Showcasing two renowned and architecturally unique locations, The Contemporary Austin brings multidisciplinary exhibitions, engaging programs, and enticing special events to the city's visual arts landscape.
The Contemporary Austin is now open in a limited capacity. Click here to learn more.
The Contemporary Austin offers diverse, engaging ways to explore contemporary art and culture, including innovative opportunities and experiences for families, young people, artists, and educators.
The acclaimed Art School at Laguna Gloria offers classes for ages four through adult in painting, drawing, ceramics, printmaking, photography, sculpture, digital media, and more. Summer 2021 registration now open!
Ages 12-14
Make sculpture by combining interesting found objects such as branches, broken toys, and plastic with traditional art supplies like pen, paper, and paint!
Ages 14-18
In this exciting special offering, explore Torbjørn Rødland's exhibition, Bible Eye, currently on view at the Jones Center...
Come discover the secrets to using natural materials to create different color dyes...
Jump into the experimental medium of collage to create artwork using magazine clippings, pop culture findings, and decorative paper...
We’ll break tiles to decorate projects such as a flowerpot, small tabletop, wall hanging, or stepping stone. Imagine, design, glue, grout, and go!
Thinking like a sculptor students will wind, twist, weave, and knot wire to make imaginative creations.
Paint, draw, and sculpt nature by creating bug sculptures, animal portraits, and landscape paintings of the history-laden land around your critters!
Age 9–11
Invent amazing and fanciful creatures and characters in 3-D! Using the basic elements of sculpture (shape, color, scale, and texture), your work will seem to come alive!
Age 6–8
Use a variety of media including watercolor, acrylics, oil pastels, and chalk pastels to produce an exciting array of two-dimensional abstract art.
Study Frida's paintings, especially her self-portraits, as inspiration for your own artwork. Use a variety of materials to create works that express personal and unique life experiences.
Paint, draw, and sculpt with inspiration from our watery friends of the deep.
Create your own ''wild things'' and expand your skills in clay, paint, collage, and more!
Explore sculpture and more while drawing inspiration from the contemporary masters' sculpture on display at Laguna Gloria.
Develop your drawing and painting skills digitally with free phone or tablet applications.
Explore, design, and construct fantastic kinetic (or moving) sculptures that look alive!
Adults
Learn the techniques of perception Georgia O’Keeffe used to paint her incredible landscapes, cityscapes, and objects...
Explore the basics of 2D art through guided exercises based on artworks by great women artists...
Learn the basics of drawing botanical subjects with beautiful Laguna Gloria and Mayfield Park as inspiration...
Enjoy the brilliant colors of fast-drying acrylics and learn to build layers of textures and washes in landscape, still life, and abstract painting.
Shooting assignments focus on expanding composition skills, understanding light, and becoming comfortable and confident in manipulating manual exposure.
Practice a new drawing medium in each session and enjoy drawing success from the very first class. Refine your technique in a supportive environment for beginners.
Learn about line, value, perspective, and composition as you begin to draw and then improve your skills through quick sketches and completed drawings...
Absolute beginners or those with rusty skills will discover, strengthen, and hone painting skills during an enjoyable weekend.
Discover, sharpen, and strengthen your skills to approach painting with confidence. Understand oil and acrylic paint and develop a foundation for future work.
Beginners or those with minimal experience learn different ways to start paintings, use paint as a wash or with texture, and practice old master techniques.
Beginners are introduced to the watercolor medium while intermediate-level students advance technique and skills through practice and critiques...
Break away from traditional landscape painting and explore color, shape, and brushwork in a new class that explores the connection between landscape forms and abstract painting.
All levels are welcome in this information-packed class taught by a national award–winning children’s book author and illustrator.
Come outside and paint Austin’s waterways “en plein air”
Learn complete manual control of a camera. While using a digital SLR is essential, you will subsequently be able to pick up any camera and make a manual exposure.
Age 4–5
Enhance your child’s innate creativity! Young artists learn to think creatively and shape ideas into art they can see, touch, and know.
Explore the jungles of the world and learn about the creatures living there. Create birds and beasts using feathers, fabric, cloth, and other wild materials!
Children travel the world while learning about the art of other cultures...
Creative young artist-scientists will observe and re-create the beauty and color found in nature, especially insects, learning how art and biology intersect.
Children learn to paint, draw, and sculpt fish and other underwater creatures and plants while exploring basic art vocabulary.
Venture into real and imaginary worlds with the stroke of a marker, the rub of charcoal, and the glide of pastels.
Create realistic paintings and express your artistic spirit in both bold and delicate colors using skillful brushstrokes.
Create playful and dramatic out-of-this-world art from another universe by drawing, painting, and sculpting aliens, robots, and other imaginary life-forms!
Hone your drawing skills and turn doodled creations into terrific cartoon characters!
Venture into real and imaginary worlds with the stroke of a marker, a piece of charcoal, and pastels while learning more advanced design and drawing skills.
Set up a palette, blend brilliant colors, and use different types of brushes. Create volume with light and make shadows in a still life, paint a landscape, and more..
Learn to capture images, then explore the creative possibilities in Photoshop to bring out your vision as an artist.
Make your own clay cartoon, then create a movie set and animate a mini-movie with your creature as the star!
Make your own clay cartoon, then create a movie set and animate a mini-movie with your creature as the star. Discover secrets and tricks to make…
Children travel the world while learning about the art of other cultures. We’ll explore Hopi sculpture, Japanese origami, Australian Aboriginal painting, and ancient Egyptian masks.
Expand your skills in fundamental painting methods!
Explore the modern concept of collage through techniques employed by Picasso, Braque, and other Cubists.
Pointillism is an offshoot of Impressionism in which the painting technique uses dots of color to achieve the forms.
Learn how to create amazing designs, fantastic creatures, and artistic landscapes with 3-D modeling.
Ever wanted to print your own T-shirts, posters, or cards? Master the fundamentals of screen printing so you can experiment confidently!
Get acquainted with basic woodworking techniques, machine and tool operation, and safe studio practices!
Explore painting, sculpture, and more while drawing inspiration from the contemporary masters on view at Laguna Gloria!
Let's get out of the studio and experience nature!
Get the most out of your digital camera! Move step-by-step through the important manual digital camera functions as you begin to understand the importance of light and...
Explore the fundamentals of relief printing through traditional printmaking tools and chine-collé.
Learn how working large loosens up individual style and enables artists to make a powerful statement.
Inspired by various artists that use "maps" in their work, create your own "map of the imagination" based on your experiences and fantasies.
Explore the open-ended and fun medium of collage to create unique works of art!
Integrate book making, printmaking, and hand-painted papers into your collages!
A hands-on tour of drawing, painting, watercolor, and collage, including foundational principles and language that can be used across disciplines.
Bird lovers! Learn to draw birds from your own photos or images from the internet. Teacher demos and handouts will help you observe and simplify...
Enjoy and examine the native plants in your own backyard/local parks and trails/(or florist) as your subjects.
Add color to your repertoire by drawing with colored pencils. Explore layering, burnishing, and dissolving the waxy pencil to create luminous works of art.
Explore a succession of techniques using instructor Katherine Amman’s four-step process: Gesture, Volume...
Expand your visual acumen through study of the proportions, contours, volumes, and details of the head and face.
Absolute beginners use a variety of materials including charcoal and Conté crayon and employ basic principles of drawing while working from a live model.
Perfect your ability to render the human figure and expand upon basic drawing skills, through a variety of different nude models and lengths of poses.
Total beginners and experienced students: make vivid landscapes and cityscapes in a vacation sketchbook to enhance trip memories.
Enhance drafting skills through drawing plant forms while exploring the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Explore options, gain clarity on tools and techniques for both realistic and abstract styles, and learn practical skills and time-saving tips.
Conquer a variety of abstract painting techniques, including abstracting real objects, intuitive painting, and gestural works.
Work from a live model or personal photographs to expand your skills through study of the proportions, contours, volumes, and details of the head and face.
Beginners and those needing a refresher course alike will gain insight into the wonderful medium of watercolor during an enjoyable, challenging weekend.
This workshop-style class picks up where Watercolor Basics and Beyond leaves off, featuring new exercises and demos that focus on value, pattern, and color.
Explore composition, form, value, and color mixing through painting objects in a realistic style.
Students will leave with a series of spontaneous and unique watercolor paintings.
Learn how to approach portraiture in watercolor!
Learn to prepare blocks, draw, carve, and print while examining the history of relief printmaking with an emphasis on contemporary art.
Have you ever wanted to print your own T-shirts, posters, or cards? Master the fundamentals of screen printing so you can experiment confidently.
Learn three approaches to drawing images of plants and flowers. Then, using your drawings, create color block prints.
Adults, Ages 14-18
Customize your own “art bike” in this exciting workshop in collaboration with the Austin Yellow Bike Project!
Learn the basics of manipulating and joining metal to create objects from simple tables to conceptual sculpture.
Bring the heat in this exciting class that combines MIG and oxy-acetylene welding with forging.
Expand your skills, practice MIG (metal inert gas) welding techniques, and become more familiar with oxy-acetylene and hot form steel.
Fabricate a wood and metal project as you familiarize yourself with material attributes, proper tool usage, and shop safety while learning the basics of welding and woodworking.
Using stoneware clay, gain a working knowledge of techniques such as slab construction, classic coil, pinched vessels, and throwing elemental wheel forms.
Beginners cover the basics of hand building and wheel throwing, while experienced students build on previous lessons, refine techniques, and create vessels.
Beginners will be introduced to basic shapes while experienced potters will expand skills and explore forms such as lidded jars and large objects.
Beginners and experienced students will enjoy this welcoming class. Learn the basics of centering, opening, and pulling clay on the potter’s wheel…
Explore inventive hand-building techniques for making functional pottery in this fun and informative class.
Expand your understanding of stoneware or porcelain, under-glaze colors, and high-fire glazes.
Take better photographs and learn the best techniques in the revolutionary photo editing program Adobe Lightroom CC.
Learn the basics and develop your editing skills to transform your photos into richer, more visually interesting images.
Explore the potential of the iPhone camera, including the best apps for creating artistic images and amazing examples of work by professional photographers.
Using ingredients from the kitchen, we’ll make our own clay to form brilliant creatures, and then move on to air-drying, oven hardening, and ceramic clay in the kiln.
Boost your art confidence while exploring basic ceramic skills, building with rich clay materials, and using a variety of glazes.
Turn those doodled creations into terrific cartoon characters. Explore cartooning, craft your own cartoons, and practice lettering, perspective, timing, and expression.
Advance your skills drawing the human form. Create drawings that incorporate movement, large structural relationships, proportions, and line.
Students will create maps, sketches, and watercolor paintings of birds, fish, and plants as they explore the ecology of Laguna Gloria and Mayfield Park next door!
Learn the basics of welding and woodworking. If your interest is to work with wood or metal or you just want to get comfortable using power tools, this course is for you!
Adventure into the amazing world of animals, including the jungle, zoo, and even imaginary realms, using clay forms.
Create clay molds of mask shapes (animals and fantasy characters), then cover them with nontoxic, biodegradable papier-mâché.
Journey to Mexico by creating a variety of folk art projects designed to expand your art skills!
Learn to weave natural fibers and discover amazing colors, design patterns, and textures!
Build strong foundations with clay to create a life-size 3-D sculpture of a favorite person, creature, or character!
Use basic clay throwing techniques such as centering, pulling, and finishing. Learn to throw cylinders and turn them into one-of-a-kind works of art.
Venture into real and imaginary worlds with the stroke of a marker, a piece of charcoal, and pastels while learning more design and drawing skills.
Set up a palette, blend brilliant colors, and use different types of brushes. Create volume with light and shadow in a still life.
Enter the inventive and fabulous world of Surrealism—beyond realism—and use it as a springboard for creativity!
Explore the urban environment in and around downtown Austin and embark on a shooting adventure to a different destination each day.
Learn the basics of welding and explore the possibilities of steel as more than an industrial material.
Make your mark at the museum! Create a large-scale group mural on the exterior of the Art School buildings at Laguna Gloria.
Working beneath the open-air, covered canopy of the Jones Center, students will use the immediacy of drawing to render views of the city.
Use basic clay throwing techniques such as centering, pulling, and finishing. Learn to throw cylinders and turn them into one-of-a-kind works of art!
Expand your skills in fundamental painting methods. Instead of rushing into advanced theories and techniques, keep things simple and paced for comfort, ease, and comprehension...
Create dramatic compositions in watercolor inspired by...
Become familiar with acrylic painting materials, techniques, and terminology. Experiment with landscape, portrait, and figure painting using a foundation of basic drawing techniques.
Learn the building blocks of screen printing in this workshop-style version of our longer screen printing series.
Learn the artist’s distinctive style and create works based on his pool paintings, portraits, and landscapes.
Through unusual subject matter and practicing new abstraction techniques, learn to perceive even realistic subjects abstractly.
Learn to perfect your photos by correcting or refining color and exposure, removing blemishes, smoothing out skin, and removing unwanted…
Age 9–11, Ages 12-14
Study drawing and painting, exploring form, color, perspective, texture, value, and composition using a realistic approach. Build the skills needed to capture subject matter convincingly!
Using earthenware clays, gain a working knowledge of techniques such as press molding, slab and-coil construction, and throwing cylinder and bowl forms.