Create your own sculptural wire bonsai tree in this engaging, hands-on workshop. Using a bundle of wire, participants will shape and form one of four styles: natural, weeping willow, windswept, or forest!

Choose your preferred finish and granite base, and leave with a completed piece ready to display. This process-focused workshop is approachable for all experience levels and offers a rewarding introduction to form, movement, and design through wire.

All materials and equipment are included in the price!

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support our mission! Learn more about it's benefits and discounts!

Embrace your creative side in this Watercolor Free Spirit Workshop, a fun, afternoon designed for every skill level—from those who have never touched a brush to experienced painters seeking a relaxing refresh—this course begins with an interactive demonstration of techniques. You’ll learn how the brush handles, how pigment reacts with water, and the joy of choosing your own color palette. By focusing on essentials rather than complex, time-consuming advanced methods like painting wet on wet, or layering paint, you will enjoy immediate success and creative satisfaction.

Everyone will be able to create a finished project to take home that very day, choosing personalized note cards or a standalone painting. Using a seasonal themed subject or your own reference photo, you’ll dive straight into the painting process.

Beyond the brushwork, you’ll gain professional insight into the critical differences between student and professional-grade paints, papers, and brushes, as well as essential care tips. You’ll leave not only with a finished piece of art but also with the knowledge to continue painting note cards and more at home.

Click HERE for a materials list for this workshop!

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support our mission! Learn more about it's benefits and discounts!

Slow down and experience art in a new way. This guided workshop introduces reflective looking practices that deepen your connection with artwork beyond first impressions. Through focused observation and simple exercises, participants will explore how patience, attention, and openness can reveal new layers of meaning.

In dialogue with Radical Compassion: Art as Social Action, this session invites you to consider how sustained looking can foster empathy, challenge assumptions, and strengthen awareness of our shared human experience. Participants will engage with selected works in the gallery, alternating between individual reflection and small group discussion.

Registration is encouraged to ensure an accurate headcount. This is a pay-what-you-can experience, with contributions collected at the door.

Rich Holck will oversee and guide you through the hands-on process of loading, firing, unloading, cleaning, and maintaining a wood kiln. Learn how to build the fire and operate the kiln at each stage, read the atmosphere of the kiln to time your stokes, and how to place wood across the width of the firebox to maintain even heat. Gain understanding of how kiln oxygen levels may fluctuate and ways of controlling oxygen levels by adjusting dampers and air openings. Consider factors like the quantity of wood per stoke, stoking frequency, and the size and type of wood to use. When introducing salt into the chamber, discuss its effects on the pottery, kiln, and kiln furniture. During unloading, observe the results of your collective efforts on the finished works, and how the process details come together to shape the end result. 12X24X30 inches per share

Bring a touch of handmade charm to your garden with a ceramic bird feeder crafted by you! In this beginner-friendly workshop, participants will learn slab-building techniques to construct a functional and decorative feeder that birds will love.

You’ll roll and shape clay into a teardrop form, add texture using stamps or natural materials, and attach end caps and hanging holes to complete your design. Along the way, you’ll explore surface decoration and handbuilding basics while creating a piece that’s both artistic and useful.

All tools and materials are provided. Finished bird feeders will be fired and ready for pickup at a later date.

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support the mission of HYS.

If you are looking to learn or refresh basic skills in watercolors and gouache, this is the class for you! We will complete two cheat sheets to practice skills in each medium, and then learn how to use the materials to paint a glowing summer campfire scene.

Materials: Students should bring a basic set of watercolors (primary colors plus black, at least) and gouache. For economy, bring just watercolors plus a tube of white gouache. Note: bring gouache, not "acrylic gouache." Also please have a mixing palette, basic watercolor brushes, cold press watercolor paper, and any dry mixed media you'd like to use. Optional: a color wheel will be useful. My suggested supplies are listed here: Artist Resource List

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support our mission! Learn more about it's benefits and discounts!

This two-day studio workshop will focus on painting “alla prima” (all at once) as well as developing greater skills of observation, simplification and painting “wet on wet” to create strong “painterly” paintings. The workshop will also discuss techniques to quickly transfer the elements of your reference to the canvas with the goal of creating an artistic painting that accurately relates the important forms of a composition rather than simply copying everything in a photograph.

The first morning of the workshop begins with a discussion of painting basics (from materials to paint handling) and will also address the fundamentals of color, value, edges, perspective and other “practical” elements that make a successful painting. Each day participants will work on a series of timed painting exercises incorporating the techniques discussed while developing their skills of observation, simplification, bold brushwork and painting in a “decisive” and “intentional” manner.  

Each morning of the workshop will include a short painting demo by Dan with an explanation of his process.  Dan will provide plenty of one-on-one individual instruction throughout each day of the workshop.

This workshop is designed for intermediate to advanced painters in both oil and acrylic mediums, however proficiency in basic drawing is required.  Participants will be able to choose from a wide variety of reference photos supplied by the instructor for their painting exercises. 

Click HERE for a materials list for this workshop!

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support our mission! Learn more about it's benefits and discounts!

Discover the beauty and sparkle of Zentangle-inspired gemstone art in this relaxing and creative workshop. Using simple, mindful drawing techniques, students will learn how to create dazzling “zen gems” filled with shading, and dimension. Perfect for beginners and experienced tanglers alike, this class combines the meditative process of Zentangle with the elegance of faceted jewels. Leave class with a collection of shimmering gem-inspired artwork and a renewed sense of calm and creativity.

Please bring to workshop your basic Zentangle kit*, a Colorless Blender Pencil, white gel pen or white acrylic pen. Optional- set of colored pencils.  The teacher will provide colored pencils to share for the class.

* If you do not have a basic Zentangle kit, you can purchase one from the teacher for $13.00.

• We believe art should be accessible to all. Scholarships are available for those who qualify.
• Membership is one of the easiest and most effective ways to support our mission! Learn more about it's benefits and discounts!