June 4 & 11th, 9:30–11:00 AM

A welcoming two-session watercolor class for beginners, with room to learn foundational techniques and get more comfortable with the medium.

What you’ll do
Through guided exercises and short demonstrations, you’ll explore beginning watercolor techniques on paper while painting trees in a few different ways. You’ll work with tools like a credit card, palette knife, and brush to experiment with texture, mark-making, and simple ways of building depth. The focus is on observation, process, and learning by doing, so you can build confidence as you go.

What you’ll learn

• Beginning watercolor painting techniques

• How to use different tools to create texture and variation

• How to paint trees using a credit card, palette knife, or brush

• How to create depth in a watercolor painting

Great for: Beginners and anyone looking to get more comfortable with watercolor.

Instructor: Rita Carpenter is a watercolor artist and photographer drawn to the balance between loose color and careful control. Her classes are thoughtful, encouraging, and built to help students get comfortable with the medium while building confidence along the way.

Schedule
This is one class held over two dates. Registration includes both sessions.

• Session 1: June 4, 9:30–11:00 AM

• Session 2: June 11, 9:30–11:00 AM

Cost: $78

What to bring:

• Watercolor paints in at least yellow, blue, and red

• A mixing area, such as a white plate

• A medium round watercolor brush, size 8

• A 1/2-inch flat watercolor brush

• A fine mist sprayer filled with water

• Two water containers

• 140 lb cold press watercolor paper

• A board to paint on

• Paper towels or a small towel

• A pencil, eraser, and permanent black Micron pen

• Painting tape

NOTE: Beginner set of watercolors, paper, and brushes can be purchased for $50 in advance directly from the instructor, Rita Carpenter. 

Contact Rita:
Cell phone: (608) 289-6876
Email: artonthefly2018@gmail.com

June 7, 1:00–4:00 PM

A beginner-friendly mosaic workshop where you will create your own mosaic cactus step by step. This is a single-session class. 

What you’ll do
In this class, you’ll be guided through the process of making a mosaic cactus from start to finish. You’ll learn how to cut glass, lay out your design, and finish the piece with grout in a supportive, hands-on setting. By the end of class, you’ll leave with your own finished mosaic cactus.

What you’ll learn

• How to cut glass for mosaic work

• How to lay out a mosaic design

• How to finish a piece with grout

Great for: Beginners. No prior mosaic experience needed.

Instructor: Alexis Johnson is a stained glass and mosaic artist based in Edgerton, Wisconsin, where she operates Eagle Art. Her classes are supportive, hands-on, and beginner-friendly, with a focus on helping students build confidence as they learn mosaic techniques step by step.

Schedule
June 7, 1:00–4:00 PM

Cost: $55 (materials included)

What to bring: All materials are provided.

Saturday, June 13, 1:00–3:00 PM

A single-session discussion class on why we love art we know is bad, and what that says about aesthetic value. This is a single-session class. 

What you’ll do
Why do people pay to watch bad movies? Why does the Museum of Bad Art have a cult following? In this class, you’ll explore what philosophers have made of that puzzle and make the case for your own favorites. Through guided discussion, you’ll look at what separates good-bad art from guilty pleasures and camp, how artistic value differs from aesthetic value, and whether loving bad art is morally suspect, secretly avant-garde, or something else entirely.

What you’ll learn

• What separates good-bad art from guilty pleasures and camp

• The distinction between artistic value and aesthetic value

• How philosophers have thought about the appeal of bad art

• How to defend your own terrible favorites

Great for: Anyone who has ever loved a terrible movie, novel, song, or artwork and wanted to defend it. No background in philosophy needed.

Instructor: Phil Mack holds a PhD in philosophy and has over ten years of experience teaching at UW–Madison, Marquette University, and UW–Milwaukee. He makes big ideas accessible through conversation, not academic jargon, and is building a public philosophy practice in the Madison area.

Schedule
Saturday, June 13, 1:00–3:00 PM

Cost: $48

What to bring: Yourself, and at least one terrible movie, song, book, or artwork that you love.

June 18, 10:30–11:15 AM

This Yoga class is designed to quiet the mind and help you reconnect with your creative side.

What you’ll do: Led by Stoughton Yoga, this three-week series will use simple yoga practice to help quiet mental chatter and make more room for creativity, curiosity, and ease. Each session is designed to help participants slow down, reconnect with themselves, and tap into the more open, uninhibited energy that often gets buried in adult life.

What you’ll learn

• How yoga can help quiet a busy mind

• How movement and breath can support creativity

• How to reconnect with a more open, playful state of mind

• Simple ways to use yoga as a creative reset

Great for: Anyone curious about yoga, creativity, or both. No yoga experience or art experience required!

Schedule: June 18, 10:30–11:15 AM

Cost: Free

What to bring: Please bring a yoga mat if you have one. A limited number of mats will be available to borrow.

Instructor / Partner: Stoughton Yoga Learn more: www.stoughtonyoga.org

June 20, 12:00–4:00 PM

A beginner-friendly metal clay workshop where you will create a one-of-a-kind initial pendant in fine silver. This is a single-session class. 

What you’ll do
In this four-hour class, you’ll learn the basics of working with metal clay while creating a personalized pendant. You’ll apply texture, build layers, refine your piece, and finish it through firing and polishing. The class is designed as an accessible introduction to the material, with step-by-step guidance throughout.

What you’ll learn

• How to apply texture to metal clay

• How to build layers into a pendant design

• How to fire and polish fine silver metal clay

Great for: Beginners. No prior experience needed.

Instructor: Karen Trexler is a metalsmith, enamelist, and metal clay jewelry artist who received her MFA in metalsmithing and enameling from UW–Madison in 2018. She is the resident artist for a metal clay manufacturer, where she develops products, tests new materials, and creates educational content. She has taught at juried metal clay conferences and at the Art Literature Lab in Madison.

Schedule
June 20, 12:00–4:00 PM

Cost: $145

What to bring: Details to come.

June 25, 10:30–11:15 AM

This Yoga class is designed to quiet the mind and help you reconnect with your creative side.

What you’ll do: Led by Stoughton Yoga, this three-week series will use simple yoga practice to help quiet mental chatter and make more room for creativity, curiosity, and ease. Each session is designed to help participants slow down, reconnect with themselves, and tap into the more open, uninhibited energy that often gets buried in adult life.

What you’ll learn

• How yoga can help quiet a busy mind

• How movement and breath can support creativity

• How to reconnect with a more open, playful state of mind

• Simple ways to use yoga as a creative reset

Great for: Anyone curious about yoga, creativity, or both. No yoga experience or art experience required!

Schedule: June 25, 10:30–11:15 AM

Cost: Free

What to bring: Please bring a yoga mat if you have one. A limited number of mats will be available to borrow.

Instructor / Partner: Stoughton Yoga Learn more: www.stoughtonyoga.org

July 2, 10:30–11:15 AM

This Yoga class is designed to quiet the mind and help you reconnect with your creative side.

What you’ll do: Led by Stoughton Yoga, this three-week series will use simple yoga practice to help quiet mental chatter and make more room for creativity, curiosity, and ease. Each session is designed to help participants slow down, reconnect with themselves, and tap into the more open, uninhibited energy that often gets buried in adult life.

What you’ll learn

• How yoga can help quiet a busy mind

• How movement and breath can support creativity

• How to reconnect with a more open, playful state of mind

• Simple ways to use yoga as a creative reset

Great for: Anyone curious about yoga, creativity, or both. No yoga experience or art experience required!

Schedule: July 2, 10:30–11:15 AM

Cost: Free

What to bring: Please bring a yoga mat if you have one. A limited number of mats will be available to borrow.

Instructor / Partner: Stoughton Yoga Learn more: www.stoughtonyoga.org

July 18th & 25th

A two-session discussion class on what we are really doing when we call one object art and another craft.

What you’ll do
A quilt in a museum is art. The same quilt on a bed is craft. A wooden bowl by a famous sculptor is art. The same bowl turned by a woodworker is craft. In this class, you’ll trace where that distinction comes from, test whether it holds up, and look at what the hierarchy has excluded. Across two sessions, you’ll explore how the art/craft divide shapes museums, pricing, status, and who gets called an artist in the first place.

What you’ll learn

• Where the art/craft distinction comes from

• How that distinction shapes value, status, and recognition

• Who has been excluded or diminished by the hierarchy

• How to think more critically about the categories themselves

Great for: Makers who have felt the hierarchy from the wrong side, and anyone who has ever paused in front of an object and wondered which category it belongs to. No background in philosophy needed.

Instructor: Phil Mack holds a PhD in philosophy and has over ten years of experience teaching at UW–Madison, Marquette University, and UW–Milwaukee. He makes big ideas accessible through conversation, not academic jargon, and is building a public philosophy practice in the Madison area.

Schedule
This is one class held over two dates. Registration includes both sessions.
Session 1: Saturday, July 18, 1:00–3:00 PM
Session 2: Saturday, July 25, 1:00–3:00 PM

Cost: $78

What to bring: Yourself, and an object or image of an object that you are not sure how to classify.

Thursdays from 7/30-8/27

A five-week discussion course on five paradoxes at the heart of how we experience art, and why none of them have easy answers.

What you’ll do
Why do we love art that makes us miserable? Why does it matter that a painting is the real one? How can instrumental music sound sad? Why do we call a thunderstorm beautiful? And when you say a film is great, are you saying something true or just reporting what you happen to like? Each week, you’ll work through one of these paradoxes, discussing the strongest cases on each side and bringing your own examples into the room.

What you’ll learn

• Why tragedy can be pleasurable in art

• Why originality and forgery matter so much to us

• How music can seem expressive without words

• Why overwhelming or terrifying things can still feel beautiful

• What we are doing when we make judgments of taste

Great for: Anyone curious about how art works on us and why. No background in philosophy needed.

Instructor: Phil Mack holds a PhD in philosophy and has over ten years of experience teaching at UW–Madison, Marquette University, and UW–Milwaukee. He makes big ideas accessible through conversation, not academic jargon, and is building a public philosophy practice in the Madison area.

Schedule
This is one class held over five dates. Registration includes all five sessions.
Session 1: Thursday, July 30, 6:30–8:00 PM
Session 2: Thursday, August 6, 6:30–8:00 PM
Session 3: Thursday, August 13, 6:30–8:00 PM
Session 4: Thursday, August 20, 6:30–8:00 PM
Session 5: Thursday, August 27, 6:30–8:00 PM

Cost: $138

What to bring: Just yourself. Handouts will be provided in class. No outside work required.