Group connects community to the arts
Organization offers classes, workshop, chance for artists to become teachers
KINGSTON, N.Y. » The DRAW Kingston organization has grown out of efforts surrounding the local Pop-up Gallery Group and now acts as a hub for artists and a way to connect people in the community to the arts.
“We want people to see us as a hub,” Executive Director Lara Giordano said recently of DRAW, which stands for the Department of Regional Art Workers.
In provided information, Giordano said DRAW “is a community of artists, educators, entrepreneurs and students that are committed to deeply engaged community arts education in order to serve as an agent of change, to help galvanize the cultural, social and financial dynamics of our community.” She said the goal is to create art experiences that develop people’s deeper understanding of the qualities in their own art and that of others, allowing them to engage with the local arts industry as artists, art workers, and audience. DRAW does that through community workshops and classes, exhibition opportunities for emerging artists, teaching and arts management internships, and management positions for professional and emerging artists.
“We’re really about the work of art,” Giordano added.
Giordano said DRAW grew out of efforts with the Pop-up Gallery Group, or PUGG. She said, though, that while PUGG began in 2015, it is now part of the overall DRAW Kingston organization.
“At first we popped up into temporary spaces,” Giordano said. PUGG continues to transform empty spaces into temporary exhibition opportunities where Kingston High School artist alumni can show their work locally, she added. The program also offers six students a paid work-study program in the arts, according to Giordano.
Approximately a year ago, PUGG did a project with Riley Johndonnell that involved creating flowers with “bright ideas” for Midtown, Giordano said. She said the art was hung in Johndonnell’s shop on Broadway.
After that, Giordano said, PUGG was offered gallery and arts programming space in another building on Broadway. The organization remained there until February, when it moved into an underutilized arts and crafts room at the YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County, she said.
With that new space, DRAW offers art classes such as the free Teen Open Studios from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. The organization also offers Costumed Drawing Sessions on Mondays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. where the models wear costumes and cosplay. There are also other workshops being offered, including a recent one taught by boat maker and local artist Biz Goldhammer.
The Teen Open Studios are for teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18, Giordano said. She said it is a drop-in program where the participants just need to sign in at the YMCA. All the materials are provided, Giordano said.
The Costumed Drawing sessions cost $8 for YMCA members and $10 for nonmembers.
The classes and workshops allow access to people who do not normally have the opportunity to take part in quality arts programs, Giordano said.
Giordano also said her organization is also working on offering weekend and after-school activities. She said, for example, DRAW would have a three week-long workshop at the Kingston Library this summer. One week would be devoted to photography, she said, while another would be an exploration of animation through puppets and sets. The third would be a sculpture class inspired by boat building, she said.
In addition to holding such classes and workshops, DRAW Kingston also works to educate artists to become teachers of art themselves, Giordano said. She said DRAW Kingston wants to provide artists the chance to teach and earn extra money for themselves. Art is work, she added, and the
artists should be paid for their efforts.
Giordano said DRAW Kingston relies on donations and grant funding to operate. The organization is always accepting donations, including of materials or space where exhibits can be shown, she said.
Artists who want to be part of DRAW Kingston, or anyone who wants to make a donation, can contact Giordano via email at lara@drawkingston.org or JoAnna Ruisi, artistic director, at joanna@drawkingston.org.