By Garrett Wymer

Lexington residents will have two opportunities later this month to receive art instruction from regional and national artists and artisans.

Starting Sept. 14, the UK Fine Arts Institute will be holding noncredit art classes open to the Lexington community for nine weeks.

Available classes are watercolor painting, digital photography, woodworking, ceramics, beginning metal working, beginning drawing and painting, mixed media drawing and collage, and guerilla jewelry I and II, according to the Art Institute’s Web site.

The classes are open to — and ultimately aimed toward — people in the community, as well as UK faculty and students, said Jane Andrus, coordinator of the institute.

“It’s designed for people who aren’t necessarily UK students, though we do have a few students who take (the classes) just for fun,” she said.

Many of the teachers are UK alumni and some are currently on staff at the university, Andrus said.

Teachers include filmmaker, freelance designer and UK alumna Sarah Wylie Ammerman; jewelry artist Dwayne Cobb; UK Sculpture and Ceramics Technician Jeremy Colbert; furniture craftsman and head of the UK woodworking program Lynn Sweet; and three professional artists, Christine Kuhn, Helena Michael Pappas and Jill Stofer.

While this is the first time metal working and digital photography have been offered, the other courses have previously been successful, Andrus said.

The UK Fine Arts Institute began offering noncredit classes after its creation in 1993, Andrus said.

A lack of interest sent the programs into hibernation until two years ago, when the institute chairperson approached Andrus to see if there was enough appeal to re-launch the program.

“It’s really been revamped and revitalized in the last two years,” Andrus said.

Sweet has been a UK employee for 27 years, nearly all of which he has spent teaching similar basic woodworking classes and its application in the furniture trade.

Sweet’s classes normally have an enrollment of about twelve students, he said, most of whom are adults starting from “square one” when it comes to woodworking.

Sweet said the class is rewarding not only for the students who are learning, but for him as well.

“I like that I am, basically, an ambassador for the College of Fine Arts,” Sweet said.  “And I love interacting with the students. They’re so eager to learn, and they’re interested in something that I’m interested in. It’s great.”

Classes typically meet for three hours once each week during the nine-week term, Andrus said.

In addition to the fall class session, the Fine Arts Institute is sponsoring a painting workshop with Elizabeth Pruitt, a renowned artist whose works, according to the news release, can be seen in galleries across the U.S.

Since 2004, Pruitt has won many awards for her paintings, which often focus on flowers. According to her Web site, she won “Best Still-Life” back-to-back years at the 2006 and 2007 National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society annual exhibits.

One of Pruitt’s students, who lives in the Lexington area, wanted to bring in the artist for a workshop. Andrus said the institute was approached with the opportunity to sponsor the special occasion.

The result, a three-day workshop-style event entitled “Painting Workshop: Still-Life Painting with Elizabeth Pruitt,” will be held Sept. 18 through 20 at the Reynolds Building.

“This event is tailored to community people who have a little experience already and just want to learn with someone who is a top-notch still-life painter,” Andrus said.

The class will be painting in a “paint-along-with-me” format, Pruitt said. This helps people learn more about colors, values, composition and temperature change, she said.

“It’s not the art class where people will struggle on their own,” Pruitt said.

Pruitt looks forward to the class because she loves to be around other people who share her passion of art.

“I was mentored by a teacher who was very giving with her knowledge, who didn’t hold anything back,” Pruitt said. “I strive to do that with my teaching.”

Andrus said both the fall noncredit course session and the workshop are part of an initiative between the Fine Arts Institute and the UK Work-Life Office to help university employees “make a sort of transition between work and personal life.”

For more information, including course descriptions, fees, meeting times and registration forms, visit www.uky.edu/FineArts/Art/FineArtsInstitute.