An adult workshop at the UM Museum, led by Constance Pierce, allowed participants to create their own work of art. Pierce is also teaching an image journaling class next month at the Powerhouse.
While many of the University of Mississippi Museum’s educational efforts are centered on exposing children to the arts, the museum has expanded its learning opportunities for adults this summer.
As part of a Lafayette Oxford Foundation for Tomorrow grant, the museum instituted First Friday Free Sketch Days on the first Friday of each month. The museum also partnered with Sarah Kathryn Dossett of Studio Whimzy in June for a “Night of Whimzy,” inspired by Marie Hull’s Mississippi imagery.
The summer program concluded July 16-17 with an adult weekend workshop, “Learning to Sketch from Museum Masters,” led by artist Constance Pierce.
“Last summer, we had the opportunity to host these wonderful workshops led by Constance Pierce, and they filled up so quickly that we were thrilled to offer the workshop again this summer,” said Emily McCauley, the museum’s curator of education. “It was inspiring to see participants responding to museum exhibits in new, creative ways.”
The two-day workshop led by Pierce began in the museum art studio, with participants experimenting with watercolor monotypes and practicing sketching from master drawings. Participants then moved into the museum galleries to create sketches with watercolor pencils over their dry monotypes. The workshop concluded with finishing touches with a paintbrush, and class members shared their works.
Pierce has exhibited her sketchbooks twice at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., and other venues around the world. She has served as a professor of drawing, painting and art journals at St. Bonaventure in New York and as a visiting artist at Millsaps College in Jackson.
Her sketchbooks also are displayed at the National Gallery of Art Library, Rare Book Collection in Washington, D.C., the Yale Center for British Art and, locally, at Oxford Treehouse Gallery. She also is exhibiting in “Art on Paper” in Japan.
Pierce has partnered with the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council to offer her signature image journaling course at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center. Participants will create their own books reflecting their life and journey using watercolors, collages, monoprints and visually expressive text.
The five-week course for all artist levels is $185 for YAC members and $200 for nonmembers. Novices are welcome. The next class session begins Sept. 12 and will meet 6:30 to 9:15 p.m. Mondays.
For more information about image journaling, click here.
The museum’s last First Friday Free Sketch was held Friday, Aug. 5.
To stay up-to-date with the latest educational programming at the UM Museum, email Emily McCauley at esdean@olemiss.edu and visit http://museum.olemiss.edu/.