Saturday Studios Program
About the program
For over seventy years the Saturday Studios program at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Design has served a dual purpose: offering elementary through high school students an affordable opportunity to engage in the process of art making and supporting the development of MassArt students as art educators. Courses in a variety of disciplines and media are available by grade level, allowing students to explore and strengthen their creativity and creative problem solving. Classes are taught by MassArt students majoring in Art Education and supervised by MassArt Art Education faculty. All classes take place on the MassArt campus, a unique and extraordinary urban college setting devoted exclusively to the visual arts.
Who is eligible?
These non-credit courses are open to all interested students, regardless of their level of experience in art. There are no prerequisites or portfolio reviews. There is also a no cost parent/guardian drop-in group each week that provides a wide variety of activities ranging from gallery and museum tours, to guest speakers and art-making sessions. This group provides parents and guardians with a wonderful opportunity to connect with their children on art-related issues.
Studios Offered
- Art Explorations (Grades 4 & 5)
- This class explores a variety of ways of making art through drawing, painting, printmaking, and working with clay and other materials. Each of the eight lessons connects to a theme that ties them all together.
- Comic Book Art (Grades 6-8)
- Develop and expand a personal comic style, using dreams, superheroes, and the works of famous artists. Content addresses story, character development, and drawing techniques.
- Sculpture (Grades 6-8)
- Working with sculpting techniques and materials such as fibers, papers, wire, clay, and found objects, students explore innovative assignments to create three-dimensional works of art.
- Painting (Grades 6-8) (Grades 9-12)
- These two courses, one for middle school and one for high school students, provide the opportunity to develop expressive and technical skills in painting. Both traditional and non-traditional methods are introduced. Painting media such as acrylics and watercolors are explored.
- Art of the World (Grades 6-8)
- In this course, students develop personal artistic visions by making art that expresses their own responses to the world around them. Diverse 2D and 3D materials and a wide-range of subject matter are explored, including people, animals, nature, museum collections, and other visual resources.
- The Self Portrait (Grades 9-12)
- Learn the time-honored basic principles and explore technical, expressionistic, and subjective approaches to self-portraiture. A variety of 2D and 3D materials and formats are used. Students often use the course to strengthen portfolios for college application.
- Ceramic Sculpture (Grades 9-12)
- This class develops technical and expressive skills in making three-dimensional ceramic objects. Using a variety of hand-building techniques with a brief introduction to wheel-throwing, students create functional and non-functional works.
- Computer Animation (Grades 9-12)
- Create a 2D animation using various computer animation programs. Students improve storytelling techniques as they develop facility with the processes of computer animation. NOTE: Additional $85 lab fee required.
- Photography (Grades 9-12)
- This course introduces black and white photography techniques including film development, printing, camera operation, and composition. Students need to bring their own 35mm cameras. NOTE: Additional $85 lab fee required.
- The Figure (Grades 11 & 12)
- Explore traditional and innovative ways of rendering the human figure. Students often use the course to strengthen portfolios for college application. A variety of media and styles are presented. Parental consent is required due to use of nude models.
- Advanced Studios (Grades 11 & 12)
- This course helps students review and expand their portfolios by creating cohesive and independently focused bodies of work that can be used for college application. Using both observation and imaginative approaches, students refine ways to express their personal intentions in both 2D and 3D materials. Parental consent is required due to the possible use of nude models.
