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!
Age 9–11
Thinking like a sculptor students will wind, twist, weave, and knot wire to make imaginative creations.
Age 6–8
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!
Ages 14-18
Develop your drawing and painting skills digitally with free phone or tablet applications.
Adults
Explore the basics of 2D art through guided exercises based on artworks by great women artists...
Begin your exploration of abstract painting!
Enjoy the brilliant colors of fast-drying acrylics and learn to build layers of textures and washes in landscape, still life, and abstract painting.
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.
Develop basic design skills for artistic and commercial applications through a variety of student projects, lectures, and demonstrations.
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.
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.
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!
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..
Ages 12-14
Use a variety of media including watercolor, acrylics, oil pastels, and chalk pastels to produce an exciting array of two-dimensional abstract art.
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.
Further develop basic skills in this perfect follow-up to the introduction to painting received in Painting I: Short Form.
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!
Explore the fundamentals of relief printing through traditional printmaking tools and chine-collé.
Learn the basics of making one of the most interesting forms in pottery: the teapot.
Use watercolor to explore the development of abstract form from an observed reality in a free and spontaneous way.
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.
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.
Create detailed drawings of animals using graphite, ink, and colored pencils, ideal mediums for rendering fur, feathers, and scales.
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.
Learn how to create abstract drawings using natural forms as inspiration.
Select an object as your subject for a series of small realistic pencil works—the starting point for large-scale drawings full of gesture, movement, space, and energy.
Total beginners and experienced students: make vivid landscapes and cityscapes in a vacation sketchbook to enhance trip memories.
Practice a new drawing medium in each session and enjoy drawing success from the very first class.
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.
Join this finely tuned mixed media studio for those who wish to go deeper into the life and impact of the 2-D image.
Learn how to render botanical subjects in a realistic manner. Explore the work of the Dutch masters of still life, impressionist florals, and contemporary…
Learn practical skills necessary to accomplish accurate color mixing with oil or acrylic, plus explore the color wheel and simple color theory!
Learn a personal approach to figure painting with a grounding in canonical painters such as Matisse, Milton Avery, Picasso, de Kooning, and many more.
Learn the basics of color theory and some new mixed media painting techniques while exploring the geometries, beauty, and surprises found in nature.
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.
We’ll review Stephen Quiller’s color theories and make our compositions more dynamic in whichever painting medium you choose.
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!
This part workshop, part self-paced drawing and painting lab is designed as a follow-up to our Children's Book Illustration course!
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.
Create a variety of images using gelatin printing, a form of monoprinting in which a gelatin slab is used as a printing plate along with acrylic paints or water-soluble inks.
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.
Learn the basics of welding and steel fabrication. Discover how to move from 2-D to 3-D, and create a small welded steel sculpture.
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.
Learn how clay vessels have been built through history. Use basic forming techniques and add a personal touch to your work while exploring early clay forms.
Explore and realize your own visions. Focus on narrative work employing human and animal forms, and develop and execute your own visual vocabulary.
Expand your understanding of stoneware or porcelain, under-glaze colors, and high-fire glazes.
Enjoy the creative pleasure of making functional pottery off the wheel! Create hand-built cups and tumblers by utilizing templates and thin clay slabs.
From understanding basic dipping and pouring to experimenting with fun and easy decorating techniques, students will learn to simplify glaze choices and gain versatility with a few favorites.
Take better photographs and learn the best techniques in the revolutionary photo editing program Adobe Lightroom CC.
Explore the potential of the iPhone camera, including the best apps for creating artistic images and amazing examples of work by professional photographers.
Learn the basics of making cloth on a loom. We will cover planning a project, choosing yarns, warping and setting up the loom, and weaving itself.
If you have some familiarity with weaving, this class will guide you through your own projects. Review materials and techniques, then tackle design and work independently.
This class meets in different locations, where students are challenged to create work from whatever is at hand, cobbling together serendipitous sculptures in situ.
Homeschool
Explore 3-D! Clay and other media are used to practice creating art in three dimensions while students learn about history’s notable sculptors.
Focus on art history of the 20th and 21st centuries while exploring formal elements and design principles and strengthening artistic skills.
Students will generate and conceptualize artistic ideas into 3-D forms while studying traditional and contemporary examples from art history.
Use a variety of mediums to take your artistic skills to a new level! Each class has a different theme: portraiture, still-life composition, figure drawing, capturing landscapes, and more.
Parent & Child
Design and decorate a large, beautiful platter perfect for use during the holidays!
Create Picasso-esque witches, monster pop-up cards, and skeleton sculptures in this imaginative class, inspired by Halloween.
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.
Age 9–11, Ages 12-14
Use basic clay throwing techniques such as centering, pulling, and finishing to create one-of-a-kind works of art.
Advance your skills drawing the human form. Create drawings that incorporate movement, large structural relationships, proportions, and line.
Learn about contemporary painters who explore perception through color theory, geometric abstraction, minimalism, and Op art!
Hone your drawing skills as we explore the world of cartoons and comics!
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!
Make sculpture by combining interesting found objects such as branches, broken toys, and plastic with traditional art supplies like pen, paper, and paint!
We’ll break tiles to decorate projects such as a flowerpot, small tabletop, wall hanging, or stepping stone. Imagine, design, glue, grout, and go!
Paint, draw, and sculpt nature by creating bug sculptures, animal portraits, and landscape paintings of the history-laden land around your critters!
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, design, and construct fantastic kinetic (or moving) sculptures that look alive!
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.
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...
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.
Make your painting compositions more dynamic! Learn to use contrast, direction, the Golden Mean, color choices, and other elements and principles…
Learn how Richard Diebenkorn saw the world, mixed color, and applied paint to achieve brilliant works of art.
Learn new techniques of combining materials to create unique works of art. Use 2-D media alongside 3-D reliefs and objects to express your point of view and experiences…
Bring a point-and-shoot camera or any device with a camera (iPhone/iPad) and learn to make your own movies from beginning to end.
Study drawing and painting, exploring form, color, perspective, texture, value, and composition using a realistic approach.
Using earthenware clays, gain a working knowledge of techniques such as press molding, slab and-coil construction, and throwing cylinder and bowl forms.