Class Descriptions
Building on the 50-year School of the Arts tradition, ArtStart and Nicolet College are teaming up to bring an exciting array of hands-on art workshops, demonstrations, and special events. View classes and descriptions and register through Nicolet College. Registration opens July 15.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
Replica Molds Community Workshop
Stop by the WOW Mobile Metal Lab anytime between 9am - 1pm to choose from a variety of molds of single-celled organisms, deep sea organisms, and other artifacts from our web of life on earth. Pour lead-free pewter, use hand files and colored inks to create your small sculpture, wearable, pendant, or souvenir artifact.
AFTERNOON CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS (you will choose one)
Saying a Mouthful: Food, Writing, and Memory with Emily Anderson
In this three-hour workshop, participants will learn how to open the doors of memory by writing about food. They will practice using specific sensory details to provide a literary feast for themselves and their readers. Learning: In the first 60 minutes, we will look how writers connect food and memory. Writers could include: Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass), Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate) MFK Fischer (An Alphabet for Gourmets) Anthony Bourdain (No Reservations) and Isabella Beeton (the Martha Stewart of the 19th Century). Practicing: In the second part of class, students will complete a series of short, timed writing exercises (45 minutes). Exercises could include: painting a still life with words; writing about holiday or special food; describing school lunches or the “cool” candy of their elementary years; designing menus; writing about what they eat when they are sick. This should result in several very short pieces of writing. Students will have 30 minutes to develop or revise one or two of these pieces of writing. Workshop: Students will share/reflect on one another’s writing (45 minutes).
Mixed Media Print Making with Mel Kolstad
Have you ever wondered how to create prints using the intaglio printmaking method? It's so much easier than you think! In this class, we'll learn four techniques that will encompass one print design: drypoint, monoprints, watercolor and chine collé. You'll be astounded at the depth available with these little prints, and the possibilities are ENDLESS! No experience necessary - just bring yourselves!
Cuttlebone Carving and Cast Metal with Sara Hanson
Create your own design (or choose from imagery) and learn how to direct carve into cuttlebone, pour lead-free pewter and use hand tools for finishing work to create your small sculpture, wearable or souvenir artifact. Choose from a selection of colored inks, sculpture bases or wearable hardware.
Outside In: Letting Nature Inspire Embodied Creation with Emilia Seay Allen
If a typical day leaves you feeling numb from the chin down, or like a brain operating an unwieldy machine, you’re invited to come explore the creative, community-building potential locked up within your body—whatever your physical ability. I’ll guide you through movement exercises to unlock your imaginative body and help you engage with the natural world—as one part of creation interacting with another. We’ll go outside to be inspired by nature, then share our discoveries with each other. By the end of the class, we’ll co-create an immersive imaginative world—the perfect setting for a play, a story, a painting, or simply for allowing your creativity to run wild. We’ll begin with guided physical movement exercises—suitable for all abilities—then move outside for more guided movement, listening, and improvisation. We’ll share our discoveries with one another to co-create a brand new, imaginary world. The exercises we’ll work with are based on Viewpoints, which comes out of the dance and theater worlds, but this work is valuable for anyone seeking a new, more organic way to be creatively inspired or a different relationship with their body and their environment.
EVENING EVENT: MAKING ART IN A POST-COVID WORLD
PANEL DISCUSSION AND HAPPY HOUR LED BY KATIE VAGNINO
5 - 7 pm Holiday Acres Resort
$25 includes discussion, heavy appetizers, and a drink ticket
Kick off your weekend with great food and drink, visiting with other attendees and instructors, and listening to a panel discussion/Q&A featuring SOTA artists across disciplines (art, writing, drama, music, etc.). Panel members will discuss how their artistic practices evolved in light of the pandemic and social unrest of the past two years. Should we as artists adjust how we think about our roles in our communities? As we emerge into the world post-Covid, how can we cultivate practices to sustain us and help us all heal from the collective trauma we have experienced?
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
MORNING EVENT: GROUND WITH GROUNDS WITH EMILIA SEAY ALLEN
8:30 - 8:45 am
Nicolet College – Lakeside Center First Floor Commons
Coffee and centering practice to start the day - free for all SOTA students
MORNING CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS (you will choose one)
9 am - 12 pm
Nicolet College – Various locations
$75
Cyanotype 101 with Norma Dycuss Pennycuff
In 1842 John Herschel came up with the cyanotype process as a quick and easy method of reproduction. Many people know cyanotype as blue prints, as the process produces images in shades from white to deep Prussian blue. In this session we will discuss some of the history of the cyanotype before jumping into making our own works using pretreated paper, provided shapes and images, sunlight and water. Students will take home prints on watercolor paper, fabric, and vintage book pages. The instructor will have frames available for students not returning for Cyanotype 102.
Mindfulness and Goal Setting with Angela Johnson
This interactive talk explores both mindfulness and creative goal setting. Learn tips and techniques to quiet and focus your mind. Hands-on activities include mind mapping, free writing and creating concrete actions steps to work towards your creative goals.
Poetry in Brief: Exploring Short Forms with Katie Vagnino
In poetry, every word matters, and never more so than in the short poem. Short poems are ideal for the 21st century, where readers’ attention spans are ever diminishing and many choose to digest their news in 140 characters or fewer. Thus it’s common advice, in both copywriting seminars and creative writing classes, to write like every word costs you something. In short forms, you have to be lean and mean-- economical and precise with your language. In this class, we'll focus on the art of poetic brevity, exploring how poets can compress big ideas into minimal lines for maximum impact. Studying short forms, such as haikus, tankas, limericks, sonnets, trestinas and triolets, students will write and workshop pieces to develop an understanding of how to maintain complexity while dealing with length constraints. We will spend the first part of class (90 min) reading and discussing poems 14 lines or fewer. The students will have time to apply what they have learned and compose (30-45 min). The last 45 minutes will be reserved for workshopping and talking about revision and next steps.
Collaging and Printing with Nature with Mel Kolstad
Workshop attendees will spend the first half of the class creating gel prints with a Gelli plate, which will also utilize stencils, mark-making tools, and natural elements such as leaves and bark. In the second half of the class, we'll take those finished prints and use them in collages, which will also incorporate many different kinds of papers.
Embracing Playful Creativity Through Mindful Drawing with Elizabeth Lewis
We often judge ourselves - and what we are experiencing in the present moment - unkindly which then takes us further away from the inner ease, creative flow and joy we are seeking in the creative process. In this class we will explore mindful drawing as a way to slow down and relax, spark artistic freedom, clear away mental clutter and more. Our time together will include exploring a variety of mindful drawing techniques through the use of colored pencils, crayons, markers and pencils. Come to play – all experience levels are welcome!
EVENING EVENTS AT PROJECT NORTH*
*Project North Pass Required
LIVE MUSIC, ART AND ECO VILLAGE IN ADDITION TO THE FOLLOWING CREATIVE ENDEAVORS
- Collecting Artifacts - A Harvesting of Words and Objects
- 7-10pm
- Downtown Rhinelander
- What do you see, feel, hear, smell or what words arise while exploring and experiencing the festival that we can create in metal? Share your ideas and bring the objects - twigs, acorsn, textures, etc. These will be used to create the molds for Saturday's community pour. All ages (under 5 with adult supervision).
- Metal Pour Demonstration - Aluminum into Green Sand (Sustainable Practice)
- 9:30 - 10pm
- Downtown Rhinelander
- Let's light up the sunset with a colorful crucible and liquid metal. We will be casting a surprise sculpture to be gifted to Project North. All ages (under 5 with adult supervision).
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
MORNING EVENT: GROUND WITH GROUNDS WITH EMILIA SEAY ALLEN
8:30 - 8:45 am
Nicolet College – Lakeside Center First Floor Commons
Coffee and centering practice to start the day - free for all SOTA students
MORNING CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS (choose one)
9 am - 12 pm
Nicolet College – Various locations
$75
Cyanotype 102 with Norma Dycuss Pennycuff
So what can we *do* with our cyanotype prints? Students are encouraged to bring work from home, use pieces provided by the instructor, or use the work they created in Cyanotype 101. We will take a look at contemporary cyanotype work, toning, painting, stitching and other methods of adding to our pieces. Frames and other finishing methods will be provided.
Dragons from Daddy Issues: Improvising Your Way from Troubles to Fairy Tales with Emilia Seay Allen
This course employs Viewpoints, a technique created for theatre and dance, to invite you to explore the imaginative and world-building potential stored in your own body, whatever your physical ability. In this class, we’ll draw from two different worlds—the folk and fairy tales that make up the bedrock of our culture(s), and the psychological angst we just can’t quite shake—to create vibrant, imaginative new worlds. I’ll guide you through physical and imaginative exercises to help you externalize the things that feel tricky or stuck in your lives. Through collectively reimagining our obstacles and co-creating an imaginary new world through physical improvisation, we’ll find perspective on our challenges, points of connection with our fellows, and an imaginative new world or two that just might inspire your next creative endeavor.
Kintsugi: Exploring the Art of "Golden Repair" through Clay Pot-Breaking with Elizabeth Lewis
We sometimes feel broken apart by loss. Reconfiguring the pieces of our lives post-loss in a way that makes us feel whole again is central to the grieving process. In this workshop, we will explore clay pot-breaking using the concept of kintsugi. Clay pot-breaking and re-making is a grief support activity aimed at giving form to the process of healing from loss. Kintsugi is the Japanese idea of golden repair or golden joinery. In kintsugi art-making, repairs in a broken object are highlighted with gold, silver or platinum paint as a way of honoring what once was and what now is. This workshop experience will include breaking and remaking a clay pot, guided meditation, writing and more.
Poetry as a Conversation with Katie Vagnino
Poets are often entering into dialogue with each other in their work, whether borrowing a line and riffing on it, responding to another poet's argument, or reimagining a famous poem through an entirely different lens. These poems function as a kind of discourse that puts poets in conversation on the page, across geographies and decades (or even centuries). These pieces challenge, answer, update, poke fun, and pay homage to poems of the past. It's a fun and exhilarating exercise to engage in this kind of project. In this class, we'll look at some famous examples and talk about strategies for how to write this kind of poem. Students will then get to "talk back" to a poem of their choosing. We'll workshop these drafts at the end of class and talk about revision/next steps.
Art Journaling with Angela Johnson
Use a variety of materials to create sketchbooks and journals. Experiment with new techniques, do warm-up exercises, solve problems, and capture ideas and feelings on the fly. Include words, images, drawings, photos, or sketches. Have fun and find inspiration in your portable studio. Objectives: 1. Define personal approach to sketchbooks and journals, 2. Practice a variety of techniques to use in sketchbooks and journals, 3. Make an intention to use sketching or journaling as a regular practice.
Weaving the Wild - Basketry Fiber Exploration with Sam Martinez
This course will begin with an overview of different plants that have been used in basketry for thousands of years by many cultures around the world. We will discuss responsible harvest and processing methods for a range of species that can be found in the north woods of Wisconsin including; cattail, milkweed, cedar, willow, birch and more. Students will create cordage from an array of plant fibers. Using these materials along with simple plaiting and twining techniques to create our own unique baskets - small enough to fit into the palm of your hand! No basket weaving experience required, although sufficient manual dexterity is necessary. Examples of manual dexterity include: threading a needle, opening a lidded jar, crocheting or knitting, or playing an instrument.
AFTERNOON AND EVENING EVENTS AT PROJECT NORTH*
*Project North Pass Required
LIVE MUSIC, ART AND ECO VILLAGE IN ADDITION TO THE FOLLOWING CREATIVE ENDEAVOR
- COMMUNITY POUR
- 12-6pm
- Downtown Rhinelander
- Choose from a variety of castings/molds (that were harvested at the festival on Friday) to pour lead-free pewter into to create your own small sculpture, pendant, keychain, zipper pull, magnet or artifact souvenir. All ages (under 7 with parent support).
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
SCHOOL OF THE ARTS BRUNCH
9 - 11 am
Holiday Acres Resort
$35
Relax in the beautiful setting of Holiday Acres Resort and share last thoughts and inspirations with other SOTA students and artists. Enjoy a showcase of art created throughout the weekend and set intentions for living a creative life all year long.
Special thanks to Pete Zambon (aka Hodag Pete) and Holiday Acres Resort for the generous sponsorship of room accommodations for our instructors and for the coffee provided during our breaks.
Find more information on Project North Festival.