Art League Offers Low-Cost Art and Creativity Workshops for Beginners

The Art League of Ocean City is offering one-time, low-cost art workshops for beginning artists and those who have no experience with art on Feb. 25 and Feb. 28 at the Ocean City Center for the Arts on 94^th St. in Ocean City.

Guest artist Sarah D’Alessandro will teach the no-pressure workshops on the subjects of drawing and creativity. She will instruct both non-artists and artists on how to see to produce a drawing and how to fuel their creative brains.

“It’s the perfect chance for novices to step into drawing or creativity with no risk and lots of reward,” D’Alessandro said.

The “Drawing 101: Seeing Values” workshop will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 25 from 6-8 p.m. It will take adult students, complete beginners and hobby artists beyond the drawing of lines to explore how to see the dark and light values that create dynamic drawings. Students will work in charcoal, pencil, and chalk. The cost of the drawing class is $10 for members of the Art League, and $15 for non-members, and materials are included.

The free “Thinking Outside the Box: Creativity 101” workshop will be held on Saturday, Feb. 28 from noon-3 p.m. This workshop is a chance for budding artists to delve into the creative side of the brain and think outside the box. Students will learn how to activate and exercise their creativity and strengthen it through drawing, writing, action, and discussion. There is no cost for this workshop, but class size is limited to 20 students.

Reservations for the workshops may be made by calling 410-524-9433.

Sarah (Coffin) D’Alessandro is an artist and art enthusiast from the Washington, D.C. area with a masters degree in Arts Management from George Mason University. She was an art teacher for four years, served on the Commission on the Arts in Fairfax, Va., ran an alternative arts venture called The Empty House Studio, and continues to write and create whenever possible. She has just returned from a year in the West Indies where color became an integral part of daily life. Her work is augmented by apprenticeships, travel, and volunteering.

The Ocean City Center for the Arts at 502 94^th Street is the home of the Art League of Ocean City, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the visual arts in the Ocean City area through education, exhibits, scholarships, programs and community art events. The arts center is supported by memberships, corporate and civic funding, donations and sales of art. More information is available at www.artleagueofoceancity.org