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Scholarships available

Plein Air Painting
Saturday, June 8 9:00am – 12:00pm Instructor: Alyssa DeLaBruere Plein Air Painting $80.00 USD Plein Air Painting - HDAC member $72.00 USD
Painting en plein air, or “in the open air”, gained popularity in the mid-18th century in Europe and America. The face of landscape painting in France in particular changed dramatically during this time as artists fled from their studios to work directly in nature, laying the foundation for modernist art movements such as Impressionism. Borrowing from the French tradition of plein air painting, this class will introduce participants to the use of acrylics outside of the studio to capture the essence of the landscape. The Stowe Recreation Path will set the scene for an invigorating open air work session. In the event of rain, the class will be held in the Helen Day Art Center’s Wright Studio.

Botanical Illustration: The Admirable Iris
Saturday, June 22 9:00am - 4:00pm Instructor: Susan Bull Riley Botanical Illustration $120.00 USD Botanical Illustration - HDAC member $108.00 USD
Drawings of iris can be found deep into antiquity. Beloved and admired, it is no accident that this plant came to symbolize royalty and power throughout the centuries; its beauty carries meaning across religious and geographical boundaries. This is a day-long workshop devoted to using fundamental graphite techniques to create a careful drawing of this magnificent flower. Using pencils of differing width and hardness, and with careful attention to creating values, the day will be spent creating an iris portrait. Bring your favorite iris bloom to be your subject.

Lecture series: Portraits and Interiors: The paintings of Alice Neel and Mickalene Thomas
Tuesday July 9 & Thursday July 11 10:30am – 12:00pm Instructor: Suzy Spence Portraits and Interiors Lecture $40.00 USD Portraits and Interiors Lecture - HDAC member $36.00 USD
Figurative art took the back seat to abstraction in the 20th century. Discover two American painters who revisit the portrait to depict the individuals of their time while pushing the boundaries of a traditional art form: Alice Neel (1900 - 1984) and Mickalene Thomas (1971 -   ). This is a two-part presentation, with an optional writing exercise between meetings.

Adventure Photography on Lake Champlain
Saturday, July 27 9:00am - 4:00pm Instructor: Ryan Bent Buy it with Photoshop Lab Adventure Photography Combo $240.00 USD Adventure Photography Combo - HDAC member $216.00 USD Price NOT including Photoshop Lab Adventure Photography $170.00 USD Adventure Photography - HDAC member $153.00 USD
Discover the joys of sailing and learn the art of adventure photography all in one day. Join the Helen Day and the Community Sailing Center in Burlington for instructional and recreational sailing paired with digital SLR photography discussion and work session. Sail and shoot Lake Champlain in the morning and afternoon with a lunch break and artistic discussion on land. Create the image you want instead of settling for the image you get. Expand your knowledge of composition, lighting, timing and vision. Gain expertise in shooting in Manual mode, examine shooting in RAW format, and learn the basics of lens optics. Pair this workshop with the Adventure Photography: Photoshop Lab to edit and polish the images you capture.

Adventure Photography: Photoshop Lab
Saturday, August 3 10:00am - 2:00pm Instructor: Ryan Bent Photoshop Lab $80.00 USD Photoshop Lab - HDAC member $72.00 USD
This workshop is the perfect follow-up to our Adventure Photography on Lake Champlain workshop. Sign up for both at a discounted rate here. Do you have digital photos from past adventures piling up? It’s time to get your photos to the final stage. Explore the process of getting RAW photos from the camera to web and print-ready versions by gaining knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. Participants will learn the various uses of Photoshop tools and follow non-destructive editing practices to produce polished images. Class will also cover photo uploading and proper file management. Those new to Photoshop welcome.

New York lecture series co-taught by Amy Rahn and Suzy Spence Lecture #1: The Steins' Salon: How did a personal collection influence the course of Modern Art?
Tuesday, August 13 10:30am - 12:00pm  Buy both lectures NYC Lecture Series $40.00 USD NYC Lecture Series - HDAC member $36.00 USD
Gertrude and Leo Stein were important patrons of modern art in Paris during the first decades of the twentieth century. The Steins' Saturday evening salons introduced a generation of visitors to modern art long before it was on view in museums. By inviting the public to see the collection in their modest apartment, they helped disseminate a taste for modern art that would eventually become the standard for collectors and museums alike.
Lecture #2: The Daring Ladies: Abby Rockefeller, Lillie Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan and the founding of MOMA
Thursday, August 15 10:30am - 12:00pm
In 1928 Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie Bliss, and Mary Quinn Sullivan began a museum in New York City whose primary purpose was to introduce Modern art to the public. This lecture will consider private versus public collections, and the power individual taste can have to shape art history. It will explore the remarkable shift that occurred when art was moved from the intimate salon setting typical of the 19th century, to the white cube architecture of the 20th.

Instructor bios:

Ryan Bent received his degree from Champlain College in Graphic Design with a focus in photography. He has worked for various photo studios producing commercial product and lifestyle photography. He currently works for RLPhoto Studio in Burlington, VT.

Susan Bull Riley The revered art form of botanical illustration -- rendering plants with both accuracy and compositional grace--has caught Susan’s imagination since childhood. Her earliest memories of spring beauties have long since been supplanted with paintings of new plants as the growing season progresses. Susan works in watercolors, oils, and graphite.
Her love affair with plants has led to affiliation with the New England Society of Botanical Artists, a variety of commissions, and regular exhibiting in a number of venues where her equal passion for painting birds and landscapes can be seen.
Susan lives and works out of a renovated 1867 schoolhouse in East Montpelier Center.  Her husband, a musician, also works out of the house, and their two daughters are grown - the "not-kids" as she recently heard adult children described!

Alyssa DeLaBruere is an artist, educator, and mother of three who has made the Northeast Kingdom her home for over 20 years.  Alyssa teaches art both privately and at United Christian Academy in Newport. This summer she is opening her own workshop called Atelier Art Studio in Newport. An accomplished painter (acrylic, watercolor, and silk) and teacher of fine art, art history, and elementary education. Alyssa attended the University of Vermont where she studied fine art and art history, then continued her education further at Johnson State College where she obtained dual certification in both elementary and art education.

Amy Rahn is a writer and curator pursuing a PhD in Art History and Criticism at Stony Brook University.
 Before returning to academia, she was Gallery Coordinator at the West Branch Gallery & Sculpture Park in Stowe, Vermont for five years, where her role was both curatorial and practical.
Rahn’s essays and articles on contemporary art have been published in Art Map Burlington, Art New England, and Seven Days. In the summer of 2012 she curated two exhibitions, Open House at the Winooski Pop-Up Galleries, and Chapters at Furchgott-Sourdiffe Gallery in Shelburne. Rahn has just finished a Master’s Thesis on a little-known artist’s book by the late film/performance artist Bas Jan Ader. She divides her time between Long Island and Montpelier.

Suzy Spence lives in Montpelier, Vermont and Brooklyn, New York. Her faux society portraits and genre paintings explore the relationship between art production and patronage. In a forthcoming illustrated novel, NORTHEAST, Spence examines the intimate relationship between a master and servant, and casts painting (hobby, object, investment) as a supporting character.
Spence has an M.F.A. from The School of Visual Arts, attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Parsons School of Design, and Smith College. She has exhibited in the United States and Europe in solo and group shows, including Winkelman Gallery, American Fine Arts / Colin DeLand Fine Arts, Pat Hearn Gallery, Matthew Marks, Rare, Momenta Art, Holly Solomon Gallery (New York), The Arnolfini, Southampton City Art Gallery (United Kingdom), The Glarner Kunstverein (Switzerland), the Grazer Kunstverein (Austria), and numerous art fairs.
Her paintings and curatorial efforts have received critical attention in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Paper Magazine and the Brooklyn Rail, among other publications.  Spence has taught digital media at Pratt University and worked in the Curatorial Department of The New Museum of Contemporary Art during Marcia Tucker's tenure. In 2009, she and fellow painter Leslie Brack, co-curated The Mood Back Home, an exhibition inspired by Womanhouse, at Momenta Art, Brooklyn. In spring 2012 she lectured about theoretical trends in Contemporary Art at the Helen Day Art Center.