FALL HIGHLIGHTS & DESCRIPTIONS

The 2009 Oklahoma Fall Arts Institute is now complete.  Please check our website this summer for information about the 2010 program.


Weekend One: October 29 - November 1, 2009

Writing for Children with Carol Hughes

"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."-- Toni Morrison
Open to all levels, this writing workshop is designed to guide, encourage and inspire anyone who writes, or who wants to write, stories for children. Through a series of innovative and fun writing exercises students will explore ways to access their creativity, vanquish their inner critic (should they have one), and unlock their imaginations. The class will take an in-depth look at what makes a truly great children’s book (whether it’s a picture book, middle grade or young adult novel), and study the compelling characters, plots and themes that are essential to all good children’s stories. Students will also learn many useful tips about the best (and the worst) ways to get their manuscripts into the hands of agents and publishers.

Mixed Media and Meaning with Kathleen Loe

This workshop is designed to develop the artist's ability to understand and create content in authentic, interesting, and personal ways. As artists learn how to apply studio techniques to express their subject matter, this workshop will simultaneously develop each student's awareness of which specific color, form, and media decisions will best express their attitude toward the subject. The class is specifically geared to the beginner, advanced beginner, or intermediate student who has enough technical knowledge to be able to begin a painting with some confidence, but needs guidance in how and why to match technique with idea. Students may work in water-base or oil-base media and will also use collage. They can bring the materials they have been working with, or choose to learn how to work in a new medium. Projects will be designed to stimulate a variety of paths to clear and interesting approaches to subject matter. Students will work with direct observation, metaphor, symbol, and unconventional materials. Daily group discussions, demonstrations, and one-on-one support will create an atmosphere of experimentation and personal growth.

Basic Digital Photography with Ben Long

Learn the ins and outs of digital photography, from shooting to editing and printing, in this fun four-day workshop. No matter what you're skill level, you'll learn everything from the specifics of your camera's controls, to how to compose and expose a shot. After a lecture/presentation on shooting on Thursday afternoon, we’ll get up Friday morning for a shooting expedition around Quartz Mountain. The rest of the classes will center around post-production, including importing, organizing, and keywording your images using Adobe Bridge; tone and color corrections in Photoshop; dodging, burning, and other localized edits; and printing. Students must have basic computer skills. Students must bring their own digital camera, either digital SLR or point-and-shoot. Whether you're an abject beginner, a dabbler, or a seasoned digital shooter, this class will help you get your photography to the next level.

Arts Integration – Orff Schulwerk: Music, Movement and Language Woven Through the Grades with Rick Layton and Jacque Schrader

This class is open to all ability levels. Although there will be opportunities that will provide challenges for experienced Orff Schulwerk teachers, beginners and classroom teachers will be equally engaged and comfortable. All activities are drawn from work with elementary and middle school students. The class will provide hands-on opportunities to explore music, movement and language. Specifically, the participants will explore the Orff instruments as an accompaniment for songs, simple play parties, games and dances. Participants will also play small percussion instruments, including drums. Those who are comfortable should bring their recorders. In movement, participants will begin with basic elements. These elements will be explored alone, in partners and in small groups. Additionally, participants can look forward to learning several traditional international folk dances. Language will be threaded throughout the entire class. The participants will work with riddles, write poetry, and will dramatize two folk tales.

Art in the Special Needs Classroom with Glen Henry, Isolete de Almeida & Edna McMillan

Participants in this workshop will discover a never-ending world of adventure, imagination, and inclusion through the use of alternative materials and adaptive art equipment in the creation of prints and mixed-media works. Experience the “Table –Top Printer,” which allows physically challenged individuals of all ages to participate in the arts through adaptive printmaking techniques. You will be presented with practical but imaginative art teaching strategies and techniques in a variety of design ideas and lesson plans that give purpose, structure and continuity to a special education art curriculum. Vegetable prints, glue line relief prints, collographs, mixed media collage, and dish pan paper-making techniques will be demonstrated and explored. This workshop is available to all ability levels.

Weekend Two: November 5 - November 8, 2009

Poetry with Lisa Starr

Designed for writers at all stages of their writing careers, from novice to published poet, this workshop will give you a new set of lenses through which to examine poetry. We will use both our own poems and poems we consider "great" to explore what it is that makes some poems "better" than others. We'll look at how things like verb tense and point of view can shift the power, effectiveness, and flow of a poem. We'll discuss such important tools as freshness of language, efficiency, and form. We'll discuss what drives a poem, and explore the many ways we can make our poems not only cleaner and crisper, but also tastier. We will learn how reading our work out loud can speak volumes about a particular poem's strengths and weaknesses. We'll write new poems, and we'll learn tools for responding to the work of others. Most importantly, we'll rediscover how to celebrate our extraordinary ordinariness through poetry. Participants are asked to bring to the workshop 20 copies of 3 of their own poems, and 20 copies of a favorite poem written by someone else.

Narrative Painting with Susan Contreras

Paint and find your artistic voice and muse in this oil painting workshop. We will explore and discuss different methods of creating narrative paintings, both in a sequential time manner and a layered approach. In preparation for this workshop, participants will be asked to gather visual and content resources for reference to construct their paintings. Due to the short time frame, we will focus on small size studies and if time permits, finished paintings. Students should have drawing skills and a basic general knowledge of oil painting.

People of Character: Capturing the Soul of Your Subject (Digital Photography) with Paul Mobley

Photography is a people profession, and the skill to effectively relate to one’s subject is not an innate talent. Acclaimed photographer Paul Mobley has spent years honing portraiture skills that are deeply in tune with the human spirit. In the workshop, Mobley will demonstrate how to capture a subject’s soul, every time, in any circumstance. A gifted storyteller, Mobley will present images and describe circumstances behind a variety of challenging shoots, both in the studio and on location. From working with seasoned professionals, to rural American farmers, to Russian Circus performers, his expertise runs the gamut. Attendees will discover how Mobley uses his camera and simple lighting tools to transform the face of a stranger into a portrait filled with heart, soul, and the unique character of every subject. Mobley will also discuss the making of his award winning coffee table book entitled “American Farmer”.

Polyester Plate Printmaking and Other Low-Tech Alternative Approaches with Michael Barnes

This course will introduce the techniques of polyester plate lithography as a means to produce hand-drawn and photographic digitally generated image. Multiple color printing techniques will be introduced, along with means to incorporate monoprinting and mixed media applications. Other low-tech methods will also be introduced as accessible means to produce multiple color images without the requirement of major equipment and materials. The course will also include an overview of the printmaking medium, its history, and its relevance in contemporary art, including presentations and showing examples of actual work.

Arts Integration – Museums & Your Curriculum with Patrick Riley, Susan Baley, Lanette Coppage, Sarah Jesse, Donna Merkt, Cindy Williams & Amy Young

It's true -- Oklahoma has many extraordinary, unique, and exciting works of art housed in our state-of-the-art museums. Learn to integrate the arts and humanities into your classroom. In this workshop, you'll learn about the visual art collections and artifacts housed in five of Oklahoma's finest museums. You'll learn methods for integrating some of these exciting works of art into your classroom curriculum. You'll participate in five sessions taught by representatives from the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Philbrook Museum of Art, Gilcrease Museum, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, and Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art. The museum representatives will show you extraordinary artwork from their collections, demonstrate methods of integrating the artwork into your curriculum, and inform you on scheduling a field trip or visit. Hands-on experiences in the arts are emphasized. Learn more about integrating the culture of our Oklahoma museums into your classroom and experience the unique museum culture of our state.

Weekend Three: November 12 – November 15, 2009

Portrait Painting with Juliette Aristides

Develop your skills of portrait painting with this intensive workshop. Working from life and from the masters, you will follow traditional ideas and techniques of portrait painting as you develop vital tools for creating skillful portrait paintings. You will explore varied working methods through master copies, lectures and group discussions, spending a portion of each day working on topical issues such as drawing, composition, value, color and color theory, as you study the way the master artists of the past have handled such challenges. Over the four days, you also create one longer painting that develops from drawing to under painting through full color. Class discussions, slide lectures and instructor demonstrations focus on building skills for successful independent work and also illuminate ways to solve problems when you return to your own studio.

Seeing in Color (Digital Photography) with Amy Stein

Awaken your photography and tell stories in vivid details using the language of color. In this class, we will examine the expressive possibilities of color photography. Through slide lectures, a shooting field trip, and interactive exercises, we will explore the emotions and energy associated with color as we push the boundaries of your expression. We will explore the magnificent natural area of Quartz Mountain and work in the classroom to review your existing work and the photographic products of our photo journeys. Students should have a digital camera and some photographic experience, but no specific equipment or techniques are necessary. We will make small inkjet prints for a final critique and discussion. This class is open to all ability levels.

Creating Light: Relief Printmaking with Juan Fuentes

Creating Light will be an exploration in basic multi-colored relief printmaking by hand and with use of an etching press if necessary. Students will draw directly on wood or linoleum and transfer the existing image onto the block for carving. Proper setup and basic use of carving tools, paper and inks will be emphasized. Students will develop their idea based on an endangered species or environmental concern, such as whales, oil drilling, rain forest, etc. Students should have one or two drawings prepared for the beginning of class. The drawings should be done 8”x 10” to correspond to the size of the block. Try and draw the images bold and uncomplicated complicated, using no more than three colors, as this will create a stronger image and less difficulty in cutting. Due to time restrictions, the simpler the better! You'll need time to carve and print your edition. This class is open to all ability levels.

Arts Integration -- Folk and Cultural Dance in the Classroom with Kevin Warner

The arts are the embodiment of a people, but how do the arts express the essence of a people? What stories do they tell? This highly experiential session will illustrate how the dances of a culture can inform us about its people in a specific place and time in history. Participants will reconstruct multiple folk and cultural dances, and discuss the nuances of their origin, structure, aesthetics and meaning. They will look deeply at ways the folk, ethnic and cultural dance experience can make PASS skills in social studies, language arts and math more accessible for reluctant learners, and learn strategies and resources for teaching and facilitating these movement experiences in the classroom. No previous experience is necessary – all are welcome!

Writing Oklahoma: Writing Place with Rilla Askew

“If you write about one place well, you write about every place.”-- Isaac B. Singer
This course will focus on ‘writing place,’ with a particular emphasis on Oklahoma as a powerful source for fiction and creative nonfiction. It is designed for writers to develop their own creative work, but the techniques could also be applicable for creative writing teachers. The course will begin with writing exercises to develop voice, setting, sensory detail, and authenticity of place in fiction and creative nonfiction. Considerable time will be devoted to participants doing their own writing, and then we’ll come together in a workshop format to share our work and offer one another feedback, support, and helpful critique. The course is open to all ability levels.