Cultivating young talent Area offers several options for educating children in visual arts By Barbara Blake Staff writer If your child shows a gift for drawing, painting, sculpting or other visual arts, there are several options available in Asheville to help cultivate his or her talents. Here’s a sampling.
Asheville Art Museum The museum in Pack Place in downtown Asheville offers programs for home-school students, holiday and summer art camps, after-school classes, family art parties and more for budding artists. The after-school art class for students in fourth through eighth grades, Everyone Can Draw, begins Jan. 27, meeting from 4-5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through March 3. The spring session runs March 17-April 28. Cost is $60 per six-week session. The after-school art class for students in high school, Create a Bound Book, begins Feb. 26 and continues through April 2, meeting from 4-5:30 p.m. Thursdays. Cost is $75 for the six-week session. For more, visit ashevilleart.org, or call the education department at 253-3227, ext. 121 or 122.
Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts Clay classes for students of all ages are offered at the Odyssey Center at 238 Clingman Ave. in the River Arts District. The 2009 Winter Kids Session begins Jan. 13, with classes for children ages 6-12. Cost for each six-week class is $95. Make it, Bake it, Take it! will be 4-6 p.m. Tuesdays. Children will work with slabs, giant coils and molds, with lots of time on the potter’s wheel. Cost is $95. Amazing Animals will be 4-6 p.m. Wednesdays. Explore and learn about clay while using animals as their inspiration, making animal pinch pots, piggy banks and imaginary creatures. Throw a Watery World will be 4-6 p.m. Thursdays. Half of the class time will be spent on the pottery wheel and half building things by hand. The final project is the lush water scene students will create with broken colored glass, a wetland with creatures on a wheel-thrown plate of their own. For more, contact the center at 285-0210 or visit highwaterclays.com.
The Art Atelier Home-schooled students ages 9-18 can take classes in drawing and painting fundamentals at The Art Atelier, 349 Vanderbilt Road, Biltmore Forest. Students will progress through pencil, pen-andink, watercolor and oil painting techniques through individual exercises, and will learn to see through a
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Jeffery Short enjoys an art camp at Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts.
Costanza Knight Costanza Knight offers classes for children and adults in her studio at The Arts Council of Henderson County at 538-A N. Main St., Hendersonville. Knight creates watermedia and mixed-media paintings, drawings and prints focusing primarily on the human form and the landscape. For more, visit costanzaknight.com, e-mail knight color@gmail.com, or call 243-0084.
Richmond’s Studio Students at an Asheville Art Museum art camp practice their cartooning skills. classical foundation of drawing. Students ages 9-16 share classroom space but gather in age appropriate groups for the studio experience. Each child is taught individually and advances at his or her own pace. For a class schedule and other information, visit theartatelier.com or call 645-5101.
Local contemporary artists offer classes for children in grades K-12 at Richmond’s Studio in the Phil Mechanic Building in the River Arts District, founded by artist and art teacher Richmond Smith. Classes are offered in drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture. Classes are offered for homeschooled students and in after-school classes. There also is a summer art camp. For class schedules, fees and information, visit richmonds-studio.com, or call 255-0066.
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