Adult Classes

Let art created by the great masters of the past and present inspire and influence your own artistic development. Every class includes at least one gallery visit to view part of our permanent collection or a special exhibition.
Adult classes are offered daytimes, evenings and weekends. See each class listing for specific dates.
For information about adult scholarships, please visit our Scholarships page.
For public programs and lectures for adults, visit our Events page.
Browse Courses by Session and Register Online
July Institutes
Large Scale Asian Brush Painting
Paint large plants, flowers, birds, fish and bugs and bring life to your work. Think like a Buddhist and allow your brush to glorify nature.
Bayda Asbridge/fees: member $115 nonmember $140/ Wednesdays/6-9 PM-4 sessions
Explore basic watercolor techniques and experience this unique medium in a supportive environment
William Griffiths/ fees: member $100 nonmember $125/ Tuesdays -3 to 5:30 PM, 4 sessions
Photoshop for Digital Photographers
Learn how to use the basic functions in Photoshop to enhance, fix and manipulate your digital photographs. Focus on resolution, controlling contrast and color, combining photos, file size and sharpening.
Richard Hoyer/ fees: member $115 nonmember $140/ Tuesdays -3 to 5:30 PM, 4 sessions
Develop drawing skills while exploring art-making tools. Study line, shape, value, perspective and composition. Work from objects, pictures and imagination.
Ella Delyanis/ fees: member $120 nonmember $145/ Tuesdays -6 to 9 PM, 4 sessions
Use pen and ink, markers and pencils to create your own alphabet. Bring color to your calligraphy by exploring various watercolor background techniques.
C.J. Kennedy/ fees: member $115 nonmember $140/ Tuesdays -6 to 9 PM, 4 sessions
Learn how to determine the correct exposure, keep the camera steady, and make exciting nighttime compositions. Visit the galleries to look at nightime scenes, and take field trips to practice techniques.
Norman Eggert/ fees: member $115 nonmember $140/ Tuesdays -6 to 9 PM, 4 sessions
Enjoy the challenge of painting or drawing from a portrait model, who will hold one pose to give you time to study the form. View portraits in the galleries to inform your work.
JoEllen Reinhardt/ fees: member $210 nonmember $235/ Tuesdays - 6 to 9 PM, 6 sessions
Explore the basics of silkscreening to create multiple prints on paper and fabric. Learn the basics of silkscreening to create multiple prints on paper and fabric. Use stencils, photo emulsion and registration to create multiple layers. Visit Kennedy to Kent State for inspiration from the sixties and seventies.
Sarah Williams/ fees: member $140 nonmember $165/ Tuesdays -6 to 9 PM, 4 sessions
Bring your digital SLR and learn about settings, aperture and shutter speeds, ISO sensitivity, histograms, focus settings, image quality and size settings. Test out your new skills through in call photo shoots and critiques.
Richard Hoyer/ fees: member $135 nonmember $160/ Tuesdays -6 to 9 PM, 4 sessions
Work in any color medium including oils, pastels, watercolors, acrylics or colored pencils to create rich color and the luminous feeling of light. Visit the galleries to discover how past artists used color in their paintings.
William Griffiths/ fees: member $100 nonmember $125/ Wednesdays -3 to 5:30 PM, 4 sessions
Learn techniques to enhance metal, plastic, cloth, wood, book and paper finishes as well as the glues needed to create long lasting works of art.
Donalyn Schofield/ fees: member $105 nonmember $130/ Wednesdays -3 to 5:30 PM, 4 sessions
Transform objects into beautiful pieces of art. Learn about mixed media techniques to create personal reflections.
Donalyn Schofield/ fees: member $125 nonmember $150/ Wednesdays -6 to 9 PM, 4 sessions
Teacher Institutes
Artful Teaching: Stem to Steam
Add "A"rt to your STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curriculum. Each day, learn exciting ways to add the arts into a STEM subject.
Ellen Donaldson/ fees: member $330 nonmember $355/ Monday through Friday -9 AM to 5 PM, 5 sessions
Artful Teaching: New Teacher Evaluation Tool
Learn all about the new teacher evaluation tool as well as hands-on art making. Each morning focuses on what the tool is and how to write curriculum for it. The afternoons focus on classroom art projects and how they meet the evaluation requirements.
Jane Lattimore/ fees: member $330 nonmember $355/ Monday through Friday – 9 AM to 5 PM, 5 sessions
August Institutes Week I
View paintings in the Art Since the Mid-20th Century galleries. Then, reacquaint yourself with the basics and explore new approaches in acrylics, a versatile medium used by many contemporary artists.
William Griffiths/ fees: member $140 nonmember $165/ Monday through Friday - 9 AM to 12 N, 5 sessions
Develop drawing skills while exploring art-making tools. Study line, shape, value, perspective and composition. Work from objects, pictures and imagination.
George Hancin/ fees: member $145 nonmember $170/ Monday through Friday -1 to 4 PM, 5 sessions
Introduction to the Children's Picture Book
Learn about writing and publishing a picture book through lectures, exercises and a gallery visit. Develop your idea into a submission-ready manuscript. Writers and artists are welcome.
Suzy Becker/ fees: member $165 nonmember $190/ Monday through Friday - 9 AM to 12:30 PM, 5 sessions
August Institutes Week II
Painting the Figure in Landscapes
View paintings in the galleries and learn how to paint the human figure in a landscape setting. Lessons will include watercolor techniques for figure and landscape painting, master studies based upon the museum's collection, painting from a live model, and photo references.
JoEllen Reinhardt/ fees: member $260 nonmember $285/ Monday through Friday - 10 AM to 4 PM, 5 sessions
Explore your own figurative work in the context of the special summer exhibitions, the Jeppson Idea Lab and Nancy Spero: Cri de Coeur. Bring your expressive views and celebrate the vitality of the nude in drawing, painting and discussion. The painter, Elaine Smollin, is a member of New York City's original Soho artists' community, an eye-witness to the resurgence of figure painting in the 1970s - 1990s and a trained archaeologist.
Elaine Smollin/ fees: member $290 nonmember $315/ Monday through Friday - 10 AM to 4 PM, 5 sessions
View the latest Classes Brochure
Course Listing key
- novice/beginner (100s) For anyone interested in learning and exploring a new medium. No previous experience is necessary.
- beginner/intermediate (200s) For those with or without experience in a medium.
- all Levels (300s) Open to all levels of beginning and continuing students.
- intermediate (400s) For those who have taken at least one other class in that medium.
- intermediate/advanced (500s) Requires two or more courses in that area or in related skill areas.
- advanced/intensive (600s) For advanced students only.