All Continuing Education Classes

This class is the printmaker's dream come true. It offers intermediate and advanced printmakers the chance to work in an open and collaborative learning community with instruction from a skilled printmaker, using some of the best printmaking facilities in the Midwest. Students may work in screenprinting, relief, intaglio, lithography, or digital printmaking techniques.

Develop and refine an observational drawing practice through close examination and drawing of a variety of plant specimens.

This course provides the foundations of design thinking. Design thinking is a process for creative problem solving.

This introductory class is tailored to those who have never painted or have not used oil paints before and who are ready to take the plunge.

Explore the diverse world of alternative comics creation and production.

Adobe AfterEffects is one of the world’s leading programs for motion graphics, animation, and video production. Learn the essentials of the software, regardless of previous experience.

This course is designed to take your painting skills to the next level by studying the work of some of the greatest and most influential painters of the 20th and 21st centuries. 

Explore different creative ways to represent the Minnesota landscape using watercolor. Topics covered include: perspective, space, color harmony, foreground, middleground, background, atmospheric perspective, emphasis, local color, and composition.

This class will examine the genre of portraiture across art history, while introducing multiple and varied ways to approach the portrait in the studio.

People are drawn to watercolors due to their vibrant, delicate, and luminous qualities. Learn to work with watercolors from observation, photographs, and imagination to create translucent works using this versatile medium.

This five-week course uses Carl Jung's active imagination technique as a jumping-off point for a world-building process grounded in dream, memory, and visualization.

The act of drawing from the live human form can feel intimidating. The key to success lies in a sound understanding of the creative problem-solving process, in combination with an acknowledgment and recognition of one's own "creative DNA."

This class focuses on the process of how to work on a full 32 page children's picture book manuscript.

It's not just what you say, it's how you say it. This class focuses on themes, associations, and special considerations when adding typography or lettering to artistic work.

This six hour class will provide the groundwork for creating print-ready documents using the page-layout application, Adobe InDesign.

This is a weekly accountability and professional development cohort, created as a collaborative space for artists and designers working remotely to set aside focused time for running a creative practice or business, as well as meet and exchange with other practitioners from across the country.

Explore the basics of contemporary furniture design and fabrication in this self-driven class.

Collectively examine the concept of abstraction in art while working through a variety of approaches to abstract painting in oils.

Producing designs that work well as repeating patterns is a very important skill for creative practitioners today. In this class, geared towards art and design practitioners from a variety of disciplines, learn the principles, theory and practice of designing repeating patterns using manual and digital tools and techniques (Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator).

Characters are essential to making a successful story. Take time to observe and discuss ways in which creators establish characters in visual media, including film, animation, comics, and games.

This presentation-style workshop introduces key concepts to help artists better understand the NFT space so that they can engage with it both thoughtfully and critically.

Nature offers boundless inspiration for sustainable design, but how does one access the wealth of biological information available and apply it effectively to design? This course provides an introduction to biomimicry, a discipline that emulates nature's best ideas and blueprints in order to solve human design challenges sustainably.

Augmented reality can allow artists to view their work within their own surroundings, or interact with it in real time. In this course bring artwork to life using augmented reality.

In this 5-week course, students will dive headfirst into the specifics of designing with environmental, social and ecological well-being in mind.

This class introduces individuals with little or no design background to the graphic design practice.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at how contemporary illustrators create work for books, magazines, and online publications.

Go beyond beginner! In this intermediate illustration course, learn more advanced techniques to animate using primarily Adobe Photoshop, as well as some tools in Adobe AfterEffects.

In User Experience (UX) Concepts and Mobile Apps learn the process of utilizing sound UX concepts and techniques in order to plan and create a design for a mobile app.

Dive deeply into a project brief through the process of research, design, and prototyping.

This is the second course in the Web Development course series. In this course, students build on their understanding of HTML, and use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to create well crafted web pages.

"Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of utilizing strategies to ensure that a website or other online content appears as high as possible in online search results. Understanding the basics of SEO and knowing how to apply strategies effectively can have a noticeable impact on a business or organization's success.

Drypoint is a dry intaglio process, which means it creates the delicate lines of intaglio without the use of acid. This short workshop takes students through the process of how to prepare an image for a plate, working the plate itself with intaglio tools, and printing the plate onto paper using an etching press.

Over the years the Procreate app has become more and more sophisticated and an industry standard for digital illustration and graphic design. Learn the basics of drawing with Procreate on an iPad.

This class is ideal for those who work in both print and on the web. Through concise, straightforward instruction, learn how to get started with Adobe Illustrator and how to work toward the creation of images and text with more sophisticated tools and techniques.

Using charcoal, graphite, and ink, focus on the expressive side of drawing through collaborative projects and abstract drawing exercises.

Investigate the difference between weaving and sculpture and explore when the definition between the two forms becomes blurred. Push the boundaries of what weaving is through a sculptural approach.

Learn the groundwork for manipulating images using Adobe Photoshop and explore the most familiar uses of this image editing program, retouching and color-correction.

Explore the art of collage through an examination of the medium’s history and an exploration of smaller scale collage technique. Experiment with different collage techniques like chine colle and decoupage while using found objects, fabric, and mark making tools.

This introductory class is designed to provide an overview of drawing fundamentals. Take a deep dive into observational drawing skills. Learn and use techniques such as organizational line, planar analysis, perspective, and value to create dynamic drawings.

This course covers the fundamentals of line, shape, value, texture, gesture, perspective, and many other tricks of the drawing trade.

Using flowers and plants as subject matter, create watercolor paintings that are vibrant, delicate, and luminous. Work directly from observation at the University of Minnesota’s College of Biological Sciences Conservatory as well as from photographs, and imagination to create translucent works using this versatile medium.

When the work of a truly remarkable artist is recognized, their signature becomes visible, even when not literally present. What is recognized in such instances is the artist's "Creative DNA": a term coined by dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Making monotypes is work that's so engaging it feels like play! Create images on plexiglass using ink, stencils, found objects, and whatever comes to hand and mind. With the magic of presses and serendipity create at least one unique image.

Key to a successful digital marketing campaign is being able to understand how advertising or other online content is performing. This requires understanding how to “get behind the numbers”. 

This class is a quick and accessible photography workshop for everyone—no previous experience required. Using nothing but a smartphone, minimal equipment, and everyday environments, learn how to take high quality images of artwork or products for a creative practice or business.

This workshop is designed to help students ideate. By following prompts and experimenting, create 2D imagery that allows for imperfection and the creation of large quantities of work quickly.

This short workshop will explore the worlds of Eastern and Western style marbling. Marbling is a decorative paper technique created by floating inks and paints on liquid, swirling and combining the colors and transferring the design to paper or fabric.

This final 5-week course of the Fundamentals of Sustainable design series will dive deep into politics and governance in relation to sustainable change.

The increasing complexity and volatility across the globe, from the climate emergency to the issues of social inequity and justice, require today's leaders to leverage insight, agility, and the capacity to foster shared purpose. This introductory course offers pragmatic tools for embarking on a personal practice to cultivate inclusive and wise leadership skills.

This is the third course in the Web Development course series. In this course, students expand on their understanding of HTML and CSS, laying a foundation for more advanced development work.