The Crookston Public Library is introducing a new monthly art club called “Art by the Red.” The club will meet every second Monday of the month from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. to learn different art mediums, meet local artists, and work on individual art projects!
At each meeting, the club at the library learns different art techniques to complete various art projects and discuss different artistic mediums with other club members and guest artists. “If you’re a beginner artist, or if you already are artistically inclined or an artist that would like to meet some like-minded people and do some art with others in the community, this is for you,” Club president Jane Berg explained. “The club is going to be open for mid-teens through senior citizens, and we’re going to be doing art projects.” Each month, the club will discuss different art techniques and experiment with them to create projects, hear from a guest artist on how they used the technique to create some of their work, or see artwork that club members are working on to receive help or feedback from other members or teachers in a section known as “Workshop Time.” “Our first meeting on Monday, we’re going to be learning about colored pencil drawing and techniques. So, we’ll be learning that and giving people an opportunity to learn on that technique. Then we’re going to learn some other techniques,” Jane Berg explained. “Other months, we might do some painting, some we might do ink drawing, and hopefully in some months when summer comes around, and the weather gets nice and warm, we’ll head out to the local park and do some nature drawing. There’s going to be some different things we’ll talk about and different artistic mediums that we’ll be doing and give people an opportunity to learn from other artists in the community.”
While the library already has several clubs within it, such as Reading by the Red and other programs that Club President Jane Berg found that many people were extremely interested in that she wished to make events like that happen more often. “One of the things that really inspired me to start Art by the Red is that I did a couple of art projects and programs here last year. I did a Paint and Sit program last winter and a nature sketching program last August, which was pretty popular,” Jane Berg explained. “So, it inspired me to do something on a monthly basis because there were people that were really looking forward to these events, and I wanted to have something that was more on a regular basis, so Art by the Red was formed.”
Before each meeting, the club will post what art medium it will be studying for it on the Crookston Public Library’s Facebook page. The club also encourages new members who wish to come to RSVP with the library to learn what the club will do at the next meeting and help them learn how many people are coming to help them prepare the art supplies they need. Artists are welcome to bring their own supplies to club meetings if they wish, but the library will provide any necessary supplies. Along with art supplies, the club will provide sketchbooks where members can hold their completed or in-progress artwork with others.
The Art by the Red Club’s first meeting will be held Monday, January 9, beginning at 6:00 p.m. in the Crookston Public Library. To learn more and stay up to date on the club’s activities, you can go to the Crookston Public Library’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/crookstonpubliclibrary.
