2019 WORKSHOPS FOR ADULTS

with SUZI POND

Learn the basics of creating compelling audio stories.

In this introductory audio storytelling workshop, participants will gain experience handling mics and recording sound while honing interview skills by talking to subjects in the field. Using an editing software named Hindenburg, participants will learn and experiment with non-linear editing/storytelling. In addition, we’ll spend a lot of time listening to audio stories to hone their ears. Class discussion will engage students in discovering what makes a good audio story. Skills gained may be applied to multimedia, radio, or podcasting knowledge.

All skill levels welcome. Experience using a Mac is recommended, but not required.

with A.J. VERDELLE

Revision makes the difference between private practice and published writing; strategies for revision will be introduced in this workshop for narrative writers.

Writers who publish are writers who practice revision. Publishable, impressive work does not emerge from the pen or the keyboard in a first or second or even sometimes a sixth draft! Excellent and compelling narratives demand a careful and formal approach to revision. Revision requires strategy, and revision is unequivocally necessary to the writing process. In this workshop, aspiring writers will be introduced to and will practice a structured approach to revision: emphasizing clarity, building characters, constructing and managing scenes, and finally, strengthening the main crux of story writing, action. Participants will be asked to bring one scene, up to three pages, to the workshop to use as a practice text.

This workshop is designed for intermediate and advanced writers. Writers who have a completed draft of a story, novella, or novel will benefit most from this workshop.

with KATHERINE LIONTAS-WARREN

Use compositional skills to express your moods, feelings, and thoughts about what makes subject matter unique.

Participants will create a variety of drawings through experimentation of compositions while extrapolating elements to create new and unique drawings on a larger scale. Students may work from current/new drawings or sketches pertaining to any subject matter and will have the option to work in an abstract, expressive, or realistic manner. All drawing and watercolor materials are welcome. The instructor will demonstrate throughout the workshop and provide one on one critique during the day.

All skill levels welcome.

with MIKE LARSEN

Learn how to use rough sketches to create strong paintings.

In the course of my career, I have found that sketching is perhaps the most important aspect of the creation process in painting. Starting with a rough sketch of the idea, refining it, and then placing that sketch on the canvas clarifies the painting being created. That is my goal in working with the participants in this workshop. Some of each period will be spent sketching. Students will use both drawing and painting materials. Participants will critique their own work and, if possible, explain what their intentions are with their art. I intend to start the session with questions to learn what the participants need and want from this workshop. We will also spend time in the lobby with the eight large murals I created for the Arts Institute.

with KEVIN S. WARNER

This experiential workshop explores how the dances of a culture inform us about its people in a specific place and time in history in engaging and educational ways.

The arts have always been a way to make meaning and express ideas, but how do the arts express the essence of a people? What stories do they tell? This highly experiential workshop explores how the dances of a culture inform us about its people in a specific place and time in history, and how those dances help us celebrate our diversity today.  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 experiences can make process and content skills in the Oklahoma Academic Standards skills for social studies and English language arts more accessible to reluctant learners, and learn strategies and resources for teaching and facilitating these movement experiences in the classroom.

All skill levels welcome.