Saturday, November 29, 1-5pm

Catamount Arts Center, 115 Eastern Avenue, St. Johnsbury

Instructor: Penny Hewitt

Enjoy the simple pleasure of creating a decoration or gift from materials responsibly harvested in Vermont. Utilizing techniques common to the Scandinavian and Russian styles of basketry, you will craft birds and stars using strips of inner bark from the paper birch, and also learn how these materials are harvested and prepared. Penny Hewitt’s workshops sell out quickly, so register early!

Workshop fee: $75 (10% discount for Catamount Arts members.) In addition, please bring a $30 materials fee, in cash or a check payable to the instructor, Penny Hewitt. Scholarship funds are available for high school students; please call Anne at 802-748-2600 ext. 109 for details.

Registration deadline: November 16 

A craftsperson, teacher, homesteader, and homeschooling mom, Penny Hewitt lives with her family on a diversified farm in the Northeast Kingdom. Working with responsibly harvested and hand-processed materials from the forest surrounding her home, Penny seeks to create objects of beauty that are useful in everyday life. She is inspired by traditions of other cultures, and grateful for the opportunities of connection to people, place, nature, and self that her craft cultivates. Her experience with weaving includes teaching workshops, leading homeschool groups, and crafting for income.

Saturday, December 6, 9:00am-noon

Catamount Arts Center 

Instructor: Gnaomi Siemens

Where do we go from here? The way forward requires a revolutionary re-animation of our meme-dulled imaginations. In this hybrid art and writing workshop, the queer practice of making sense with the senses and the necessity of fantasy in the face of ecological emergency will be explored as pathways towards image making. We will look at works by artists who create alter-egos and avatars to question history and imagine futures such as Kent Monkman and Serwah Attafuah, and artists, such as ORLAN and Saya Woolfalk, exploring figures in the context of chimera, hybrid, and more-than-human forms. We will consider the artistic practice in the context of a magical praxis. We will forget everything we thought we knew about poetry and explore our own anti-poetics with literary devices that transgress and disrupt. In learning how to tell new stories we will begin to expect the unexpected, we will surprise ourselves with our adaptability and associative image-making and stop taking ourselves too seriously. Where do we go from here? We’ll make it up! This is for anyone looking for inspiration or who is curious about the artistic practice. No skills or previous experience necessary. Please bring a favorite notebook and pen or pencil (no phones or laptops) - we’ll have some available for anyone who forgets. 

Class fee: $50 (10% discount for Catamount Arts members) Please contact Anne at 802-748-2600 ext 109 to inquire about financial assistance. 

560 Railroad Community Artist Gnaomi Siemens is a poet and interdisciplinary artist based in New York City who writes about ecology, culture, and art through a queer, ecofeminist lens. Her work can be found in The Believer, Seneca Review, Portland Review, Epiphany Magazine, Poet Lore, and Action, Spectacle, among others in the US and abroad. Her work has been supported by The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The Arctic Circle, Millay Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The British Library, The Poetry Society of New York, American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and The Council For European Studies. Her first poetry collection, The Errant, was a finalist for The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize.

Saturday, December 6, 9:00am-noon

Catamount Arts Center 

Instructor: Gnaomi Siemens

Where do we go from here? The way forward requires a revolutionary re-animation of our meme-dulled imaginations. In this hybrid art and writing workshop, the queer practice of making sense with the senses and the necessity of fantasy in the face of ecological emergency will be explored as pathways towards image making. We will look at works by artists who create alter-egos and avatars to question history and imagine futures such as Kent Monkman and Serwah Attafuah, and artists, such as ORLAN and Saya Woolfalk, exploring figures in the context of chimera, hybrid, and more-than-human forms. We will consider the artistic practice in the context of a magical praxis. We will forget everything we thought we knew about poetry and explore our own anti-poetics with literary devices that transgress and disrupt. In learning how to tell new stories we will begin to expect the unexpected, we will surprise ourselves with our adaptability and associative image-making and stop taking ourselves too seriously. Where do we go from here? We’ll make it up! This is for anyone looking for inspiration or who is curious about the artistic practice. No skills or previous experience necessary. Please bring a favorite notebook and pen or pencil (no phones or laptops) - we’ll have some available for anyone who forgets. 

Class fee: $45 (10% discount for Catamount Arts members) Please contact Anne at 802-748-2600 ext 109 to inquire about financial assistance. 

560 Railroad Community Artist Gnaomi Siemens is a poet and interdisciplinary artist based in New York City who writes about ecology, culture, and art through a queer, ecofeminist lens. Her work can be found in The Believer, Seneca Review, Portland Review, Epiphany Magazine, Poet Lore, and Action, Spectacle, among others in the US and abroad. Her work has been supported by The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The Arctic Circle, Millay Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The British Library, The Poetry Society of New York, American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and The Council For European Studies. Her first poetry collection, The Errant, was a finalist for The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize.

Sunday, December 14, 1:00-2:30pm

Catamount Arts Center

Instructor: Gnaomi Siemens 

An informal poetry workshop in which we will discuss three important elements in creating poetry— What is a poem? What is a line and why do we break it? Images versus abstraction. There will be in-class exercises and discussion. Participants will leave with a packet of poems discussed in class and exercises to try at home. This is for anyone looking for inspiration or curious about the artistic practice. No skills or previous experience necessary. Please bring a favorite notebook and pen or pencil (no phones or laptops) - we’ll have some available for anyone who forgets. A sign-up sheet will be available for participants to request short “office hours”, one-on-one consultations at a local coffee shop, later in the week.

Class fee: $25 (10% discount for Catamount Arts members) Please contact Anne at 802-748-2600 ext 109 to inquire about financial assistance.

560 Railroad Community Artist Gnaomi Siemens is a poet and interdisciplinary artist based in New York City who writes about ecology, culture, and art through a queer, ecofeminist lens. Her work can be found in The Believer, Seneca Review, Portland Review, Epiphany Magazine, Poet Lore, and Action, Spectacle, among others in the US and abroad. Her work has been supported by The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The Arctic Circle, Millay Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The British Library, The Poetry Society of New York, American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and The Council For European Studies. Her first poetry collection, The Errant, was a finalist for The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize.

Sunday, December 14, 1:00-2:30pm

Catamount Arts Center

Instructor: Gnaomi Siemens 

An informal poetry workshop in which we will discuss three important elements in creating poetry— What is a poem? What is a line and why do we break it? Images versus abstraction. There will be in-class exercises and discussion. Participants will leave with a packet of poems discussed in class and exercises to try at home. This is for anyone looking for inspiration or curious about the artistic practice. No skills or previous experience necessary. Please bring a favorite notebook and pen or pencil (no phones or laptops) - we’ll have some available for anyone who forgets. A sign-up sheet will be available for participants to request short “office hours”, one-on-one consultations at a local coffee shop, later in the week.

Class fee: $22.50 (10% discount for Catamount Arts members) Please contact Anne at 802-748-2600 ext 109 to inquire about financial assistance.

560 Railroad Community Artist Gnaomi Siemens is a poet and interdisciplinary artist based in New York City who writes about ecology, culture, and art through a queer, ecofeminist lens. Her work can be found in The Believer, Seneca Review, Portland Review, Epiphany Magazine, Poet Lore, and Action, Spectacle, among others in the US and abroad. Her work has been supported by The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The Arctic Circle, Millay Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The British Library, The Poetry Society of New York, American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and The Council For European Studies. Her first poetry collection, The Errant, was a finalist for The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize.