Sioux City Art Center

FREE HOLIDAY WORKSHOPS

Celebrate your holiday season the old-fashioned way…create artistic, hand-crafted gifts.

WHEN: Saturday, December 5, 2009
WHAT: Each one-hour art-making workshop is presented twice
TIME: 10:30 a.m. & 11:30 a.m.; 1:30 p.m. & 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: Sioux City Art Center, 225 Nebraska St., Sioux City, IA Studio #203
WHO: Children and Adults (children 5 and under must be accompanied by an adult.)

* Register by calling the Sioux City Art Center at 712-279-6272 ext. 200
* Register for workshops at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., or 2:30 p.m.
* Expect to work approximately one hour per project.
* Register for up to 2 workshops per person.
* Be on time to your workshop in order to keep your reserved place - late arrivals may lose their space.
* Persons who do not pre–register may participate in a workshop only if space is available.
* Maximum of 10 persons per workshop.

Morning ONE-HOUR WORKSHOPS - 10:30 a.m. and repeated at 11:30 a.m.

Holiday Ornaments ~ Martha Ericson
*Decorate two wooden or glass holiday ornaments with sequins, beads, glitter glue, ribbon, feathers, paint and other materials.

Wooden Birdhouse ~ Brenda Thelen
*Have fun painting and decorating a lovely wooden birdhouse with a variety of materials.

Zany Tree Sculpture ~ Debra Marqusee
*Create a fabulous tree from clay, pipe cleaners, beads, and feathers.

Decorative Wreath ~ Karen Kinney
* Make a nature filled wreath from pine cones, nuts, and berries. Hang on your door or wall for a beautiful decorative touch.

Afternoon ONE-HOUR WORKSHOPS - 1:30 p.m. and repeated at 2:30 p.m.

Mosaic Wall Hanging ~ Debra Marqusee
*Create a holly jolly mosaic plaque with colored glass stones and tiles imbedded in adhesive grout on a wooden base.

Snowman Mittens ~ Marcy O’Connor
* Learn how to turn a child’s mitten into a snowman! So cute it will be sure to warm your heart.

Winter Wonderland Snow Globe ~ Charlene Nelson
*Shake it up and watch it snow! A keepsake, from just a few simple items.

Gingerbread House ~ Noelle Vondrak.
*Assemble your own Gingerbread house with graham crackers and frosting.


PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED-CALL 712-279-6272, ext. 200

YOUR FREE WILL OFFERING IS GREATLY APPRECIATED TO COVER RISING COST OF MATERIALS.

1.) How long have you been at the Sioux City Art Center?

A month and a half.

2.) Tell us about your job as curator.

What I am aiming to do is get to know Sioux City—its past, present and, as much as is possible, future—both in terms of its artistic/cultural interests and its general idiosyncrasies, and then organize exhibitions that reflect these specific things. My job as curator involves finding art that connects to as many people as possible, while presenting viewers with opportunities to experience a gentle yet important shift or expansion in their mindsets. From the internet to satellites and wireless communications, we receive far too much information presented in far too trivial a manner. Maybe I am old (or just old-fashioned), but I still believe that visual artists can be important guides in dissecting all this stuff and presenting us with what matters.

3.) What was your first “real” job?

Depends on what “real” means. My first regular job that involved a time clock and paychecks was frying chicken at a small grocery store in my hometown of Easton, MD. The scars on my left leg from a grease burn involving chicken wings did little to prevent my eventual movement into vegetarianism. My first full-time job out of college was working at the Colonial National Historical Park in Jamestown, VA as a museum technician, cataloging early colonial artifacts. The pay was horrible and the work mostly mind-numbing; but it was a start, and eventually led to other opportunities to work in archaeology. (I was a bit of an odd kid: years before Indiana Jones came out, I wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up. If my archaeology work had involved the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant, perhaps I would never have made a career out of art.)

4.) What would you have hanging on your walls (if you were fully moved in!)?

Most of what my wife and I have in the way of art has come from artists with whom one or both of us have developed friendships. Almost all of it is quite small, which makes for easy hanging and packing. There is no consistent style: some of it is downright silly (two works are titled Lucy Party Bird and Red Haired Toon Girl) and some is more serious. But it all has some kind of personal association behind it. We just don’t have the money to give large sums of money to people we don’t already love.

5.) Which artist inspires you the most & why?

The person who usually comes to mind first is Van Gogh. His work does everything I need in art. It’s intensely personal in every possible way and yet his paintings and drawings can hit me hard as if he somehow were looking at the world through my eyes. It was unlike anything that came before it and yet it didn’t strive for greatness in the way that far too many artists of the 20th and 21st centuries have done—it somehow managed to be both more beautiful than all other work and humble at the same time. As much as I had loved his paintings, an exhibition of drawings I saw a few years ago confirmed for me just how important he is.

6.) What is your favorite thing about the SCAC?

I like the fact that the Sioux City Art Center consciously tries to be part of this community. First of all, it’s free, which is amazing all by itself. But its longstanding commitment to local and regional artists is especially important and rare. It reflects the great, unique cultural history and present of Sioux City.

7.) If you were not a curator … what would you be?

My dream job, assuming I could be successful, would be a professional poker player. My fallback job would be a writer, but I am not certain if I would write fiction or about politics or sports. One thing I would not write about is art; there is far too much writing about art and almost all of it is just awful.

And finally …
8.) Any unusual quirks we should know about?

I have to think that within my answers to questions 1 through 7 at least one unusual quirk has been revealed. If an additional quirk is required, then maybe it’s my need to balance my admiration for deep and sophisticated thinking with an equal part of pure wackiness. Projects I have worked on in the past year have included those immersed in quantum theory, the complexity of psychological perceptions of visual stimuli, and reconsiderations of aesthetics. But I can get just as much satisfaction looking at shiny stuff like chrome and glass, or the colored ball thingy on top of the Terra building; I happily watch reruns of Family Guy dozens of times; and I own a bowling ball.