Hearthside - The House That Love Built

Announcing Master Workshops in Visual Arts and Cultural History at Hearthside

As a part of Hearthside’s 200th Anniversary celebration, Friends of Hearthside, in conjunction with professional artist Elaine Smollin, is introducing a visual arts program to delve into the rich historic value of Hearthside’s architecture, decorative artifacts, and surrounding landscape. The Rhode Island Workshops on the Great Road at Hearthside and Chase Farm Park will provide an intensive experience of a master workshop studio to a small group of participants over a series of weeks this summer. The first workshop will be The Experimental Wallpaper Workshop which will be held during July. Workshops in painting and drawing will be offered in the Fall as well. The instructor for the workshops will be Elaine Smollin, an accomplished painter trained in archaeology and cultural history.

Friends of Hearthside President Kathy Hartley states, “Hearthside is increasingly becoming a home for learning and exploration as well as a hub for gatherings that celebrate our rich architectural and cultural histories.” “The development of a program that introduces the visual arts is a natural next step in advancing the interpretation and appreciation of this precious historic site.” “We welcome Elaine’s extensive background and impressive credentials as a professional artist, and we’re thrilled she has selected Hearthside as a venue to further her creativity through the development of these workshops.”

Elaine, who grew up in Albion and works in New York City, received her BFA and MFA at Pratt Institute and New York University. A few years ago, she created a program called Drawing the Environment, with a goal of creating small independent art schools on public lands and to preserve historic buildings as the locale for higher education projects. She has run this program successfully in New Jersey and in Bristol, RI. Her recent exhibitions and talks have been held at Kentler International Drawing Space in NYC, at RISD, Smith College and the Hudson River Museum. Elaine is a member of faculty at the National Academy School of Fine Art on Fifth Avenue in New York City. She received a National Endowment for the Arts award for drawing and an IREX National Endowment for the Humanities grant for Archaeological Theory and Cultural History. Learn more at http://drawingtheenvironmenthudsonvalley.blogspot.com.

The workshops have been developed with the help of a grant awarded by The Rhode Island State Council on the Humanities as part of the program “New Trends in Art Education, Design and Preservation.” Elaine developed a proposal that Hearthside could become a center for progressive workshops in Experimental Wallpaper Making, A Local History Curatorial and Exhibition Program, and Painting and Drawing Workshops.

“How we view the path of innovation and tradition that occurred in the past has always given rise to new art movements,” states Elaine. “American trade between Asia and Europe created hybrids of innovation in design that made Rhode Island famous.” Elaine is currently completing research on the workshops through the grant received from the Humanities Council. “We hope that our community’s educators will be attracted to this innovative program,” states Elaine.

The first workshop to be offered will be The Experimental Wallpaper Workshop held July 13 – July 29. Workshop size is limited to 6-8 participants for each class. Each participant will receive individualized instruction tailored to each person's view of history and the trends of art and design that can develop into their finished panorama.

The Experimental Wallpaper Workshop will introduce the process of creating personalized landscape panoramas made from small sketches and printed onto rolls of paper. The workshop is above all a personal experiment to discover the flexibility of simple drawing techniques and the exciting arts of composition. The Experimental Wallpaper Workshop will make use of examples of designs on historic and new wallpapers and floor coverings at both Hearthside and Chase Farm House. Elaine will provide a suite of study materials with reproductions of period wallpapers from the collections of the Newport’s Redwood Library, RISD and private collections. Also provided will be examples of how experimental wallpapers are used in contemporary art movements today, encouraging all to expand our ideas of history, art, design and preservation.

 

The schedule for Experimental Wallpaper Workshops is:

 Tuesday and Thursdays, Accelerated Workshop Series
Meets 2 afternoons or 2 evenings: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. or  6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
 July 13 and 15, 20 and 22, 27 and 29, for a total of six  3-hour sessions.  

The tuition for twice weekly workshop is $450.

 Wednesdays Once each week
 Afternoons or evenings: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. or 6:00-9:00 p.m.
 July 14, 21, 28, for a total of three 3-hour sessions
 The tuition for once weekly workshop is $225.

 For a full program description or to sign up, email Elaine Smollin at
  EASmollin@gmail.com or call her at 401-441-8852 by July 9th.

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