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Teacher Discounts
Senior Discounts &
Scholarships available for all Holter Museum classes. Call 442-6400 for details.
Renewal Units are available for all Holter Museum Classes.
Oil Painting Still Life with Dale Livezey
Wed • Jan 27, Feb 3, 10, 17, 25 (5 weeks) • 6pm–9pm
Full – Request Waiting List
Using still life, Dale will provide a basic background regarding the use of oil paints. The five-session class is hands-on with individualized and informal instruction including demonstrations, discussions and studio painting time. This class is suitable for beginning to intermediate students. Students provide their own materials except for solvent. Enrollment is limited to six. Click Find out more below for supply list
Tuition: $150
Dale Livezey’s haunting landscapes are well-known in the Helena area and the northwest. Taking inspiration from the long shadows during the twilight hours, he paints with oils, creating works with depth and luminosity. Dale has been painting since he was a boy.
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Sewing Circle: Blossoms with Artist-in-Residence Marie Watt
Thurs • Jan 28 • 5:30pm–7:30pm
No Registration Necessary
The blossoms in Marie Watt’s artwork are meant to invoke memory of lives lost in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to date. Borrowing from the name of forget-me-not flowers, and using wool fabric, participants will make blossoms that will become a symbol of the lives lost in Iraq, of those we remember, our own loved ones, and our own stories. This event is open to all ages and requires no experience. Come join the sewing circle on a drop-in basis, enjoy snacks, talk with the artist and create blossoms that will be added to the Forget-me-not: Blossoms exhibit in the Holter’s High Gallery.
$5 •free to members •materials provided
Marie Watt is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Portland, OR. She was born to the son of Wyoming ranchers and a daughter of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation (Iroquois/Haudenosaunee). She identifies herself as “half Cowboy and half Indian.”

Storytelling with Soft Sculpture
with Artist-in-Residence Marie Watt
Teacher Workshop (PIR & Renewal Units Available)
Sat, Feb 6 • 10am–4pm (with lunch break)
Register Online
Teachers will work with visiting artist Marie Watt to create a fabric-based sculpture inspired by a memory or experience. Marie’s mother Romayne Watt (Seneca), a Native American education specialist will lead a storytelling circle to set the stage for the day’s activities. Marie Watt is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Portland, OR. Participants will tell stories inspired by an object or memory and create a three dimensional soft-sculpture using recycled wool blankets, needle and thread, as well as remnants of fabric from home. Teachers will find the activities applicable to the classroom.
$25 materials fee (Register at the Holter’s and the Helena school district’s websites.)
Tues • Feb 2, 9, 16, 23, March 2 (5 weeks) • 5:30pm–8pm
Register Online
This class is designed for people who want to expand their basic watercolor skills. Intermediate students will advance their understanding of color theory and design principles. Subjects covered will include landscape, still life and the figure. There will be an emphasis on realistic depiction of objects and spatial relationships including ways of depicting shadows and shading. Critiques for painters who want to improve on their techniques will be incorporated. Click Find out more below for supply list
Tuition: $150 click here for materials list
Carol Montgomery has a BFA in painting from the University of Montana, Missoula. While attending there she fell in love with printmaking, specifically collagraphy with Don Bunse. She subsequently went to the San Francisco Art Institute and earned her MFA in Printmaking. She primarily does printmaking, currently relief forms. She likes to teach because it’s fun to meet new people and do art with them!
Ebru Paper Marbling & Turkish Style Calligraphy with Burcu Kinay & Murat Cabuk
Fri • Feb 19 • 4pm–7pm: Ebru: The Art of Marbling Paper
Sat • Feb 20 • 9am–Noon: Calligraphy:Turkish Style
Register Online
Ebru artist Burcu Kinay guides students in the creation of Ebru, marbled paper done in a painterly style. From its invention in 13th-century Turkistan, China, India, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire calligraphers and artists used marbling to decorate books, imperial decrees, official correspondence, and documents. In this class participants will make their own marbled paper in the Turkish style, adding flower patterns within the traditional marbled designs.
In the second portion of this two-session workshop participants will work with calligrapher Murat Cabuk to practice the art of calligraphy. Cabuk will guide students as they form letters and words in the classic Turkish style. Turkish Calligraphy is a unique synthesis of Western and ancient Eastern styles used by palace artists transform words, verses and even imperial signatures into complicated forms from naturalistic birds, animals and flowers to exquisite ships on the high seas.
Tuition: $75 includes both sessions (all materials included)
Burcu Kinay was born in Istanbul, Turkey. She took lessons in ebru (marbling) in the historical training center for Turkish arts, Caferaga Medresesi. She was an artist performer at the Feta Festival in Poland. She now lives in the Seattle area where she introduces the people of the Seattle area to the art of marbling.
Murat Cabuk was born in Turkey and now lives in New Jersey where he is currently a web application developer as well as a calligraphist. Murat has participated in many festivals and activities to introduce Turkish style calligraphy. He wrote many calligraphy samples; perhaps more than a thousand during these activities. Nowadays, He works on his calligraphy website, www.thecalligraphy.com.

Thurs • March 4, 11, 18, 25, (4 weeks) • 6:30pm–9pm
Full – Request Waiting List
This course is open to beginning and experienced print makers who would like to try woodblock carving and printing. Wood is a unique medium that provides wonderful depth and texture to a finished piece. Each student will work from one block of wood and “reduce” it as they print up to five colors. The student’s final product will be an ornate, colorful, and complex print, yet one that can be achieved by an enthusiastic novice. Students can use the Holter’s printing press or try hand rubbing.
Tuition: $120 (all materials included except carving tools) click Find out more below for information about tools
Claire O’Connell received her MFA in printmaking in 1997 from the University of Montana. She has taught kindergarten through 12th grade art for ten years. Her work has been shown in galleries in Minnesota and Montana, and is owned by collectors nationwide.
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Sat, March 6 • 10am–4pm (bring lunch break)
Cancelled
Coptic binding is captivating in many ways: It developed as a bookbinding method in Egypt possibly as early as the 2nd century AD. It replaced the Roman scroll, being the first book structure where separated pages were bound together with an added cover. And best of all, the beautiful braid-like, link stitches are visible along the spine and allow the book to lie flat when open, making it an ideal book structure for photo albums, journals and sketchbooks. Once we add decorative papers from around the world you will have all the tools you need to make this ancient book structure on your own.
Tuition: $90 (all materials included)
Marion Lavery received her BA in applied art at Penn State and has worked as a commercial artist, potter, and most recently in water-media and collage. She has taught workshops for the Montana Watercolor Society and the Missoula Calligraphers Guild, and has had many gallery shows over the past 25 years.
Tues • March 9, 16, 23, April 6, 13 (5 weeks–no class March 30)
6pm–8:30pm
Register Online
Discover new ways to look at the world while exploring photography as a creative medium. Learn to use the creative controls on your camera, practice using light to creative advantage, and experiment with compositional techniques. Through demonstration, discussion, group critique, and weekly assignments, participants will learn to see with the camera. One evening will be devoted to night photography and Keller will introduce the digital darkroom. Students each need a manual camera (digital or film, with f-stop and shutter speed control) and a notebook.
Tuition: $150
Kurt Keller is a commercial and fine art photographer living in Helena, Montana. Born and raised in Akron, Ohio, Keller earned an associate’s degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University in photo illustration. Keller has been an instructor and artist-in-residence for the Holter Museum.
Sat • March 13 (bring lunch or plan to go out) • 9am-4pm
Register Online
This workshop features an artistic style that’s proven popular with workshop students around the world. Michael will show participants each step in the assemblage art process. It covers everything from gathering found-object materials to putting them together in a way that tells a meaningful story. This is the perfect challenge for collage enthusiasts or anyone looking for a new way to express his or her creativity!
What will the project be?
Everyone has seen those cool Mexican Loteria cards that have images of everything from roosters to devils to mermaids to whatever on them. These are actually used in a Mexican version of Bingo. Well I thought it would be fun to make some chunky and slightly more dimensional versions of these cards. So with a bit of assemblage and collage (a.k.a. collage-ssemblage) we create some nifty pieces of art, using found objects and ephemera as our guide. When you’re done you can turn them into little wall hangings or play with them. -Michael deMeng
Assemblage artist Michael de Meng teaches mixed-media workshops around the world and regularly contributes to such publications as Somerset Studio and Expressions. His work frequently appears in galleries and exhibits. www.michaeldemeng.com
Tuition: $90 (click Find out more for materials list) Find Out More »
Wed • March 17,24, 31 (three weeks) 5:30pm–8pm
Register Online
How do you know what will make a good painting or drawing? Developing strong compositions is not difficult, if you know the formulas. This course will teach you how to see as an artist. Use the visual language of art and employ compositional techniques and principles that will improve your drawings or paintings dramatically. Studying examples of the old masters along with structured guidance, in-class demonstrations, and group reviews will enable you to experiment with and understand the methodology that is essential to creating strong visual compositions. Click Find out more below for supply list.
Tuition: $90
See Tulasi Zimmer’s biography in “Oil Painting, Fabric, Glass, and Metal.”
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