Spotlight: Adult Studio

In the former building, the Museum occasionally held one-day workshops and short classes for adults. In our pop-up location On the Slope, Education staff developed robust programming with teaching artists who specialized in educating adults. Now, with a beautiful new building, we’re launching our new Adult Studio program with a full range of courses over three sessions—fall, spring, and summer—each year.

Adult Studio Overview

The new Adult Studio program offers a core curriculum in drawing, painting, printmaking, and three-dimensional media, and also explores the intersections between them. Weekly classes are designed for anyone interested in exploring specific media in depth; daylong workshops introduce new media or processes. Local and visiting artists help students of all levels and abilities develop skills in media that reflect techniques and themes featured in the Museum’s Collection and special exhibitions.

Adult Studio Schedule

Most classes meet weekday evenings or Saturday mornings over 4–12 weeks. Only here for a weekend? Not to worry! The Museum also hosts one-day workshops on Saturdays. In fall 2019, we’re offering an abbreviated schedule, and our first full session will launch in spring 2020. There are already great events on the calendar.

About the Artists

David Shurbutt, artist and former exhibits curator at the North Carolina Arboretum, is teaching the first workshop in the Museum’s new Studio this November. In Experimental Drawing, Shurbutt wants students to know that all artistic levels are welcome, and is looking forward to sharing our new space with students:

Adult Studio classes at the Asheville Art Museum provide excellent platforms for creativity and artistic growth in a relaxed and friendly environment where free expression and discourse are sought and encouraged. The new facilities are superb!

Students will enjoy a newly appointed Studio in the Museum’s North Wing, the historic Pack Library, with plenty of light and north-facing windows. Instructor Susan McChesney is teaching the first weekly class in the new Studio: Drawing Journey Journals. McChesney, visual artist and former head of community programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is excited about the possibilities, sharing:

To draw from original works of art in a museum gallery, inspired by others’ expressions of space, line, color, can be an unequaled pleasure, and a transformative opportunity to explore and grow creatively. How exciting it will be to have the Asheville Art Museum reopened and vibrant again!

Scroll down for additional details about each course, and click a course title to sign up. Add your name to our Adult Studio mailing list by emailing Kristi McMillan, adult programs manager.

Upcoming Adult Studio Classes

Drawing Journey Journals
NOVEMBER 16, 23, DECEMBER 7 & 14—Saturdays, 9–11am
Cost (includes all materials): $130 Museum Members, $145 non-members
Registration deadline: November 8
Make-up date (if needed): December 21

In this four-part class, travel the Museum’s galleries, drawing as you go in handmade journals with watercolor pencils; then, transform your sketches into paint in the Studio. Engage in basic drawing exercises during each class, as well as learn tips and tricks to inform your drawing with the elements of composition, light, perspective, and color. Carry drawing and writing techniques used in class over into your personal travel journals, plein air painting, and self-expression.

A longtime art museum educator, instructor Susan McChesney has spent her adult life sharing the joys of creating with all ages and abilities. Interested especially in drawing, she has moved from city to seacoast to mountains to broaden her perspectives and experiences, drawing and introducing students to successful experiences creating. She earned an undergraduate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a graduate degree in education.

Experimental Drawing
NOVEMBER 23—Saturday, 1–6pm
Cost (includes some materials): $85 Museum Members, $95 non-members
Registration deadline: November 13

Work with traditional and non-traditional materials, methods, and tools, and enjoy exploring an expanded definition of drawing and its limitless potential. Exercises include gesture drawing, contour and blind-contour drawing, tool-making, alternative surfaces, erasure, and drawing with the body. Participate in presentations, discussions, and group critiques, and make individual and group drawings in a fun and nonjudgmental atmosphere.

Instructor David Shurbutt is an art and museum worker. He holds an undergraduate degree in studio art and graduate degrees in media arts and fine art. His creative output is interdisciplinary in the metamodern tradition.