One night each year guests of Hartford Art School (HAS, a.k.a. the best kept art secret in Connecticut) get to experience creativity the Down & Dirty way. This year over 100 HAS supporters and friends gathered for an evening of art, dinner and drinks.
The Down & Dirty event was created as an opportunity for supporters to see and experience the full range of the school’s offerings. Attendees choose one subject to participate in: book arts, ceramics, design, drawing, life drawing, media arts, painting, photography, sculpture, or art and sustainability.
Associate Professor Jim Lee teaches the basics of bookmaking.
Down & Dirty goers, paired up with student assistants, attended hands-on creative classes under the guidance of HAS instructors. The most difficult task for the evening’s “students” was deciding which class to attend … though the clear hot spot (pun intended) was the forge where attendees got to cast bronze or hot glass. (The lead image shows Linn Bae and Sam Miller preparing for their bronze pour.)
Jimmy Rhea and his team pour molten bronze into the students’ molds.
Participants entered their classes, received their assignments, and walked away with party favors of their own creations.
Karen and Robert Recor show off their bronze creations.
HAS board member John Murphy took home his masterpiece.
Lisa Howard shows Jill Adams the T-shirt she created in design class.
Mohawk’s own Lee Moody (at center, below, with Professor Gort at left) took the media arts class where she scanned her own collection of seashells, and at the end of the evening took home 8 x 10-in. prints beautiful enough to frame.
At the conclusion of the open studio classes, the new artists enjoyed dinner in the school’s Slipe Gallery. Dr. Nancy Stuart, the school’s newly appointed dean, was a Down & Dirty first timer. “I feel lucky to be able to come to the art school and get down and dirty with the talent that’s in this school every day.” Stuart encouraged participants and anyone interested in art to stop by the HAS campus to see exhibits, lectures and attend the many special events hosted by the school.
Fun was had by all. Left to right: Down & Dirty attendees Lee Moody of Mohawk, Nancy Stuart and HAS trustee Pam Williams.
Founded in 1877, Hartford Art School is one of six colleges at the University of Hartford. It serves approximately 300 BFA students through nine major areas of study: sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, painting, drawing photography, media arts, visual communication design and illustration. HAS also offers two unique low-residency MFA programs in illustration and photography.
Photos: Hartford Art School
