Let us guide you
Share your story!
In the ever-evolving landscape of the art world, one element remains timeless and indispensable: storytelling. In this workshop guide, we highlight workshops that address the pivotal role storytelling plays in shaping and enriching the art-making experience. Using traditional mediums and new technology, artists can craft narratives drawn from personal history and perspectives that transcend boundaries, inviting viewers to ponder, reflect, and engage with the world around them.
Independent Projects in Photography
This is a workshop for visual artists working with photography who are seeking support and feedback on their long-term projects. What are your motives and biases? What larger questions or themes are you probing? What obstacles are you facing and how can you creatively move through them?
To guide these discussions is expert artist, Carolyn Drake. Carolyn works on long-term photo-based projects and her practice often melds photography with sewing, collage, and sculpture. She has published five photo books, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and the Henri Cartier Bresson Award, among other prizes. Ready to hear more? Check out this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf and Carolyn Drake as they discuss her celebrated book Knit Club, and the importance of being connected to the place you are photographing among many other things.
The Art of Visual Storytelling
Over the past twenty years, Gillian Laub has utilized photography as a tool to delve into the intricate interplay between societal complexities and personal relationships. Her work profoundly reflects themes of family, community, and human rights. This is evident in projects like Southern Rites (2015), where she spent ten years documenting the pervasive racism in the American South, and Live to Tell (2024), her latest endeavor, which comprises an extensive photo archive of over 200 Holocaust survivors. For more insights on Live to Tell, check out the recent article in the New York Times.
In-depth storytelling is more important now than ever. This workshop offers intermediate and advanced photographers a structured and supportive learning environment for acquiring the knowledge, techniques, and artistic background needed for creating impactful visual narrative projects.
Incorporating Personal Imagery into Painting
Integrate memorabilia and personal imagery into your paintings as you deepen your practice by testing the line between abstraction and representation. During this workshop, you’ll create a small body of work throughout the week using acrylic, other water-based media, and collage on canvas and heavy weight paper.
Leading the way will be guest faculty, Yari Mena. Yari’s work investigates how memories change to protect us, our relationships, and aid in our survival. She alters photographs from her personal archive using materials that erode the ink, like heat, sandpaper, and solvents, as well as materials that create layers over the ink, like paint, acrylic ink, and other photographs. These techniques illustrate memory as a tangible landscape, in which the painted photograph replaces a romanticized memory and remains as a revised reminder of the moment.
Yari was a Distinguished Fellow at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts, and a recipient of the Anderson Ranch Internship and Professional Development Award. Her work has been featured in Target’s corporate Hispanic Heritage Month initiative in 2020, SOLA Art Market, and the Hapeville Depot Museum.
Obstructions and Layers: Merging Drawing, Painting and Transfer Techniques
Dive into the use of graphite transfers, trace monotypes, techniques for joining materials, and painting/drawing onto non-traditional surfaces to share your story.
This class explores the ways in which the combination of drawing, image transfer methods, and layered imagery can ignite artistic practice and evoke personal perceptions, resulting in complex narratives. In this mixed media workshop, students are encouraged to experiment with many surfaces, processes, and ways to display or present their work. Guest faculty, Andy Van Dinh, a recipient of the MacDowell Fellowship in 2023, uses carbon paper and clothing patterns as a direct link to the idea of translation and transitions to reflect on his personal experiences with the Vietnamese Diaspora. He obtained his M.F.A. in painting at Hunter College. His work has appeared across New York in solo and group exhibitions as well as international festivals and exhibitions.
Featured Workshops
Let Us Guide You
Reach Out
Are you overwhelmed by workshop options? Or do you know which workshop to take but are unsure about the skill level, faculty, or techniques? Our staff is ready to answer questions and assist in selecting the perfect workshop for your next creative journey. Please feel free to reach out any time and we can point you in the right direction!
Betsy Alwin
Director of Ceramics and Expanded Media
Call: 970-924-5054
Liz Ferrill
Artistic Director of Painting, Drawing & Printmaking
Call: 970-924-5076
Andrea Jenkins Wallace
Artistic Director of Photography and New Media
Call: 970-924-5044