props, or miniature sets¿to build imaginative, performative worlds. The course will culminate in an end-of-session screening where students share their finished films with the Ox-Bow community, celebrating the collective energy of making movies together.

Join legendary painter and performance artist John Kilduff¿best known for his exuberant live-streaming persona ¿Mr. Let¿s Paint¿¿for a wild, high-energy dive into painting, performance, and process. In this experimental, highly interactive course, students will learn how to set up a home studio for both painting and streaming, transforming their creative spaces into dynamic sites of art and action. Students will be expected to have their cameras on during class sessions as they participate in real-time painting challenges and group activities that emphasize spontaneity, humor, and endurance as pathways to creative freedom. Materials can include anything from oils, acrylics, watercolors, spray paint, markers, and musical instruments to canvas, paper, cardboard, blank T-shirts, and caps¿students are encouraged to work across multiple media and make their studios as dynamic as the performances themselves.
Situating Kilduff¿s practice within a lineage of performance-based and process-oriented painters, this course draws inspiration from artists such as Allan Kaprow, Carolee Schneemann, and Bob Ross¿figures who reimagined what it means to make and share art in public. Through this lens, students will examine how painting can exist as both a live act and a broadcast, dissolving the boundaries between artist, audience, and environment.
Assignments will include a full calendar of alternative painting exercises: painting while cooking, running on a treadmill, or singing. Students will also venture into their local landscapes to create rapid-fire paintings of shifting scenes and moving subjects. The course will culminate in a final performance built around a painting idea, celebrating the intersection of artmaking, movement, and play. Students should plan to work with a computer or phone and free streaming software such as OBS (while Kilduff uses Wirecast, a paid option, free tools are encouraged).

What does it mean to make an image? In this course we will make images and photographs using the Earth¿s Sun in collaboration with photographic techniques that emerged in the 1800s and continue to be used in contemporary art. We will play with digital photography, anthotypes, cyanotypes, chlorophyll prints, and other alternative photographic techniques. We will utilize photography, drawing, painting, and collage to make images with depth, vibrancy, and wildness. Our images will be experienced through virtual worlds and platforms as well as physical spaces of the home, communities and other locations through posting, installing, inserting, publishing and other possible ways where images can be transmitted. The acceleration of image production has transformed our understanding of ourselves by folding the horizon in on itself.
We will look into phenomenological studies of being while making images that examine our contemporary conditions of the power within our lives that these images can serve, deconstruct and reinvent. From social justice, deep fakes, intimacy, ecology - the political impact of images shape our existence. While we look at contemporary and historical image making we will look at ways of seeing. Artists will include Anna Atkins, Kiki Smith, Candice Lin, Zadie Xa, and Dario Robleto. Readings and screenings for this course will include Rebecca Solnit, Susan Sontag, Jean Painlevé, Sara Ahmed, and Hito Steyerl.
Assignments will invite students to respond to the reading and viewing of Hito Steryerl¿s work on How Not to be Seen and create a series of images using the Cyanotype Process. We will also consider the perspective points of the viewer and the processes of concealment that make this object or subject hidden in plain sight.

What does it mean to make an image? In this course we will make images and photographs using the Earth¿s Sun in collaboration with photographic techniques that emerged in the 1800s and continue to be used in contemporary art. We will play with digital photography, anthotypes, cyanotypes, chlorophyll prints, and other alternative photographic techniques. We will utilize photography, drawing, painting, and collage to make images with depth, vibrancy, and wildness. Our images will be experienced through virtual worlds and platforms as well as physical spaces of the home, communities and other locations through posting, installing, inserting, publishing and other possible ways where images can be transmitted. The acceleration of image production has transformed our understanding of ourselves by folding the horizon in on itself.
We will look into phenomenological studies of being while making images that examine our contemporary conditions of the power within our lives that these images can serve, deconstruct and reinvent. From social justice, deep fakes, intimacy, ecology - the political impact of images shape our existence. While we look at contemporary and historical image making we will look at ways of seeing. Artists will include Anna Atkins, Kiki Smith, Candice Lin, Zadie Xa, and Dario Robleto. Readings and screenings for this course will include Rebecca Solnit, Susan Sontag, Jean Painlevé, Sara Ahmed, and Hito Steyerl.
Assignments will invite students to respond to the reading and viewing of Hito Steryerl¿s work on How Not to be Seen and create a series of images using the Cyanotype Process. We will also consider the perspective points of the viewer and the processes of concealment that make this object or subject hidden in plain sight.

This course celebrates handicraft and invites students into the sewing circle in service of solving compositional problems with the language of quilting. Serving students at all levels of experience, participants will learn traditional, nontraditional, machine, and hand-sewing techniques to produce soft objects including quilts, banners, windsocks, dolls, and installations. Demonstrations on mapping 2D and 3D images, piecing, applique, dyeing, and additive image making will encourage the exploration of the alternative and whimsical sensibilities in soft sculpture.
Platforming the loose and improvisational mark-making possible with traditional stitch and applique techniques of quilt-making, this highly collaborative and social course will be inspired by the works of Rosie Lee Tompkins, the Gees Bend Quilters, Claes Oldenberg, RuPaul, David Byrne, and Lee Bowery. Screenings may include True Stories (1986), Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989), and readings may include ¿Knitting, Weaving, Embroidery, and Quilting as Subversive Aesthetic Strategies: On Feminist Interventions in Art, Fashion, and Philosophy¿ (Michna 2020),
Students will conceive and construct original fiber works in response to assignments that focus on the expressive, personal, and comical possibilities of these materials. Assignments will include completing piecing, construction, binding, and quilting of a full personal quilt project, collaborating on group textiles, even with artists in other classes, and students will make a wearable item for Ox-Bow's Friday Night Costume Party. The course will culminate in a group quilt show installed in the landscape.

This course celebrates handicraft and invites students into the sewing circle in service of solving compositional problems with the language of quilting. Serving students at all levels of experience, participants will learn traditional, nontraditional, machine, and hand-sewing techniques to produce soft objects including quilts, banners, windsocks, dolls, and installations. Demonstrations on mapping 2D and 3D images, piecing, applique, dyeing, and additive image making will encourage the exploration of the alternative and whimsical sensibilities in soft sculpture.
Platforming the loose and improvisational mark-making possible with traditional stitch and applique techniques of quilt-making, this highly collaborative and social course will be inspired by the works of Rosie Lee Tompkins, the Gees Bend Quilters, Claes Oldenberg, RuPaul, David Byrne, and Lee Bowery. Screenings may include True Stories (1986), Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989), and readings may include ¿Knitting, Weaving, Embroidery, and Quilting as Subversive Aesthetic Strategies: On Feminist Interventions in Art, Fashion, and Philosophy¿ (Michna 2020),
Students will conceive and construct original fiber works in response to assignments that focus on the expressive, personal, and comical possibilities of these materials. Assignments will include completing piecing, construction, binding, and quilting of a full personal quilt project, collaborating on group textiles, even with artists in other classes, and students will make a wearable item for Ox-Bow's Friday Night Costume Party. The course will culminate in a group quilt show installed in the landscape.

Focusing on the expressive potential of 3D weaving and sculptural basketry, this course invites students to explore a range of basketry techniques to create forms, vessels, and structural objects with an emphasis on tactility, color, and creative experimentation. Beginning with small sample projects to introduce key techniques, followed by opportunities to develop a personal small-scale sculptural piece, students will have the option of weaving over molds and formers or working freehand, using various base types to explore how structure and form emerge through process. We will also experiment with dyeing reed, learning techniques to create surface pattern and dimensional color through immersion, layering, and resist processes.
We will study historical and contemporary approaches to sculptural basketry, with visual presentations and discussions of artists such as John McQueen, Ed Rossbach, Lillian Elliott, Hugh Hayden, Theda Sandiford, Katherine Westphal, and others whose work expands the boundaries of fiber and form. These case studies will anchor our creative exploration of how basketry can intersect with conceptual, sculptural, and material practices.
Emphasizing experimentation, material play, and hands-on making, this course is perfect for artists, designers, and craftspeople interested in fiber, sculpture, and the expressive possibilities of woven form. One assignment will invite students to consider the conceptual and abstract possibilities of weaving by introducing spokes, lattices, netting, and mixed materials. The course will culminate in a presentation of woven wares.

Focusing on the expressive potential of 3D weaving and sculptural basketry, this course invites students to explore a range of basketry techniques to create forms, vessels, and structural objects with an emphasis on tactility, color, and creative experimentation. Beginning with small sample projects to introduce key techniques, followed by opportunities to develop a personal small-scale sculptural piece, students will have the option of weaving over molds and formers or working freehand, using various base types to explore how structure and form emerge through process. We will also experiment with dyeing reed, learning techniques to create surface pattern and dimensional color through immersion, layering, and resist processes.
We will study historical and contemporary approaches to sculptural basketry, with visual presentations and discussions of artists such as John McQueen, Ed Rossbach, Lillian Elliott, Hugh Hayden, Theda Sandiford, Katherine Westphal, and others whose work expands the boundaries of fiber and form. These case studies will anchor our creative exploration of how basketry can intersect with conceptual, sculptural, and material practices.
Emphasizing experimentation, material play, and hands-on making, this course is perfect for artists, designers, and craftspeople interested in fiber, sculpture, and the expressive possibilities of woven form. One assignment will invite students to consider the conceptual and abstract possibilities of weaving by introducing spokes, lattices, netting, and mixed materials. The course will culminate in a presentation of woven wares.

This course will focus on Eastern and Western papermaking techniques. We will work with cotton and abaca fiber and use molds and deckles to explore watermarks, embedding, and pigments. We will also process kozo fiber from start to finish in order to make washi, a Japanese paper. Participants will practice the steps of papermaking while discussing the mechanics and science behind them. By the end of the course, students will be able to play with the techniques and materials covered and ideally forge their own individual paths to paper.
We will discuss paper¿s historical roots and contemporary uses in art. Readings will include Dard Hunter¿s Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft and Anish Kapoor¿s essay ¿Void, Silence and Transition,¿ and a mid-session lecture will introduce the work of contemporary papermakers and artists like Hong Hong, Zarina Hashmi, and Yoonshin Park. We will briefly advise students on how to set up a simple home studio, so that they can expand on what they have learned beyond the classroom.
We would like to emphasize that papermaking is a communal endeavor, and that collaborating with classmates will be helpful when troubleshooting or executing assignments. Along with completing each day¿s tasks, including cleanup, students will be asked to produce a final project. While these projects need not be completely finished, students will present their ideas and the steps they have made toward creating these pieces to the class.

This course will focus on Eastern and Western papermaking techniques. We will work with cotton and abaca fiber and use molds and deckles to explore watermarks, embedding, and pigments. We will also process kozo fiber from start to finish in order to make washi, a Japanese paper. Participants will practice the steps of papermaking while discussing the mechanics and science behind them. By the end of the course, students will be able to play with the techniques and materials covered and ideally forge their own individual paths to paper.
We will discuss paper¿s historical roots and contemporary uses in art. Readings will include Dard Hunter¿s Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft and Anish Kapoor¿s essay ¿Void, Silence and Transition,¿ and a mid-session lecture will introduce the work of contemporary papermakers and artists like Hong Hong, Zarina Hashmi, and Yoonshin Park. We will briefly advise students on how to set up a simple home studio, so that they can expand on what they have learned beyond the classroom.
We would like to emphasize that papermaking is a communal endeavor, and that collaborating with classmates will be helpful when troubleshooting or executing assignments. Along with completing each day¿s tasks, including cleanup, students will be asked to produce a final project. While these projects need not be completely finished, students will present their ideas and the steps they have made toward creating these pieces to the class.

In this course, students will explore textile patterning through eco-conscious surface design techniques. Working with nature as inspiration, material source, and collaborator, students will engage processes such as natural dyeing, mordant printing, cyanotype, and paste resists to create patterned textiles. Special attention will be given to observing natural systems and working with the sun, water, and wind as active agents in the creative process. Through field observation, experimentation, and reflection, students will develop a personal visual language rooted in ecological awareness and collaboration with the living world.
We will consider how principles of community, regeneration, and ephemerality inform textile practice, studying the work of Ana Mendieta, Yto Barrada, and Maria Elena Pombo. Readings will include selections from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and In Pursuit of Color by Lauren MacDonald, which together frame material practice as both an artistic and ethical inquiry.
Assignments will guide students in designing and producing a series of patterned textile samples and one final project that integrates natural processes as both technique and conceptual framework. Technical demonstrations will be paired with discussions on sustainability, care, and responsible practice, supporting each student in building a process that is both materially and environmentally responsive.

In this course, students will explore textile patterning through eco-conscious surface design techniques. Working with nature as inspiration, material source, and collaborator, students will engage processes such as natural dyeing, mordant printing, cyanotype, and paste resists to create patterned textiles. Special attention will be given to observing natural systems and working with the sun, water, and wind as active agents in the creative process. Through field observation, experimentation, and reflection, students will develop a personal visual language rooted in ecological awareness and collaboration with the living world.
We will consider how principles of community, regeneration, and ephemerality inform textile practice, studying the work of Ana Mendieta, Yto Barrada, and Maria Elena Pombo. Readings will include selections from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and In Pursuit of Color by Lauren MacDonald, which together frame material practice as both an artistic and ethical inquiry.
Assignments will guide students in designing and producing a series of patterned textile samples and one final project that integrates natural processes as both technique and conceptual framework. Technical demonstrations will be paired with discussions on sustainability, care, and responsible practice, supporting each student in building a process that is both materially and environmentally responsive.

This multilevel course offers an immersive exploration of glass as both a material and a language for sculptural and functional expression. Building on existing glassblowing skills, students will expand their fluency in the technical foundations of glassblowing and hot-sculpting processes. Through a balance of guided instruction and independent experimentation, students will explore ways to manipulate form, texture, and transparency¿pushing the material beyond traditional vessel-making into content-driven expressive, conceptual, and site-responsive works. Demonstrations, lectures, and critiques will complement extensive hands-on studio time, encouraging both refinement of technique and a personal voice in glass.
Throughout the course, we will consider artists who have expanded the field of contemporary glass through experimentation, narrative, and cross-disciplinary practices, such as Toshio Iezumi, Jessica Jane Julius, Josiah McElheny, and Stephen Cartwright. These examples will frame discussions around how material, process, and concept intersect, and how glass as a medium continues to evolve within sculpture and design. Historical overviews of studio glass movements and contemporary installation practices will provide students with broader context for their own creative inquiries.
Assignments will encourage students to integrate skillful exploration with conceptual intent. Students will submit a series of responses to technical and intellectual prompts designed to make them consider what glass is as a substance, why they are using it, and how it can be used to support their creative or conceptual investigations. They will also complete a final project using glass as a tool to manifest the original content of their work.

This multilevel course offers an immersive exploration of glass as both a material and a language for sculptural and functional expression. Building on existing glassblowing skills, students will expand their fluency in the technical foundations of glassblowing and hot-sculpting processes. Through a balance of guided instruction and independent experimentation, students will explore ways to manipulate form, texture, and transparency¿pushing the material beyond traditional vessel-making into content-driven expressive, conceptual, and site-responsive works. Demonstrations, lectures, and critiques will complement extensive hands-on studio time, encouraging both refinement of technique and a personal voice in glass.
Throughout the course, we will consider artists who have expanded the field of contemporary glass through experimentation, narrative, and cross-disciplinary practices, such as Toshio Iezumi, Jessica Jane Julius, Josiah McElheny, and Stephen Cartwright. These examples will frame discussions around how material, process, and concept intersect, and how glass as a medium continues to evolve within sculpture and design. Historical overviews of studio glass movements and contemporary installation practices will provide students with broader context for their own creative inquiries.
Assignments will encourage students to integrate skillful exploration with conceptual intent. Students will submit a series of responses to technical and intellectual prompts designed to make them consider what glass is as a substance, why they are using it, and how it can be used to support their creative or conceptual investigations. They will also complete a final project using glass as a tool to manifest the original content of their work.

This class will explore ways of representing the figure in painting. Whether observed or imagined, all figurative painting requires invention. Maintaining the believably of the believability of that invention, no matter how 'unreal' it might become, will be the focus of the class. We will look at a range of figurative representation, from the ancient to present. After a series of drawing and painting assignments involving shape, scale, and distortion we will move on to self-directed figurative paintings that will engage the whole language of painting.

This class will explore ways of representing the figure in painting. Whether observed or imagined, all figurative painting requires invention. Maintaining the believably of the believability of that invention, no matter how 'unreal' it might become, will be the focus of the class. We will look at a range of figurative representation, from the ancient to present. After a series of drawing and painting assignments involving shape, scale, and distortion we will move on to self-directed figurative paintings that will engage the whole language of painting.

duce the process of casting hollow-core glass vessels and the fundamentals of fragrance construction. Part one of the class will introduce the process of creating cast glass vessels using an adaptation of the core-forming process. Techniques covered will include basic hollow-core mold making, wax sculpting, and firing schedule development. The second section of the course will guide students through perfume formulation, structure, material families, extraction processes, and blending. Participants will work with aroma molecules and high quality botanical essences. Each student will leave with their own custom blended alcohol based perfume and cast glass vessel.
The histories of perfume and glass have been intertwined since their inception in the ancient world. In addition to technical demonstrations, this workshop will explore the historical and conceptual intersections between glass and perfume. The class will discuss contemporary artists who fuse olfaction, glass, and mixed media within their work such as Sissel Tolaas, Katie Paterson, and Candice Lin. Readings and screenings will include excerpts from Fragrant by Mandy Aftel, Ancient Glass by R.A. Grossmann, and Perfume on the Radio by the Institute of Art and Olfaction.
Assignments will include sculpting a vessel using shape, color, and ornamentation to reveal or conceal the vessel¿s contents and create a perfume that tells a story through its ingredients.

duce the process of casting hollow-core glass vessels and the fundamentals of fragrance construction. Part one of the class will introduce the process of creating cast glass vessels using an adaptation of the core-forming process. Techniques covered will include basic hollow-core mold making, wax sculpting, and firing schedule development. The second section of the course will guide students through perfume formulation, structure, material families, extraction processes, and blending. Participants will work with aroma molecules and high quality botanical essences. Each student will leave with their own custom blended alcohol based perfume and cast glass vessel.
The histories of perfume and glass have been intertwined since their inception in the ancient world. In addition to technical demonstrations, this workshop will explore the historical and conceptual intersections between glass and perfume. The class will discuss contemporary artists who fuse olfaction, glass, and mixed media within their work such as Sissel Tolaas, Katie Paterson, and Candice Lin. Readings and screenings will include excerpts from Fragrant by Mandy Aftel, Ancient Glass by R.A. Grossmann, and Perfume on the Radio by the Institute of Art and Olfaction.
Assignments will include sculpting a vessel using shape, color, and ornamentation to reveal or conceal the vessel¿s contents and create a perfume that tells a story through its ingredients.

In this course, students will use the potter¿s wheel to create thrown forms. Through practice and demonstration, participants will hone skills to successfully build scale and refine pieces in clay.
Pre-Columbian work will provide insight, as well as contemporary artists which may include Shio Kusaka and Betty Woodman. Demonstrations will focus on centering, producing uniformity, and glazing techniques.
Through assignments including throwing many pots in succession, students will become familiar with the disposability and ephemerality inherent to the medium and aim to master its spontaneity. This class will culminate in group critique and is open to students of all levels.

In this course, students will use the potter¿s wheel to create thrown forms. Through practice and demonstration, participants will hone skills to successfully build scale and refine pieces in clay.
Pre-Columbian work will provide insight, as well as contemporary artists which may include Shio Kusaka and Betty Woodman. Demonstrations will focus on centering, producing uniformity, and glazing techniques.
Through assignments including throwing many pots in succession, students will become familiar with the disposability and ephemerality inherent to the medium and aim to master its spontaneity. This class will culminate in group critique and is open to students of all levels.

This course will explore the many histories, methods, and potentials of using wood as fuel to heat and transform clay into ceramic. Presentations will survey ceramic science, the history and logic of kiln design, and the range of objects made with wood fired kilns. Demonstrations will include handbuilding and wheel throwing techniques as well as experimental methods with found ceramic materials and objects.
Films and readings including Maria Martinez: Indian Pottery of San Ildefonso and Robin Wal Kimmerer¿s `Braiding Sweetgrass¿ will offer insights as we engage and form the material of the Earth. Conversations throughout will aim to assist students in finding creative agency with ceramics.
Students will work on independent projects and the class will culminate in a nearly two day long firing of Ox-Bow¿s 50 cubic foot catenary-arch wood-kiln; a massive group effort that will involve loading the kiln, and methodically stoking it with wood for the duration of the firing until our desired temperature is reached throughout. While the kiln cools we¿ll explore ways in which the techniques covered might be applied outside of the workshop, and build and fire a small and temporary kiln which students could easily recreate independently. Once cool, the big kiln will be unloaded and cleaned, results will be finished and analyzed, and we'll hold an exhibit of the works created.

This course will explore the many histories, methods, and potentials of using wood as fuel to heat and transform clay into ceramic. Presentations will survey ceramic science, the history and logic of kiln design, and the range of objects made with wood fired kilns. Demonstrations will include handbuilding and wheel throwing techniques as well as experimental methods with found ceramic materials and objects.
Films and readings including Maria Martinez: Indian Pottery of San Ildefonso and Robin Wal Kimmerer¿s `Braiding Sweetgrass¿ will offer insights as we engage and form the material of the Earth. Conversations throughout will aim to assist students in finding creative agency with ceramics.
Students will work on independent projects and the class will culminate in a nearly two day long firing of Ox-Bow¿s 50 cubic foot catenary-arch wood-kiln; a massive group effort that will involve loading the kiln, and methodically stoking it with wood for the duration of the firing until our desired temperature is reached throughout. While the kiln cools we¿ll explore ways in which the techniques covered might be applied outside of the workshop, and build and fire a small and temporary kiln which students could easily recreate independently. Once cool, the big kiln will be unloaded and cleaned, results will be finished and analyzed, and we'll hold an exhibit of the works created.

Glass embodies a fluidity, range, and nuance well suited to expose the truths that every person holds. Through a series of material inquiries, and personal reflections, we¿ll find the methods by which the stories that define us can best be made visible through glass. This workshop will examine the qualities that make glass such a powerful mode of expression and help students refine an honest and natural relationship with the material. We'll cover a range of foundational techniques including basic glassblowing, adhesives and assemblage, color application, basic coldworking, and sculpture techniques¿ A balancing of traditional and nontraditional processes will help you access the expression that comes from a harmony between you and the material.
Through a series of short lectures, brief writing assignments, and thoughtful experiments, students will come to understand the range, immediacy, and responsiveness that glass can offer the creative process. Instructors will introduce contemporary artists like Vanessa German, Tavares Strachan, Fred Wilson, Team Lab, and many more who mine the material of glass in wildly different ways to alter how we observe the world and how we envision ourselves within it. Experiencing and reflecting on the material in its purest form while constantly checking in with how we tell our own truths through short writing prompts, we¿ll consider where the language of glass and the stories that make us, overlap. Ultimately we¿ll seek a merging of ourselves with the making process in a way that allows for our truths to melt into the spaces where we live and work and create together.
The course begins with students responding to a series of writing prompts designed to produce short autobiographical excerpts. These expressions of self reflection are to be presented, discussed, and distilled into personal methodologies for approaching glass. Inquiry is the mechanism for refining individual paths in this course, as each unique story is transformed into a series of experiments and challenges through which each student builds a foundational understanding of how glass works.

Glass embodies a fluidity, range, and nuance well suited to expose the truths that every person holds. Through a series of material inquiries, and personal reflections, we¿ll find the methods by which the stories that define us can best be made visible through glass. This workshop will examine the qualities that make glass such a powerful mode of expression and help students refine an honest and natural relationship with the material. We'll cover a range of foundational techniques including basic glassblowing, adhesives and assemblage, color application, basic coldworking, and sculpture techniques¿ A balancing of traditional and nontraditional processes will help you access the expression that comes from a harmony between you and the material.
Through a series of short lectures, brief writing assignments, and thoughtful experiments, students will come to understand the range, immediacy, and responsiveness that glass can offer the creative process. Instructors will introduce contemporary artists like Vanessa German, Tavares Strachan, Fred Wilson, Team Lab, and many more who mine the material of glass in wildly different ways to alter how we observe the world and how we envision ourselves within it. Experiencing and reflecting on the material in its purest form while constantly checking in with how we tell our own truths through short writing prompts, we¿ll consider where the language of glass and the stories that make us, overlap. Ultimately we¿ll seek a merging of ourselves with the making process in a way that allows for our truths to melt into the spaces where we live and work and create together.
The course begins with students responding to a series of writing prompts designed to produce short autobiographical excerpts. These expressions of self reflection are to be presented, discussed, and distilled into personal methodologies for approaching glass. Inquiry is the mechanism for refining individual paths in this course, as each unique story is transformed into a series of experiments and challenges through which each student builds a foundational understanding of how glass works.

In this course, students will explore the fundamentals of forging mild steel with a hammer, anvil, and coal forge to create functional and conceptual objects. Demonstrations in the hot manipulation of metal, tool operation and safety, welding, steel inflations, and finishing techniques will be provided.

We will discuss traditional and non-traditional artists and architecture, including Samuel Yellin, Ruth Asawa, Elizabeth Brim, and the collaborative construction of The City Museum.

Students are encouraged to combine media and utilize non-ferrous disciplines such as print, ceramics, and glass into their projects. This may include fabricating a steel armature for a ceramic piece or production of a mixed media sculpture. Students will be expected to complete a minimum of one self-directed project from sketch to finalization and participate in critique.

This course will examine the relationship between drawing and print through various techniques for monotypes and monoprints while encouraging a playful approach to both disciplines. Students will develop sketches, drawings, and paintings into workable and reworkable print matrices. Emphasis will be placed on monoprint processes that facilitate iteration, variation, sequencing, and seriality. Techniques taught will include trace monotypes, additive and subtractive monotypes, screen monotypes, and relief monotypes and monoprints.
Students will look at, read, and discuss the following as points of reference: Ray and Charles Eames¿s film Powers of Ten (thinking about zooming in and out while making work); works by Christina Ramberg and David Weiss (working in sequences, iteration); Tracey Emin¿s Monoprint Diary (monoprinting as a mediation between drawing, printing, and painting); Ellsworth Kelly¿s 1954 Drawings on a Bus: Sketchbook 23; Nicole Eisenman¿s monotypes; Carla Esposito Hayter¿s The Monotype: The History of a Pictorial Art; Lynda Barry¿s Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor (exploring ¿failure¿ and ¿good vs. bad drawings¿); and Zarina Hashmi¿s relief prints.
While students will be encouraged to use all techniques taught to enhance their individual practice, they will also be given daily prompts to develop sketches and drawings. Assignments will include the creation of a monotype based on another student¿s sketch using one or all of the following techniques: trace, additive, or subtractive methods. This will yield a cognate, or ¿ghost print,¿ which will be passed on to yet another student for further development.

In this course, students will explore the fundamentals of forging mild steel with a hammer, anvil, and coal forge to create functional and conceptual objects. Demonstrations in the hot manipulation of metal, tool operation and safety, welding, steel inflations, and finishing techniques will be provided.

We will discuss traditional and non-traditional artists and architecture, including Samuel Yellin, Ruth Asawa, Elizabeth Brim, and the collaborative construction of The City Museum.

Students are encouraged to combine media and utilize non-ferrous disciplines such as print, ceramics, and glass into their projects. This may include fabricating a steel armature for a ceramic piece or production of a mixed media sculpture. Students will be expected to complete a minimum of one self-directed project from sketch to finalization and participate in critique.

This course will examine the relationship between drawing and print through various techniques for monotypes and monoprints while encouraging a playful approach to both disciplines. Students will develop sketches, drawings, and paintings into workable and reworkable print matrices. Emphasis will be placed on monoprint processes that facilitate iteration, variation, sequencing, and seriality. Techniques taught will include trace monotypes, additive and subtractive monotypes, screen monotypes, and relief monotypes and monoprints.
Students will look at, read, and discuss the following as points of reference: Ray and Charles Eames¿s film Powers of Ten (thinking about zooming in and out while making work); works by Christina Ramberg and David Weiss (working in sequences, iteration); Tracey Emin¿s Monoprint Diary (monoprinting as a mediation between drawing, printing, and painting); Ellsworth Kelly¿s 1954 Drawings on a Bus: Sketchbook 23; Nicole Eisenman¿s monotypes; Carla Esposito Hayter¿s The Monotype: The History of a Pictorial Art; Lynda Barry¿s Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor (exploring ¿failure¿ and ¿good vs. bad drawings¿); and Zarina Hashmi¿s relief prints.
While students will be encouraged to use all techniques taught to enhance their individual practice, they will also be given daily prompts to develop sketches and drawings. Assignments will include the creation of a monotype based on another student¿s sketch using one or all of the following techniques: trace, additive, or subtractive methods. This will yield a cognate, or ¿ghost print,¿ which will be passed on to yet another student for further development.

Clay in the Field is an investigation into environmental clay sculpture. In this course, students will trace clay to its geologic origin as weathered rock, carried by rivers, ground by glaciers, and laid in layers over millennia. We will ask what clay is, how it holds water and memory, and why the shores of Lake Michigan are unique. Venturing to clay deposits, we will learn to see, feel, and understand clay in our environment. We will shape questions and develop projects that deepen our relationship with this ancient material.
uch as Ana Mendieta, Rose B. Simpson, and Gabriel Orozco will ground our conversations about materiality, place-based knowledge, human-nonhuman relationships, land rights, and site specificity. We will explore art historical contexts such as vernacular clay architecture, the land art movement, and environmental art. With earth as our medium, the field of ceramics provides fertile ground from which to explore land-based perspectives in contemporary art. Students in this course will wander sand dune trails, comb beaches, and examine Lake Michigan¿s clay deposits as they develop site-responsive clay artworks. We will learn techniques such as coil building, raw clay sculpture, wild clay foraging, wattle and daub construction, and organic burn-out methods.
Students can expect to complete a series of clay ¿field notes¿ by making clay writing tools, creating clay sketches, and taking impressions with clay. These field notes will document close observations from Ox-Bow and the surrounding environment. How can clay become a recording device to document observations through material? From geology to gesture, the course will culminate in the creation of an independent, site-specific ceramic sculpture utilizing themes and methods explored in the course. Through this project, students will apply the content of the course, to produce unique environmental artworks of their own design.

Clay in the Field is an investigation into environmental clay sculpture. In this course, students will trace clay to its geologic origin as weathered rock, carried by rivers, ground by glaciers, and laid in layers over millennia. We will ask what clay is, how it holds water and memory, and why the shores of Lake Michigan are unique. Venturing to clay deposits, we will learn to see, feel, and understand clay in our environment. We will shape questions and develop projects that deepen our relationship with this ancient material.
uch as Ana Mendieta, Rose B. Simpson, and Gabriel Orozco will ground our conversations about materiality, place-based knowledge, human-nonhuman relationships, land rights, and site specificity. We will explore art historical contexts such as vernacular clay architecture, the land art movement, and environmental art. With earth as our medium, the field of ceramics provides fertile ground from which to explore land-based perspectives in contemporary art. Students in this course will wander sand dune trails, comb beaches, and examine Lake Michigan¿s clay deposits as they develop site-responsive clay artworks. We will learn techniques such as coil building, raw clay sculpture, wild clay foraging, wattle and daub construction, and organic burn-out methods.
Students can expect to complete a series of clay ¿field notes¿ by making clay writing tools, creating clay sketches, and taking impressions with clay. These field notes will document close observations from Ox-Bow and the surrounding environment. How can clay become a recording device to document observations through material? From geology to gesture, the course will culminate in the creation of an independent, site-specific ceramic sculpture utilizing themes and methods explored in the course. Through this project, students will apply the content of the course, to produce unique environmental artworks of their own design.

This course invites students to experiment with a range of ceramic techniques¿including hand-building, wheel-throwing, and surface design¿to create both vessels and sculptural objects. Working collaboratively, the class will produce a collection of functional wares to be used in a culminating experimental dinner and performance. Rather than treating ceramics solely as utilitarian or decorative, students will investigate the ceramic object as a site of inquiry, interaction, and activation.
We will critically examine the intersections of ceramics, performance, and social practice, asking how objects can embody participation, refuse utility, or generate new forms of meaning. Course material will draw from artists and movements that foreground food, ritual, and audience engagement, including the performances of Fluxus artist Alison Knowles and the surrealist objects of Meret Oppenheim. We will also consider frameworks from relational aesthetics and contemporary craft theory. Readings will include ¿Craft and Its Writing as Collectivized Outsider¿ by L Autumn Gnadinger, and screenings will feature Les Blank¿s 1980 documentary Garlic Is As Good as Ten Mothers as a lens into food, culture, and performance.
In addition to creating a collaborative dinnerware set for the culminating performance, students will produce the evening, including building a menu. Alongside this collective effort, each student will develop an independent project in which a sculptural vessel is activated through performance and the serving of food.

Mokuhanga, or woodprint, is the modern Japanese term for woodblock prints made with traditional Japanese tools and materials, a process that flourished from the 17th through the 19th century. Students in this class will learn the time-honored methods and techniques of Japanese woodblock printmaking in a contemporary way.
Focused demonstrations will feature wood carving, kento color registration, watercolor printing, and pressing with a handheld baren. Design prompts may be provided alongside Japanese design, aesthetics, and process books, including Arthur Wesley Dow¿s Composition: Understanding Line, Notan and Color and April Vollmer¿s Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop. Students will view examples of mokuhanga, including historic process prints and contemporary Japanese pieces. Additionally, the class will screen Mary Brodbeck¿s 35-minute documentary, Becoming Made (2014), in which artists Annie Bissett, Yoshisuke Funasaka, Tuula Moilanen, Richard Steiner, April Vollmer, and Karen Kunc share their insights into this process and the nature of creative work.
Focusing on the process, students will be assigned to create an edition of 10 prints of their design that incorporates two or more colors. Students are encouraged to bring a preliminary drawing of their desired image, designed to fit within a 7-by-10-inch matrix (9-by-12-inch paper size).

This course invites students to experiment with a range of ceramic techniques¿including hand-building, wheel-throwing, and surface design¿to create both vessels and sculptural objects. Working collaboratively, the class will produce a collection of functional wares to be used in a culminating experimental dinner and performance. Rather than treating ceramics solely as utilitarian or decorative, students will investigate the ceramic object as a site of inquiry, interaction, and activation.
We will critically examine the intersections of ceramics, performance, and social practice, asking how objects can embody participation, refuse utility, or generate new forms of meaning. Course material will draw from artists and movements that foreground food, ritual, and audience engagement, including the performances of Fluxus artist Alison Knowles and the surrealist objects of Meret Oppenheim. We will also consider frameworks from relational aesthetics and contemporary craft theory. Readings will include ¿Craft and Its Writing as Collectivized Outsider¿ by L Autumn Gnadinger, and screenings will feature Les Blank¿s 1980 documentary Garlic Is As Good as Ten Mothers as a lens into food, culture, and performance.
In addition to creating a collaborative dinnerware set for the culminating performance, students will produce the evening, including building a menu. Alongside this collective effort, each student will develop an independent project in which a sculptural vessel is activated through performance and the serving of food.

Mokuhanga, or woodprint, is the modern Japanese term for woodblock prints made with traditional Japanese tools and materials, a process that flourished from the 17th through the 19th century. Students in this class will learn the time-honored methods and techniques of Japanese woodblock printmaking in a contemporary way.
Focused demonstrations will feature wood carving, kento color registration, watercolor printing, and pressing with a handheld baren. Design prompts may be provided alongside Japanese design, aesthetics, and process books, including Arthur Wesley Dow¿s Composition: Understanding Line, Notan and Color and April Vollmer¿s Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop. Students will view examples of mokuhanga, including historic process prints and contemporary Japanese pieces. Additionally, the class will screen Mary Brodbeck¿s 35-minute documentary, Becoming Made (2014), in which artists Annie Bissett, Yoshisuke Funasaka, Tuula Moilanen, Richard Steiner, April Vollmer, and Karen Kunc share their insights into this process and the nature of creative work.
Focusing on the process, students will be assigned to create an edition of 10 prints of their design that incorporates two or more colors. Students are encouraged to bring a preliminary drawing of their desired image, designed to fit within a 7-by-10-inch matrix (9-by-12-inch paper size).

There¿s nothing more satisfying than eating and drinking from handmade wares with friends. This course, open to students of all levels, will focus on establishing a strong foundation in form and function in service of manipulating molten glass into items for a communal table setting.
We will learn the processes involved in making objects including drinkware, pitchers, serving bowls, plates, and candlesticks and consider the works of Judy Chicago, Beth Lipman, and Joe Cariati.
Underscoring the social nature of the glassblowing process in the studio, our objective will be to create a tablescape to use for a social mixer at the end of the class, bringing everyone together to celebrate one another¿s hard work and individuality. Students need only bring a good attitude, an open mind, and a hunger to learn!

There¿s nothing more satisfying than eating and drinking from handmade wares with friends. This course, open to students of all levels, will focus on establishing a strong foundation in form and function in service of manipulating molten glass into items for a communal table setting.
We will learn the processes involved in making objects including drinkware, pitchers, serving bowls, plates, and candlesticks and consider the works of Judy Chicago, Beth Lipman, and Joe Cariati.
Underscoring the social nature of the glassblowing process in the studio, our objective will be to create a tablescape to use for a social mixer at the end of the class, bringing everyone together to celebrate one another¿s hard work and individuality. Students need only bring a good attitude, an open mind, and a hunger to learn!

This class champions the interrelationship and the experimental nature of drawing, printmaking, and painting and will invite artists to move fluidly between Ox-Bow¿s painting studio and the print studio, providing students with the opportunities to actively combine printmaking, drawing, painting, and collage techniques and materials. Methods demonstrated will include monoprinting, etching, screen printing, frottage, collage, grattage, decalcomania, and fumage. In the painting studio, students can work in watercolor, gouache, acrylic, and/or oils. This course is meant to challenge traditional drawing, painting, and printmaking techniques and focus directly on the spirit of the process and its relationship to contemporary contexts. Chance operations and collaboration will be encouraged.
We will review the work of many artists who experiment successfully with a multidisciplinary approach including Dottie Attie, Squeak Carnwath, Judy Pfaff, Miriam Schapiro, Joan Synder, Mickalene Thomas, William Weege, Jeffrey Gibson, and Louisa Chase and discussions will be supplemented by The Slip, 2023 by Prudence Peiffer and Alex Jovanovich on Peter McGough, Artforum 2023.
Assignments will develop and expand mark-making and compositional vocabularies in relationship to the concepts of expression, attention, histories, form, and social arrangements. Students will be split into 2-groups, one group will have a home-base in the painting studio and the other in the print studio. As the group progresses through content, they will switch studios and focus on assignments specific to those facilities. On the weekend, both groups will come together with all faculty to have group critiques and discussions. The class will culminate in a final presentation of works installed at Ox-Bow.

This class champions the interrelationship and the experimental nature of drawing, printmaking, and painting and will invite artists to move fluidly between Ox-Bow¿s painting studio and the print studio, providing students with the opportunities to actively combine printmaking, drawing, painting, and collage techniques and materials. Methods demonstrated will include monoprinting, etching, screen printing, frottage, collage, grattage, decalcomania, and fumage. In the painting studio, students can work in watercolor, gouache, acrylic, and/or oils. This course is meant to challenge traditional drawing, painting, and printmaking techniques and focus directly on the spirit of the process and its relationship to contemporary contexts. Chance operations and collaboration will be encouraged.
We will review the work of many artists who experiment successfully with a multidisciplinary approach including Dottie Attie, Squeak Carnwath, Judy Pfaff, Miriam Schapiro, Joan Synder, Mickalene Thomas, William Weege, Jeffrey Gibson, and Louisa Chase and discussions will be supplemented by The Slip, 2023 by Prudence Peiffer and Alex Jovanovich on Peter McGough, Artforum 2023.
Assignments will develop and expand mark-making and compositional vocabularies in relationship to the concepts of expression, attention, histories, form, and social arrangements. Students will be split into 2-groups, one group will have a home-base in the painting studio and the other in the print studio. As the group progresses through content, they will switch studios and focus on assignments specific to those facilities. On the weekend, both groups will come together with all faculty to have group critiques and discussions. The class will culminate in a final presentation of works installed at Ox-Bow.

Inspired by the landscape and wildlife of Ox-Bow, this class invites students to develop an illustrative portfolio in pencil, ink, watercolor, and gouache. Students will build effective and inventive travel easels to explore campus and, working both outside and in the studio, will develop a personal approach to rendering and responding to the plants and animals that call Ox-Bow home.
Demonstrations will cover methods for effective color mixing and composing in the field as well as techniques for recreating botanical structure, basic animal anatomy, and biological textures including bark, shell, and feathers. We will review the work of John James Audubon, Walton Ford, Evelyn Statsinger, and Kiki Smith and students will carry a naturalist pocket guide for reference. Onsite and studio drawing assignments will be accompanied by readings and discussions of naturalist poetry by Mary Oliver, Seamus Heaney, and Sharon Olds.
Assignments will challenge students to notice the nuance in nature and will include a bug hunt, with invertebrates sketched in graphite, and a watercolor assignment that gives visual expression to a work of poetry or literature. Students will be encouraged to propose a final project inspired by their observations.

Inspired by the landscape and wildlife of Ox-Bow, this class invites students to develop an illustrative portfolio in pencil, ink, watercolor, and gouache. Students will build effective and inventive travel easels to explore campus and, working both outside and in the studio, will develop a personal approach to rendering and responding to the plants and animals that call Ox-Bow home.
Demonstrations will cover methods for effective color mixing and composing in the field as well as techniques for recreating botanical structure, basic animal anatomy, and biological textures including bark, shell, and feathers. We will review the work of John James Audubon, Walton Ford, Evelyn Statsinger, and Kiki Smith and students will carry a naturalist pocket guide for reference. Onsite and studio drawing assignments will be accompanied by readings and discussions of naturalist poetry by Mary Oliver, Seamus Heaney, and Sharon Olds.
Assignments will challenge students to notice the nuance in nature and will include a bug hunt, with invertebrates sketched in graphite, and a watercolor assignment that gives visual expression to a work of poetry or literature. Students will be encouraged to propose a final project inspired by their observations.

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of glassblowing while inviting them to consider how working with molten material engages both body and environment. Through hands-on instruction and daily demonstrations, students will learn to gather glass from the furnace and shape it into blown and solid forms using a range of traditional and experimental techniques. Demonstrations will include basic vessel making as well as approaches to color application, form development, and teamwork in the hot shop. Techniques for cold working¿such as sanding, polishing, and engraving¿will also be covered.
Lectures and screenings will provide historical and contemporary context for the material. We will view short documentaries such as Glassmakers of Herat, Glas, and Nancy Callan: Vision and Process, and discuss how artists like Rui Sasaki, Hiromi Takizawa, and Fred Wilson use glass to explore themes of body, space, and identity. Selected readings from Making & Being will support reflections on how artists cultivate awareness and intentionality through their practice.
Assignments will progress from foundational skill-building to more open-ended creative work. Early projects may include crafting a series of simple vessels that explore proportion, balance, and gesture. The course will culminate in the design and fabrication of an individual sculpture or installation to be exhibited in the hot shop at the end of the session.

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of glassblowing while inviting them to consider how working with molten material engages both body and environment. Through hands-on instruction and daily demonstrations, students will learn to gather glass from the furnace and shape it into blown and solid forms using a range of traditional and experimental techniques. Demonstrations will include basic vessel making as well as approaches to color application, form development, and teamwork in the hot shop. Techniques for cold working¿such as sanding, polishing, and engraving¿will also be covered.
Lectures and screenings will provide historical and contemporary context for the material. We will view short documentaries such as Glassmakers of Herat, Glas, and Nancy Callan: Vision and Process, and discuss how artists like Rui Sasaki, Hiromi Takizawa, and Fred Wilson use glass to explore themes of body, space, and identity. Selected readings from Making & Being will support reflections on how artists cultivate awareness and intentionality through their practice.
Assignments will progress from foundational skill-building to more open-ended creative work. Early projects may include crafting a series of simple vessels that explore proportion, balance, and gesture. The course will culminate in the design and fabrication of an individual sculpture or installation to be exhibited in the hot shop at the end of the session.

this introductory course, students will obtain technical skills and a fundamental understanding of mold-making. Using the techniques learned in class, students will experiment with various ways to capture the everyday and the body while examining personal symbolism, rituals, and the border between art and daily life. Students will practice imprint, ready-made object, and body casting through four exercise projects using clay, plaster, slip, alginate, silicone, and resin.
The class will look into art movements in history, such as Arte Povera, Neo-Dada, and Fluxus, via lectures to find the lineage of the everyday in visual art. We will discuss the practices of artists such as Ian Breakwell, Sarah Lucas, Gabriel Orozco, David Altmejd, Liz Magor, Cornelia Parker, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and many others, to consider various possibilities of materials, objects, and rituals to trace the everyday. Readings will include Joseph Kosuth¿s 'Art After Philosophy and Selected Writings, 1966-1990 (Part II: Theory as Praxis: A Role for an `Anthropologized Art¿)', MIT Press.
Students will develop their final project using one of the four exercise techniques. Students are encouraged to adopt the natural environment of the Ox-Bow campus as their new everyday and explore it as the source of pattern materials for their molds. Assignments will include inviting students to consider sculpture as a means of recording, creating a new daily routine that involves Ox-Bow's surroundings. Using imprints of materials and traces from it they will cast the imprints into several plaster blocks. Students will also cast a body part in a symbolic gesture. Incorporating found materials, objects, or sites of your choice with your work to create five sculptures or installations as a final project.

this introductory course, students will obtain technical skills and a fundamental understanding of mold-making. Using the techniques learned in class, students will experiment with various ways to capture the everyday and the body while examining personal symbolism, rituals, and the border between art and daily life. Students will practice imprint, ready-made object, and body casting through four exercise projects using clay, plaster, slip, alginate, silicone, and resin.
The class will look into art movements in history, such as Arte Povera, Neo-Dada, and Fluxus, via lectures to find the lineage of the everyday in visual art. We will discuss the practices of artists such as Ian Breakwell, Sarah Lucas, Gabriel Orozco, David Altmejd, Liz Magor, Cornelia Parker, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and many others, to consider various possibilities of materials, objects, and rituals to trace the everyday. Readings will include Joseph Kosuth¿s 'Art After Philosophy and Selected Writings, 1966-1990 (Part II: Theory as Praxis: A Role for an `Anthropologized Art¿)', MIT Press.
Students will develop their final project using one of the four exercise techniques. Students are encouraged to adopt the natural environment of the Ox-Bow campus as their new everyday and explore it as the source of pattern materials for their molds. Assignments will include inviting students to consider sculpture as a means of recording, creating a new daily routine that involves Ox-Bow's surroundings. Using imprints of materials and traces from it they will cast the imprints into several plaster blocks. Students will also cast a body part in a symbolic gesture. Incorporating found materials, objects, or sites of your choice with your work to create five sculptures or installations as a final project.

This class will provide a full overview of stained glass techniques. Using the copper foil method, students will learn to cut, grind and solder colorful glass sheets and shards. Emphasis will be placed on experimentation, improvisation, and using what you find amongst existing scraps. We will have exchanges on three dimensional form construction, template design and strategies to use stained glass in your own practice. Those with previous stained glass experience will find space in this class to play and take risks while complete beginners will come away confidently knowing the rules of glass¿ and how to break them!
There will be readings and ongoing discussions of color theory while considering artists that use color, light and line such as Hilma af Klimt, Kerry James Marshall, Raul deNieves and Wells Chandler.
Assignments will invite students to find their way through a spectrum of glass pieces and arrange them with a focus on color harmony and intentional refraction of light. The class will culminate in a burst of site specific installations throughout Ox-Bow's campus.

This class will provide a full overview of stained glass techniques. Using the copper foil method, students will learn to cut, grind and solder colorful glass sheets and shards. Emphasis will be placed on experimentation, improvisation, and using what you find amongst existing scraps. We will have exchanges on three dimensional form construction, template design and strategies to use stained glass in your own practice. Those with previous stained glass experience will find space in this class to play and take risks while complete beginners will come away confidently knowing the rules of glass¿ and how to break them!
There will be readings and ongoing discussions of color theory while considering artists that use color, light and line such as Hilma af Klimt, Kerry James Marshall, Raul deNieves and Wells Chandler.
Assignments will invite students to find their way through a spectrum of glass pieces and arrange them with a focus on color harmony and intentional refraction of light. The class will culminate in a burst of site specific installations throughout Ox-Bow's campus.

Students in this course will work together to build a floating work of art, a cedar strip canoe that will join the campus fleet and be used by future generations of artists to enjoy the Ox-Bow lagoon. Students will develop practical skills including methods for effective handwork with spokeshaves, chisels, and hand planes, as well as steam-bending, fiberglassing, and finishing processes.
Although this is primarily a skill-building class, we will discuss the social practice possibilities inherent to the canoe and the relationship between objects, processes, and experience. Readings will include texts by Nicolas Bourriaud, Sigurd Olson, and Agnes Denes, while lectures will present canoe construction varieties and history.
Assignments will invite students to practice tool sharpening and setup, along with strategies for cooperative working, division of labor planning, and successful communication. Participants will come away with knowledge of how to build a canoe as well as the tools to apply these practical skills to other artistic endeavors. The class will culminate in a canoe launch, a demonstration of effective and unique paddling techniques, and an exploration of the Ox-Bow lagoon.