Create Messy, Out of this World Art at FVAC

With classes for kids, teens and adults at all skill levels, there's something for everyone this summer at Farmington Valley Arts Center.

Youth classes include Messy Art, The Art of Books and Up-cycling.

In Messy Art, kids are encouraged to explore their inner artist while making creative messes as they work with paints, markers, pastels, clay and foam. 

"[It gives] young students the opportunity to get creative with their own hands, creating work on their own versus having instructors assist with creating art," said Jim Brunelle, the art center’s project coordinator.

The Art of Books, taught by artist Joan Shackford, gives children the opportunity to write and illustrate their own book. Shackford, a pen and ink artist who worked for FVAC's youth program last summer, guides the children as they create stories, draw and paint characters and bind their books.

"[Shackford] is great with young kids and ... talented with different ideas about book art," Brunelle said. Her class helps kids develop "learning skills at a young age."

The Up-cycling class teaches children how to create art out of recyclable items. This course is also taught by Shackford.

"She does a lot with outer space ideas, creating robots from things like cans, jars, tubes and aluminum foil," Brunelle said.

FVAC is also offering Summer Arts Adventures, a week-long series of half-day sessions for children ages 6 to 15. Activities include painting like Picasso, outdoor drawing adventures and creating mobiles and mosaics. Aspiring young artists are able to sign up for a single day or the entire week.

Teens can participate in drawing, illustration, printmaking, and collage classes from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Adults courses include water media, narrative illustration and clay hand building.

Artist Carolann Dvorak Brewer recommends her water media series for anybody who's ever wanted to paint, used to paint, or likes to paint now. 

Dvorak Brewer usually keeps her classes small in size to provide as much one on one private instruction as possible. Each student moves at their own pace.

"We encourage personal growth and relaxation in a no pressure atmosphere," Dvorak Brewer wrote in an email to Patch.

If weather permits, she will have the class paint outside amid FVAC's park-like setting. 

Throughout the 4-week course, students will experiment with watercolor, acrylic and new water-soluble oils, which are all non-toxic and environmentally friendly.

"[FVAC] offer[s] an escape from the world," Dvorak Brewer wrote by email. "Students can be themselves in the peace and calm of a creative safe haven. I hope students will awaken the creative part of their brain they have been too busy to utilize and discover a whole new source of pleasure."

To sign up for classes or for more information, please www.artsfvac.org. The Farmington Valley Arts Center is located at 25 Arts Center Lane in Avon.