Students of all skill levels can explore their creative interests and sharpen their artistic skills in non-credit art and design classes and workshops offered by the Ringling College Continuing Studies’ Studio + Digital Arts program. The winter/spring semester features more than 75 studio arts and digital arts courses, including drawing, painting, photography, graphic design and web design. Classes, taught by seasoned artists, instructors, and designers in state-of-the-art, professionally equipped facilities, run one to eight sessions each, and are held during the day, evenings and weekends. The winter/spring semester is Jan. 13-May 1 at the new Ringling College Museum Campus, 1001 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota.

“Whether you enjoy dabbling in new techniques, or you’re honing skills for professional advancement, there are a variety of courses to help you reach your goals,” says Diane Zorn, Continuing Studies Education Program Coordinator. “These classes are ideal for aspiring artists just beginning their creative journey, as well as practiced artists seeking inspiration and camaraderie.” Zorn notes that students can explore traditional art techniques, refresh existing skills, and master new methods in digital and traditional media.

Zorn adds that the Ringling College Museum Campus now boasts the Linda and Dick Dickinson Ceramics Studio, a brand new, fully equipped ceramics studio to support sculptural and functional work. “We are grateful to the generosity and creative passions of Linda and Dick Dickinson for funding this opportunity for the community,” says Zorn. She says that students of all skill levels may enroll in a variety of classes in wheel-throwing, and hand-building processes and projects. “Students can learn new skills and build knowledge in functional, narrative, and decorative processes,” she says. Classes and workshops are available days, evenings, and weekends. Space is limited and participants are advised to enroll early to secure a seat.

One of the highlights of the winter semester is the Spring Art Week, March 7-15.  This concentrated week of workshops welcomes students of all skill levels and features introductory workshops and master classes with visiting and local artists. The week includes workshops in bead weaving, outdoor landscape sketching, oil and cold wax painting, art quilt and fiber collage, glass arts, clay figure sculpting, creating and painting on the gilded surface, and many more.

New classes this semester include Art Journaling and Book Forms (creating personal journals of memories, dreams, travels, hobbies, and stories); Let’s Tell a Story in a Teapot (all skill levels are invited to make sculptural teapots with cup sets and trays.); Creativity on the iPad (learn how to create digital illustrations on the iPad with Procreate); Web Design with Web Flow (students will be introduced to the fundamentals of Webflow to learn how to develop and maintain a website);  Portrait Drawing Workshop (this class offers an inspired exploration of realism, exaggeration, cartooning, and symbolism as you develop methods to convey a likeness); and Heart of Glass (participants of all levels will learn how to safely use the hot shop, gather glass from the furnace, add color, and shape it into a glass heart), among dozens of other studio and digital arts classes.

“Whatever direction your inner muse is leading you, we offer the tools and the teachers to set you on your creative journey,” Zorn concluded.

For more information and to register, visit www.olliatringlingcollege.org; call 941-309-5111; or email [email protected].