Orange library hosts virtual Art Week

Creative types, open your browsers: Orange County Library System is hosting a virtual Art Week full of classes focused on painting, drawing, music, poetry and more.

For the remainder of this week, budding artists of all ages can explore timed drawing challenges, digital apps for creating on an iPad, working with yarn and even edible art.

“We always offer arts programming, but the organizers of Art Week wanted to amplify the arts by getting the whole library system on board with a focus on programming during this particular week,” said Erin Sullivan, a public relations administrator at Orange County Library System. “It’s a fun way to showcase how much artsoriented programs the library has for all ages — children and adults — and a great way to get our community engaged on a single topic.”

Each class has a suggested age range for virtual attendees. The “How to Finger Knit a Flower event” is recommended for learners ages 8 and older, while “Animal Toast Art” is the right fit for preschoolers.

“The idea behind ‘ Art Week’ was to have programming that created a sense of fun and promoted creativity during this strange and stressful time,” said Carey Major, assistant manager of the l i b r a r y ’s Alafaya Branch.

“Our live events usually take place over Zoom to utilize the chat f e a t u re, polls, v i d e o, audio, and sharing screens to make the experience as interactive as possible. … For Art Week, we’re doing a combination of interactive demonstrations, virtual applications, and programs where attendees supply their materials.”

Budding authors might be interested in the Thursday evening “w r i t e r ’s open mic night,” a forum for sharing works in progress with other attendees. Music fans may be intrigued to learn more about synthesizing music on Friday night with local artist Mag.Lo.

The Art Week classes join a host of other OCLS virtual offerings such as basic Spanish classes, online sound engineering classes and seminars on Microsoft Excel.

To learn more: Visit ocls.info/art-week to learn more about the library’s virtual creative classes. Most events are free but require preregistration.