Artists hone their foundation by employing the technical skills of a particular art or field of endeavor. These courses are Prime specific, unless otherwise designated as open to students from all primes. Students should focus their Applied Arts choices in their prime arts area, but may explore outside of their prime in some cases.
18 M/W SESSIONS (22 HRS 30 MIN POSSIBLE)
Teaching Artist: Barbara Bustard
Contact: bbustard@aacps.org
Mondays & Wednesdays at Studio 39
2 days per week
All primes welcomed and encouraged.
Clay is a material rich in history and possibilities for art making, and handbuilding pottery is the oldest use of the medium. Handbuilding is a ceramics technique that allows you to create forms with clay and your hands, without using a throwing wheel.
This class offers a place to learn the different handbuilding pottery techniques of pinching, coiling, slab rolling, and molds. Artists will create musical instruments.
Pieces will be photographed for portfolio building, and may be displayed in the gallery.
Teaching Artist: Robert Schumacher
Contact: rschumacher@aacps.org
Mondays & Wednesdays at Studio 39
2 days per week
Visual Art Primes
In this class, you will learn how to draw portraits. We will explore proportion, geometry, and basic anatomy. We will be working primarily in charcoal. Don’t be daunted! Portraiture will be broken down into bite-sized pieces.
Learning portraiture is a useful skill to develop for any art style. Knowing basic proportion and anatomy can be applied through any type of art and even strengthen your skills in other areas.
** this is the same class as "Spirit & Shape: Portrait Drawing" that was offered in the Winter Trimester
Teaching Artist: Athena Hiotis
Contact: ahiotis@aacps.org
Mondays & Wednesdays at Studio 39
2 days per week
Music and Creative Writing Primes.
This class approaches songwriting through the lens of duality. Each week, we will focus on sharpening our lyric writing skills for ourselves and also for others. Writing for ourselves allows us to write in our style to our preferred genre. You will be given music in the style you like, and we will have opportunities to do some light arrangement and recording as well. Writing for others challenges us to step outside of ourselves and write in other genres as other artists. In these exercises, you will learn how professional songwriters in major studios write for big name artists.
Whether you are a creative writer looking to transform your writing into song or you are a musician looking to dedicate time to writing or you're just curious, this class will give you a space to explore your creative capacity through song.
Teaching Artist: Emily McCort
Contact: emmcort@aacps.org
Mondays & Wednesdays at Studio 39
2 days per week
Design & Production Primes only.
Students who have a passion for, or students who want to learn about, sewing and vintage clothing can take this class where they will have the option to sew either a 1960s Mary Quaint dress or a 1750s long vest. The goal is to have a mock up and then a finished garment completed by the end of the class.
Students will be able to use a sewing machine, read a basic pattern, cut fabric, construct a basic garment, and learn a little bit about fashion history through their choice in garment.
Each student will model their dress or vest on the final day of class. Photos will be taken for their portfolios.
19 TU/TH SESSIONS (23 HRS 45 MIN POSSIBLE)
Teaching Artist: Barbara Bustard
Contact: bbustard@aacps.org
Tuesdays & Thursdays at Studio 39
2 days per week
All Primes welcomed and encouraged.
Clay is a material rich in history and possibilities for art making, and handbuilding pottery is the oldest use of the medium. Handbuilding is a ceramics technique that allows you to create forms with clay and your hands, without using a throwing wheel.
The tradition of pottery with faces dates back to Egyptian and Mesopotamian times and appears in many other cultures throughout history. Though there are many gaps in historical data regarding the making, use, and meaning of the face jug pottery, there is no doubt that the vessels were original, functional artistic expressions of the culture of the time.
This class offers a place to learn the different handbuilding pottery techniques of pinching, coiling, slab rolling, and molds. Artists will create face jugs.
Pieces will be photographed for portfolio building, and may be displayed in the gallery.
Teaching Artist: Mary Rosoff
Contact: mrosoff@aacps.org
Tuesdays & Thursdays at Studio 39
2 days per week
All Primes welcomed and encouraged.
In this class, artists will experiment with a variety of brushes, paints and styles of watercolor painting.
Transparent watercolor allows for freshness in its washes and wet and dry brushwork. Historically, Egyptians ground their pigments and used water-based media on papyrus, Chinese and Japanese masters painted on silk. This analog course will incorporate experimentation with the portable, alluring medium. We will explore the meditative, relaxing quality of water-based manipulation. Explorations may include study land, city and seascapes, botanicals, and abstracts.
Creativity is encouraged and no painting experience required.
Pieces will be photographed for portfolio building, and may be displayed in the gallery.
Teaching Artists: Margaret Heemstra & Lynn Schwartz
Contact: mheemstra@aacps.org , laschwartz@aacps.org
Tuesdays & Thursdays at Studio 39
2 days per week
All Primes welcomed and encouraged.
The Essence of Creating a Character on the Page and the Stage. (7 Sessions)
Dates: March 2 - March 23We will explore how a character’s yearning drives key elements of story, including narrative, dialogue, conflict, plot, and reader empathy. Understanding a character’s passion is essential to creating a compelling person – someone with whom a reader or audience want to spend time.
Setting (4 Sessions)
Dates: April 11 - April 20Stories happen in specific places. Yet, many writers offer little description about the story’s world. Setting is an essential element for bringing your writing to life. It provides a context and backdrop for the story to unfold – making the reader feel grounded and ready to follow your character as they traverse through this world. Whether your setting is realistic, fantastical, from the past or a leap into the future, you’ll want to create a unique place with vivid, sensory details of sights, smells, sounds, and feelings.
Plot and The Hero’s Journey (8 Sessions)
Dates: April 25 - May 18Plot is the organizing force that makes our stories (in any media) progress and insists that something happen. In good fiction and memoir, it’s essential to support plot with other elements of craft such as characterization, theme, suspense, and conflict. Let’s explore the elements of the Hero’s Journey to see how this ancient storytelling format helps to create satisfying stories. We’ll learn to avoid formulaic plots and understand how characters drive an organic narrative from beginning to end.
Teaching Artist: Athena Hiotis
Contact: ahiotis@aacps.org
Tuesdays & Thursdays at Studio 39
2 days per week
Music Primes.
In this class, we are going to explore the different ways you can work comfortably and make a living in the music industry. Whether you're interested in getting hired or you want to be a full-time musician or you want to start your own studio or label, this class will go through different opportunities and avenues in the music industry and other industries such as film and video games.
You will learn a multitude of skills necessary to cement yourself in the music industry such as: knowing how to look for jobs and prepare for interviews; reshaping how you view your band/music project, so you are making money while enjoying your art; understanding how labels and studios function; outreaching to other professionals and companies to network and pursue opportunities; and more.
Teaching Artist: Elizabeth Kendall
Contact: ekendall@aacps.org
Tuesdays & Thursdays at Studio 39
2 days per week
Visual Art Primes.
Students will explore how different processes and inspiration impact the results.
On the first day we will take selfies and group photos that express specific emotions and stories.
Over the next weeks we will explore different processes and materials such as pencil, pen, brush, crayon, monoprint and collage of material to discover how the material, process, and inspiration impact and change the visual result.
Students will keep a weekly journal to help develop ideas.
This class will also look at how different concepts such as abstraction, pattern, minimalism can impact both the visual and emotional results.
Mentoring Artist: Emily Karol, eCoach
Contact: ekgerbasi@aacps.org
Thursdays at Studio 39
1 day per week
** BEGINS AFTER SPRING BREAK - APRIL 13 **
CAN ONLY BE SCHEDULED IN VIA MEETING WITH APEX+ TEACHER SPECIALIST
Virtual Lab Projects are offered in an asynchronous virtual module format through Brightspace, allowing students the flexibility to opt in to their choice of project(s) at which time they determine it is necessary. Students can opt to engage in any number of asynchronous projects sporadically, but are only permitted to complete the current week's module (assignment).
By opting in to a Virtual Lab Project students can make up missed face-to-face hours, and/or can earn additional hours beyond their face-to-face Apex+ schedule.
If you benefit from face-to-face mentorship, but need to earn hours within the Virtual Lab to meet your Apex+ requirement, the Guided Virtual Lab Support is a option for you to come to Studio 39 and work with a teacher to navigate modules.