Now Preformance at Cotuit Center for the Arts September 2017

"I feel I have landed where I belong, and where I can make a departure," said Lenore Lyons, arts education coordinator for the Cotuit Centre for the Arts. We met in the Art Barn at the eye, which she has helped transform from a serviceable, just somewhat-the-worse-for-habiliment, drafty befouled-like structure to a warm and inviting art studio, brimming with fine art supplies and tools of every imaginable kind.

She had a vision of an arts center that would friction match the residuum of the middle, with its high-quality theater and gallery space, but was told, when she arrived at the center in late August, at that place was no upkeep for improvements.

That didn't finish her. She went to Steve Luciano of Coachlight Carpets in Centerville, who was happy to piece of work with her to provide sturdy, industrial wood flooring to cover the once-cold physical floors. That immediately perked up the place, and Lyons knew she could make the residual of the pigment-upward, clean-upward, fix-upward improvements herself.

Fine art supplies of every description are stored in card itemize files from the Centerville Library and in other storage cabinets donated by friends and organizations, and Lyons has arranged it all to make it easy to detect and use.

Now that the studio is in social club, Lyons has endless ideas for the infinite and for classes, activities, and events. "I'1000 kind of an idea person," she said. "In fact, my friends call me an idea factory."

Her aim is to proceed the studio full of people–adults, children, and teens–making art, music, trip the light fantastic toe, and theater all day long. The center'southward winter classes, which first Saturday, January 7, are a skilful offset.

I of Lyons' passions is journaling, and teaching others how to tape their ain lives "as a mode of remembering and as a manner of forgetting." She encourages writing and illustrating journals as a way of releasing stress, and is quick to say that i does not need to know how to draw to create a beautiful, meaningful journal. And, for those who may exist reluctant to share what they accept written, she demonstrates ways of hiding or disguising 1's writing.

Her "Journal A Year" form starts Saturday, January vii, and runs for three consecutive Saturdays, from x:30 AM to 12:30 PM. ($75, $threescore for members, $10 materials fee)

Those who have already learned how to journal may take it upward an artistic level in "Journal on Your Own" offered during the aforementioned time period, to have use of the studio infinite, tools, and supplies. ($15 per session, $10 for members)

Lyons is also instruction "Artist's Way," based on the book of the same name by Julia Cameron. Classes are every other Mon dark for six sessions, but, by the time you read this, this class may be full.  On Thursday nights, she is teaching "Artists Forth the Way," based on Julia Cameron's book, "Walking in the World." This class continues the self-discovery procedure begun in "Artist's Way."

Rosalie McCarthy will teach Life Drawing on half dozen Wed evenings from vii to 9 PM, showtime Jan 11. Students will work from a live nude model, using a diversity of media. Beginners through advanced students are welcome. ($135, $110 for members)

Christine Rathbun, who presented her monologue, "The Further Adventures of the Fatty-Ass Cancer Bowwow," at the Cotuit Center for the Arts' Black Box theater last summer, volition teach "I thought I was the simply ane, women's lives in context," an eight-week series of classes in autobiographical storytelling for women of all ages and writing abilities. The class filled up quickly.

Music classes are offered too. Ballroom Dancing will exist taught Sun evenings from v to 6:30 PM, beginning January 22, for 6 weeks. (singles: $120, $90 for members; couples, $210, 150 for members)

The popular Ukulele Orchestra classes continue, taught by Steve Gregory, beginning January 14, for six weeks. Intro to the Ukulele is nine to 10:30 AM, and Ukulele Orchestra ii meets from x:xxx AM til noon. All ages are welcome, and singing forth is encouraged, just not required. ($120, $ninety for members)

Scotty West will teach a 12-calendar week serial on the language of music in Music Appreciation from the Within Out: Structures in the Language of Music on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9 PM.

For children, Lyons offers an innovative course chosen Altered Books, in which she shows children how to transform an otherwise unwanted volume into a work of art, gluing some pages together, removing others, painting some, folding some, adding doors, windows, and pockets, and working with paints, stamps, collage, and a diversity of other media. They will create a unique altered book while learning to think outside the box.

Lyons uses the word "pentimento" to depict role of the process of making altered books. The work refers to a time when people painted new pictures over one-time canvases or paintings they didn't like. Sometimes the new pigment would wear off, and a chip of the earlier painting would evidence through, perhaps a forest scene showing upwards on a woman'south cheek.

In the instance of altered book, office of the original book might show through, equally a pentimento. The possibilities are endless for both intentional and unplanned uses of this technique.

Lyons wants to tie art classes to events and activities at the center, and an example of this is her "Wild Things" mixed-media sculpture form for 8-to-12 year-olds. Students will visit the Wild Things exhibit at the center's gallery, so come dorsum to the fine art studio to create their own wild things. Students volition learn how to create sculpture of various materials and using different methods of holding the sculpture elements together. This form meets on Tuesdays from 4 to 6 PM, get-go Jan 10. ($120, $ninety for members)

Children volition learn to work with different challenges and restrictions. They may be given specific materials that they will be required to incorporate into their sculptures (for example, a long piece of cream tubing) and they will not be allowed to use others (for example, they might exist restricted from using mucilage and have to figure out other means of fastening their sculpture together). They might be challenged to make a figure, an animal, a container, or a vehicle.

Lyons has found a multifariousness of nontraditional fine art materials for this grade for free, from Craig'due south List and other sources.

Interim classes are offered on Wed for children 8 to 12 (5 to 6:xxx PM) and for teens thirteen and older (6:30 to viii PM), beginning January 11, and running for eight weeks. ($120, $90 for members)

Coming up during schoolhouse vacation week, Michele Colley, Patti Anderson, and Michelle Constabulary will offer Music Theater Workshop for ages six to 12. Classes volition run Monday through Fri, February 20 to 24, from x:30 AM to 3 PM. In this pop workshop, kids will learn the basics of singing, dancing, acting, and the visual arts, culminating in a creative production for family unit and friends. (175)

Though she did not major in art in school, Lyons comes from a crafty family unit ("My family unit makes things"), and that has always been part of her life. She majored in theater education in college and worked with Looking Glass Theater for a while and toured her own one-woman puppet show in the Boston area, until she had children and moved to the Cape.

She worked in advocacy for children for a time and then went back to schoolhouse to become a teacher. She turned to art education as a direct response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. At the aforementioned time, a expert friend, an art teacher, died of chest cancer, and her oldest child went off to college. It was a time of uncertainty and change, and Lyons realized that life could end at whatever fourth dimension. If she ever wanted to teach fine art, to have a more creative life, she knew she had to get started.

So, she got certified to teach art and began teaching out of her home studio and other places, including the Cape Cod Art Clan.

"Fine art connects," Lyons said. The art classes are more than merely didactics art, they are a way of bringing people together, encouraging conversations, allowing people to chat about all kinds of things.

"Life is stressful," she said, "and art helps to relieve that stress, connects you to other people–and it is fun."

Lyons has an affluence of ideas for future classes. In March, an Irish vocalist/songwriter will come to perform at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. She will teach a songwriting class and, in the arts center, a bodhran (Irish pulsate) grade. There will be a portrait drawing grade to go along with a portrait fine art exhibit.

She has created art workshops for  Cease Bullying programs. Art journals have proved to be excellent tools for encouraging cocky-sensation and acceptance of others, and she volition continue the program at the Cotuit Center for the Arts.

She also enjoys creating family events. Her Family unit Holiday Workshops were successful in bringing the generations together in December, and she has more planned. The next one is Valentine Arts on Feb 11. Children and their parents or grandparents can come in and make fine art together. "They tin spend ii hours making one giant valentine, or they can make 25 valentines for their class," she said.

"It is difficult sometimes for parents to get together materials for their children to do art. I desire to make information technology easy for them by providing the infinite, the tools, and the materials."

"Y'all come and relish, and I'll clean up," she said. "My goal is to create fun experiences in the arts for people to enjoy together.

"I feel like the vision of the Cotuit Center for the Arts and my vision are the same. We want to create a community place for people of all ages to gather together, whether information technology is for music, for performance, or to accept an opportunity to perform, or brand music and art, to have an opportunity to share.

And if Lyons is not already offering a class that is of interest to you, let her know what y'all might be interested in making, what kind of course y'all'd enjoy taking, and information technology is likely that she volition be able to come up upward with merely the affair to run across your needs.

The Cotuit Centre for the Arts may be reached at 508-548-0669. For a list of classes available at present, click hither.

lordequallown.blogspot.com

Source: https://notesonthearts.com/2012/01/19/lenore-lyons-brings-art-and-enthusiasm-to-the-cotuit-center-for-the-arts/

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