Adult Student

Curiosity & Lifelong Learning

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Autumnal Equinox by Edeltraud HullerHaving been part of the Green Street family for 5 years, and focusing primarily on the financial end, I have learned quite a bit about the offerings from a registrar’s point of view.  After working closely with the Teaching Artists, I was curious to see what attending their classes would be like.  This curiosity led me to take Edeltraud Huller’s Beginning Drawing class in the Summer 2009.

As the first class drew near, I was nervous with anticipation, as my previous drawings reflected the skills of a pre-schooler.  On the day of the class, I showed up armed with a few pencils, some paper, Klimt's Kissand sheer determination; my goal was to learn how to sketch fashion design.  Beginning Drawing consisted of two 16 year-olds and 3 adults who could easily have been their parents (or grandparents)- what a mix!  In these 5 weeks, we managed to sketch everything from our fellow students to the flowers in Green Street’s garden.  This experience, and the serenity of drawing outside, reminded me of what great inspiration lies in nature.  Additionally, the talents and different styles of each student were really fascinating and acted as encouragement for us to think about our subjects from a different point-of-view.

Miro's Cat Encircled by the Flight of a BirdIn one class, Edeltraud encouraged us to bring in works by our favorite artists for inspiration and to learn about their work through imitation.  I chose works by Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt and Spanish surrealist Joan Miró.  I was able to examine their different styles of painting as well as their uses of composition and color.  Klimt’s obsession with the female anatomy, and Miró’s use of shapes made it easy for me to draw inspiration and sketch multiple drawings.

After completing the course, I was left with four drawings that showed my progress.  Thanks to this class, I realized that I was actually a decent artist.  I have kept the nature sketches not only because I enjoy them, but also as a reminder that I should continue challenging myself.  Looking back on the experience, I realized that it was much more than a drawing class, but rather a time when I could forget about the stresses of the day and completely lose myself in the art.

Submitted by Claudia Foerstel, Financial Coordinator & Registrar and Green Street student

Adult Drawing & Painting StudentAre you interested in Claudia’s experience or do you want to take Edeltraud’s drawing class yourself?  Session II of Green Street’s Fall classes are beginning this week and registration is open now!  Click here to view all of Green Street’s offerings for lifelong learning.  Call 860-685-7871 or email gsac@wesleyan.edu to register or click here to register online.

Keeping the Beat: Green Street Encourages Life-Long Students

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A Note of Thanks

Thank you to everyone who attended our Opening Evening on September 10th; the night was a great success and we enjoyed meeting new friends and seeing familiar faces.  We’d like to thank Michael Roth, Wesleyan University President, Sonia Mañjon, Wesleyan University Vice President for Institutional Partnerships and Chief Diversity Officer, and our incredible Green Street Advisory Board members and Wesleyan Trustees who joined in the festivities and showed their support for GSAC.  We hope you all experienced some of the great offerings, like the salsa workshop, West African Drumming and Dancing, and family art projects.  Green Street is fortunate to have fantastic advocates like you.  Buster and Paola, two of our supporters, have shared their Green Street experience with us below.

Keeping the Beat

Green Street Arts Center is an essential part of our lifelong learning process.  Buster and I are both teachers. He teaches fourth grade at Macdonough School in Middletown and I teach sixth grade at Sunset Ridge Elementary Academy for Arts and World Languages in East Hartford. He is a Middletown native and I live in Glastonbury, which makes for a convenient commute to Green Street for both of us.  Last spring, we participated in the West African Drumming: Djembe Orchestra class led by expert instructors Jocelyn Pleasant and Aaron Greenberg, who teach with humor and patience. We not only practiced drum technique, but also learned about the various rhythms and cultures of West African countries with our diverse, energetic, and good-natured classmates.

In addition to expert instruction and welcoming classmates, another key feature of the Green Street Arts Center is its partnership with the greater Middletown community.  As a culmination to our drumming course, many class members joined the instructors and younger Green Street students to perform at a community festival celebrating the arts open to all.  For a novice musician such as me, performing a public concert for an intergenerational audience was thrilling!

Buster and I always look forward to Green Street’s new course offerings because they stretch our minds and rejuvenate our spirits.  In the future, we hope to explore Salsa dancing, creative writing, martial arts, and of course, more drumming.

Thank you, Green Street Arts Center for helping us stay bright and lively!

Sincerely,

Paola Maina and Buster NelsonFall Catalog Cover
Submitted by Paola Maina and Buster Nelson, Green Street students and After School support staff

If, like Paola and Buster, you are interested in staying bright and lively through one of Green Street’s offerings, view our fall course catalog here.  To become a member and receive great discounts at Green Street and partner organizations around the state, email gsac@wesleyan.edu or call (860) 685-7871.  Click here for all of the membership benefits. We look forward to hearing from you.

Write of Passage

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Al Bower and friends at an event for writers

A 28-year resident of Middletown’s North End, I retired from full-timework to become a writer in 2006.  My Green Street Arts Center experience began when I took a writers workshop with Dan Pope, which provided the work atmosphere and critiquing I needed.  I was new to critically viewing works and hadn’t been in a classroom in decades, so this was a refresher course that provided new information.  Dan gave us relevant feedback, with lectures on how to critique and handouts of examples.  During this course an editor accepted my first short story.  What a rush!  “Synesthetics” hit print April, 2007 and is online at scars.tv.  Two others have been added there since.

Having whetted my writing appetite, the next year I workshopped with Sari Rosenblatt, who challenged us with “quickie” in-class assignments.  She’d hand out random photographs to each of us, then give us 5-10 minutes to compose a story about the picture.  I’d never dabbled in “flash fiction” before, but the exercises produced some fairly good material, which stunned me.  Two of the eleven stories I’ve published are flash pieces.  Later that year a one-day workshop with Jamie Cat Callan presented similar challenges; we composed five-minute works, again with positive results.

Adult Reader
Writing student reading work at a GSAC event

Since Writers Out Loud began in 2008, I’ve attended every month, mainly because reading aloud shows where faults lie and aids the rewriting process.  The primary side benefit has been meeting many delightful prose people, who’ve become friends, literary influences, and indispensable sources of feedback.  The Writers Out Loud ambience is relaxed; attendees bring cheese and crackers, soda, and home-made sweets to enjoy.  The first half hour gives us time to socialize and catch up on prior conversations.  I normally do a short reading, leading into Cocomo’s announcements and introduction of the evening’s readers.  After each person’s oration, the group acknowledges strengths and weaknesses.  One reading that moved me especially was Piyar Delerme’s, “Cornflower Blue,” which she’ll read this Thursday.  It’s a touching and delicately-phrased description of a brutal situation that made my arm hairs stand at attention.

As a resident of Middletown, I believe in supporting the community and its artistic folks and I am forever grateful for the opportunities Green Street provides.  Writers Out Loud has provided prose writers the chance to give voice to their fictions, their memories, their lives; I relish creating characters and situations but have also read memoirs about key friends in my life.  Most of all, though, I’ve enjoyed writing about my wife, Carol, in some 18 efforts, both fictional and non-fictional.  A few Writers Out Loud attendees have told me they want to meet her based on my readings.  Apparently, I’m developing the ability to touch people. That is my goal.

Submitted by Al Bower, Middletown resident and Green Street participant

Writers Out Loud: Cream of the Crop
Thursday, July 29, 2010 | 7pm
Regular Price $8; Member Price $5
For reservations call (860) 685-7871 or email gsac@wesleyan.edu.

Join the creative cast of Writers Out Loud in an evening of hand-picked readings by Middletown’s freshest up-and-coming prose authors.  The evening will culminate in the presentation of the Golden Kiss Award—make sure your vote is counted!  This event is dedicated to the memory of Janice M. Albert in celebration of her life and contributions to our creative community.