The Prichard Art Gallery’s Education Outreach Program will offer a series of creative workshops throughout the fall semester to educate and inspire artistic minds.
Jewelry-making will be the first workshop offered on Oct. 23 which is taught by Patricia Cassidy. The three-hour class is geared toward developing artists and older students, and will teach embossing and basic metalworking techniques. Students will create and take home three pairs of earrings.
“You don’t have to be a jewelry maker to learn about this process. It can help to inspire in other ways in someone’s life that is not necessarily focused on making jewelry,” Cassidy said. “I do many other kinds of processes and it’s the coming together of the body and the brain to create something, and creating is what it is
all about.”
Cassidy also sells her work in the Prichard Art Gallery under the business name Blue Mango. She is a member of the Palouse Women Artists. The $85 registration fee will cover the cost of all materials and supplies.
University of Idaho graduate student Katherine Ellison will host a children’s writing workshop in November. The workshop is geared toward children ages 8-12 and will teach the process of printmaking and publishing.
“I’ve taken a lot of writing workshops myself, including one as a 12 and as an 8-year-old, so that was another reason why I wanted to do it, because I know how awesome it was to do that as a kid,” Ellison said. “I wanted the kids to have that same experience that I did.”
The three-part workshop will begin with two sessions writing autobiographical prose or poetry following the theme “who am I?”
Writing will be inspired by artwork displayed in the Prichard Art Gallery and focus on the ideas of dreams, wishes, hopes,
and secrets.
A third workshop will finish the writing series, and be led by local artist Lucy Holtsnider at the Letterpress Museum in Palouse, Idaho.
Holtsnider will teach children how a letterpress works by printing and publishing the work created with Ellison. Registration for the class is $40 and covers the cost of materials and supplies.
The Education Outreach Program is a K-12 program offered by the Prichard Art Gallery to the students of the Moscow School District and outlying areas.
Classes will come to the gallery weekly to listen to a 40-minute tour given by a volunteer guide discussing artistic elements based on the current art on display in the gallery. The tour ends with a hands-on art lesson based on the exhibit.
“We try to do something that’s a little different,” said Roger Rowley, director of the Prichard Art Gallery. “We try to find a niche that’s both interesting in relation to what people do and make, and that also fits what it is we do, exhibition-wise here at
the gallery.”
The Prichard Art Gallery also follows Idaho State Humanity Standards to make sure the tours are age appropriate for visiting classes. The next exhibit will be “Comic
Art In digène” and will be on display Oct. 18. The artwork is created by Native American artists, displaying pottery, historical objects, and modern art that uses a comic style to play off the traditional Native American narrative form.
Anyone interested in signing up for workshops, or volunteering as tour guides for the Education Outreach Program should contact the Prichard Art Gallery.