Art at French

Community Education Art Classes

Basics of Bookmaking

Instructor: Rhonda McCune
Tuesdays, March 26–May 7, from 5:30-8:00 p.m.
Level: Beginner
Cost: $199

This course introduces you to a variety of book structures you can make by hand. From folded books, artist books, and hardcover, you will learn to create unbound book structures. This hands-on class will also look at incorporating mixed media techniques and two- and three-dimensionality.

Beginner Jewelry and Metalsmithing

Tuesdays, March 26–May 7, 2024, from 5:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.
Cost: $169
Level: Beginner

Learn the fundamentals of jewelry making through demonstration and studio practice. You’ll gain experience working with sheet metal as well as sawing, filing, soldering, polishing, and bezel setting a gemstone.

Introduction to Screen-Printing

Tuesdays, March 26–May 7, from 5:30–8:00 p.m.
Level: Beginner
Cost: $199

Screen-printing techniques provide artists with a simple method of applying their images and ideas to a wide variety of materials and surfaces. Expand your image-making options by learning the basics of screen-printing to print your hand-drawn and photographic images onto paper and alternative surfaces. Lessons in concept development, screen and surface preparation, registration, and preservation culminate in learning how to establish a studio practice for continued art production and exploration.

Introduction to Studio Lighting

Instructor: Gary Samson
Tuesdays, March 26–May 7, from 6:00–8:30 p.m.
Level: Beginner
Cost$ 199

This course will cover the basics of studio lighting technique with electronic flash equipment to photograph portraits, still lifes, and two-dimensional artwork. Each week will be devoted to a hands-on exploration of the lighting setup needed to produce professional quality images of subjects in a studio setting. Camera and lighting gear selection, proper camera settings, and the use of a light meter will be discussed and demonstrated as well as options for modifying the quality of light to create a specific mood in the finished photograph. A single-lens reflex or mirrorless digital camera is required for this class.

Drawing for Absolute Beginners

Wednesdays, March 27–May 8, from 1:30–4:00 p.m.
Level: Beginner
Cost: $169

Never taken a drawing class before? Feel rusty or simply lack confidence? This course is designed for you. Beginning with a simple contour, you will use line to discover a variety of shapes from the still life and art reproductions. Learn to develop form and space with cross-hatching and shading. Understand what makes a strong composition. Take a chance. Push with contrasts for a more dramatic image. Work in black and white with charcoal and pencils and in color with pastels. Informal individual and group critiques.

Independent Explorations in Printmaking

Instructor: James Chase
Wednesdays, March 27–May 8, 2024, from 5:30–8:00 p.m.
Cost: $199
Level: Intermediate

Interested in working independently in the printmaking studio with guidance from an instructor? In this class for more experienced students, you’ll continue your exploration of materials and processes used by printmakers to create multiple works of art, such as a relief, intaglio, silkscreen, and lithography. Equipment and some materials provided.

Introduction to Lightroom

Instructor: Mike Ariel
Wednesdays, March 27–May 8, 2024, from 6:00–8:30 p.m.
Cost: $199
Level: Beginner

Lightroom has been the industry standard in photo editing for 20 years. In this class, you’ll learn how to edit and manipulate photos, create composites, and make the ordinary extraordinary. The process of quality printing will also be covered, empowering you to create one-of-a-kind images that will last forever. Printing fees included.

Introduction to Personal Memoir

Instructor: Ed Ting
Wednesdays, March 27–May 8, 2024, from 5:30–8:00 p.m.
Level: Beginner to intermediate
Cost: $199

We are all memoir writers, whether we realize it or not. Even those of us who write fiction, plays, essays, and creative nonfiction, do so filtered through the lens of our own personal experiences. All experience levels are welcome; just bring your enthusiasm and your ideas.

Printmaking Open Studio Day

Instructor: James Chase
Level: Intermediate
Cost: $99

Choose from one of the following days:
Wednesday, March 27, 2024, from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024, from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

Open Studio is an informal drop-in time period when we “open” our studio space for artists, makers, or people who just want to explore their craft with those who may share the same creative interests. Or, come in and use the equipment for which you’ve been certified.

Explore, Exploit, Express

Thursdays, March 28–May 9, 2024, from 6:00–8:30 p.m.
Cost: $199
Level: Intermediate

A visual art studio course designed and developed to “get you drawing and painting beyond the mundane and mechanical cliché!” Learn to focus on your painting and drawing with authority; take expressive control and command of your entire canvas while exploring and exploiting more original concepts and images. Overcome self-conscious fears in “open choice” assignments to reveal broader more exciting, effective, and visually complex paintings and drawings. Open to all painting and drawing media.

History of French Hall

In the early 1900s as Manchester became an industrial powerhouse, one element was missing: an institution where residents of Manchester could further their education and exposure to the wider world, a world that included painting, sculpture, music, botany, ornithology, and numerous other subjects.

This was the inspired vision of Emma Blood French: to bring culture to Manchester through direct instruction and lectures in the fine arts, music, literature, and the sciences. She underwrote and built a permanent educational institution in the center of the city, The Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences, and upon the building’s completion in 1916, gifted it to the organization and its members for the betterment of the community.