Oxygen Art Centre launches Spring Semester Lineup
By Contributor
Oxygen Art Centre is launching its Adult Education Spring Semester early this year to help you beat the winter blues. Starting February 4 Oxygen has an eclectic mix of courses to inspire you, with some follow-ups to well-loved courses!
The semester kicks off with a course in Idea-making: Idea-land: Making Friends with the Muse with artist Kelly Shpelly. This course will help kick any creative stagnation that might have crept in with the shorter days and you are sure to come away with a wealth of new ideas, whether you’re an artist, writer, maker or thinker! Have you always wanted to develop your drawing skills? That’s not all you will do if you sign-up for Pencil to Paper with Deborah Thompson. As Deb explains “Drawing is the foundation of visual thinking and artistic development.” There is a weekend intensive for painters with Deb also: Beginner’s Brush 2 which will involve colour theory, painting exercises, group critiques and some art history lectures.
To really lighten the mood and to bring smiles and laughter to your winter, tap into your clown persona with Clown Play, Practice and Performance with Marya Folinsbee. This course supports performers, artists, parents and anyone plagued by seriousness! Come play games and awaken your inner-performer in a one-day workshop Theatre Sports for Beginners with Martina Avis where you will have fun learning the basics of improv and drama creation.
Singing Beyond the Blues with Bessie Wapp is designed as the follow-up to Bessie’s popular Singing the Blues and is for returning students that want to further build their skills and have the opportunity to sing with a live band.“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul (Plato).” So, feed your soul and sign up for Beginner Instrumental Ukulele with Catherine McGrath. Don’t delay as all Catherine’s ukulele course fill fast. Natasha Smith says “printmaking is like opening a present” and who doesn’t need presents in February? Natasha is offering part 2 of her Low-tech Printmaking course, so if you have some basic printmaking skills this is the one for you. Rayya Liebich is encouraging you to “dig up the truths that want to be written” in her Writing Memoir course that starts at the end of February, just bring your courage and a pen!
As part of Oxygen’s commitment to providing professional development opportunities for artists, Maggie Shirley (curator, Kootenay Gallery of Art/artist) and Susan Andrews Grace (artist/writer) are offering What the $%*# Do They Want? In this one-day workshop artists will find out what (not) to include in a proposal, where to apply and how to write an artist statement. Oxygen will also host a Masterclass in Critical Writing on Art with Tracy Valcourt, which will delve deeply into writing about your own and other’s artistic practices.
Oxygen will also be offering further intensive courses after Spring Break and in the Summer, so stay tuned, there’s lots to look forward to.
Don’t hibernate alone this February! Come get creative and build your skills at Oxygen.
Photo of Bessie Wapp, courtesy Allan Hughes
