River Arts
Arts for Everyone | Morrisville, Vermont
Classes – Winter/Spring
Gift Certificates are available for workshops and make fantastic gifts! Call 888-1261 or purchase online by clicking here!
Refund Policy:
Please register for classes at least one week before the class is scheduled to begin.
For requests to drop a class - made at least 2 weeks prior to the first class - you may receive either:
- A 75% refund or
- You may apply the full amount to another class, good for one year.
A full refund will be given if River Arts has to cancel a class, or if you drop a class and find your own replacement.
The Basics of Garden and Landscape Design with Derrick Boulay
2 Wednesdays, May 30 – June 6th, 6-8:00pm
The Basics of Garden and Landscape Design: Understanding outdoor space
Join Gardener and Landscape Designer, Derrick Boulay for this two session workshop. Participants will learn how to use light, color, texture, form and scale as guides for creating beautiful outdoor scenes. Bring in landscape/garden photographs at the final session to discuss, and solve, individual problems as a class!
Derrick Anne Boulay has lived in France for over 30 years, holding a French degree in landscape architecture and plant reproduction. Currently a resident of Craftsbury, she spends her time as a Landscape Designer, Advisor, Gardener, Teacher and Speaker. She has worked for a total of 23 years in her profession in both France and the Napa Valley, where she also wrote a garden column for Napa Valley Life magazine.
2 Wednesdays, May 30 – June 6th, 6-8:00pm
Cost: $55.00 (financial assistance available)
Conceiving and Planning a Social Documentary Film with Mira Niagolova
Saturday, April 21, 10:00-4:30pm
With the advent of digital filmmaking, the Internet, and social media the potential to make films that work toward community engagement and social change has become increasingly accessible.Through viewing, discussing and analyzing masterful examples of social documentary filmmaking, participants will explore effective ways to tell a story with a significant social impact.
This workshop introduces participants to the unique nature of social documentary films, guides them through the fundamental questions in creating a documentary, as well as the basic techniques/guidelines of scriptwriting, producing and distribution/community outreach.
Bio:
Mira Niagolova is an internationally recognized, award-winning documentary filmmaker
committed to telling socially conscious stories portrayed with sensitivity and compassion.
Mira has more than 25 years of experience in both the film/TV industry and the nonprofit film
sector. She has worked as a Film Producer/ Programmer with Bulgarian National Television,
Distribution Manager with the National Film Board of Canada, Artistic Director of White River
Indie Film Series, Executive Director of the Vermont International Film Festival,
Mira has received fellowships, recognition awards, and grants for her work as a documentary filmmaker from the Vermont Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Sundance Documentary Fund, Open Society Institute, Canadian Intentional Developing Agency, CTV, National Film Board of Canada, Vermont Community Foundation, Puffin Foundation, and others. Her current documentary film, Welcome to Vermont, is about refugees recently resettled in Vermont.
Saturday, April 21st, 10:00-4:30pm
Cost: $95 (financial assistance available)
Making Your Garden Delightful with Derrick Boulay
4 Thursdays, April 26-May 17th, 6-7:00pm
Making Your Garden Delightful: A guide to happiness
Gardener and Landscape Designer, Derrick Boulay, will guide garden owners to learn: How to know exactly what you want, and how to enjoy achieving it! Emphasis will be placed on simplicity and easy upkeep, while creating a space that fulfills the emotional needs of each person.
Derrick Anne Boulay has lived in France for over 30 years, holding a French degree in landscape architecture and plant reproduction. Currently a resident of Craftsbury, she spends her time as a Landscape Designer, Advisor, Gardener, Teacher and Speaker. She has worked for a total of 23 years in her profession in both France and the Napa Valley, where she also wrote a garden column for Napa Valley Life magazine.
4 Thursdays, April 26-May 17th, 6-7:00pm
Cost: $65.00 (financial assistance available)
Vegetable Gardens Made Easier with Derrick Boulay
3 Tuesdays, March 27 – April 10 6-7:30pm
Vegetable Gardens Made Easier – Things to know before, during and after production
Join Gardener and Landscape Designer Derrick Boulay to learn more about the vegetable garden!
Session 1 – Explore garden orientation, soil rep and vegetable choices.
Session 2 – Planting techniques, weed supression, watering and space saving.
Session 3 – Late season crops, disease control, optimal harvesting and pre-dormant season clean-up.
Derrick Anne Boulay has lived in France for over 30 years, holding a French degree in landscape architecture and plant reproduction. Currently a resident of Craftsbury, she spends her time as a Landscape Designer, Advisor, Gardener, Teacher and Speaker. She has worked for a total of 23 years in her profession in both France and the Napa Valley, where she also wrote a garden column for Napa Valley Life magazine.
3 Tuesdays, March 27 – April 10 6-7:30pm
Cost: $65.00 (Financial assistance available)
Big Fish Little Fish Tying Contemporary and Traditional Streamer Flies with Alan Erdossy
Saturday, March 24th, 9-5pm
Alan Erdossy is the chairman/founder of Broadside International, offering fly fishing schools, publications, excursions and an international custom tackle exchange since 1980. He has been teaching fly tying for 45 years and has had as mentors, some of the most creative and accomplished fly tyers of the last century. This popular class has been offered at W.S. Hunter’s in NH and The Fly Rod Shop in Stowe.Cost: $ 115 (financial assistance available) Materials and lunch included (participants bring a light, a vise, tools and thread)
French conversation with Derrick Anne Boulay
6 Wednesday evenings: March 7-April 11, 6-7pm
Learn the basics of speaking the French language or perfect what you already know in this one hour class with Derrick Boulay. Vocabulary, phrasing and accent will be approached using every day french situations with an emphasis on the fun and the funny.
Derrick Anne Boulay has lived in France for over 30 years, holding a French degree in landscape architecture and plant reproduction. Currently a resident of Craftsbury, she spends her time as a Landscape Designer, Advisor, Gardener, Teacher and Speaker. She has worked for a total of 23 years in her profession in both France and the Napa Valley, where she also wrote a garden column for Napa Valley Life magazine.
6 Wednesday evenings: March 7-April 11, 6-7pm
Cost: $75 (financial assistance available)
T’ai Chi Chu’an with Alan Erdossy
Wednesdays, January 11th – February 8th, 6:30-7:30pm
T’ai Chi Chu’an, the moving yoga of China is practiced daily by millions around the world. It is a dynamic system of exercise and meditation designed to improve health while introducing the basics of self-defense. T’ai Chi is a sequence of precise body movements done slowly and without effort that balance the flow of energy within the body. It requires no special clothes or equipment, keeps you on your feet, takes only a few minutes a day, can be learned at any age, and builds internal health while relieving stress. T’ai Chi is ideal for individuals with sedentary or repetitive jobs, for people who find it difficult to concentrate, can’t find time for sports or regular exercise, or feel that life is wearing them out. It removes tension from the body and rewards it practitioners with energy and focus. Remember, a body in motion… tends to stay in motion.
Instructor, Alan Erdossy, began studying this moving yoga of China in 1970 and has taught at businesses, movement studios, and art centers throughout the Northeast. Mr. Erdossy earned an MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1972 and while in LA studied T’ai Chi with master Marshall Ho’o. Marshall is a member of Black Belt magazine’s Hall of Fame, was chairman of the National T’ai Chi Ch’uan Association, and founder of the Aspen Academy of Martial Arts. Alan also runs fly fishing schools in Northern NH.and Vermont.
6 Wednesdays, February 22-March 28th, 6:30-7:30pm
Fabric Painting with Mary Hill
Saturday, February 25, 9-2
In this class we will experiment with a variety of techniques for embellishing fabric. Bring clothing,shoes, fabric, pillowcases, a shower curtain or curtains to play on. Quilters can bring quilt squares or yardage. We will look at a variety of examples of hand painted clothing, quilts, and wall hangings and learn about different types of paints to use. Please feel free to bring examples that you may have at home to show to the class.
Mary was born in California and moved to Vermont when she was four. She grew up in Shelburne looking at the Adirondacks and the waves and weather of Lake Champlain. She studied art at the Shelburne Craft School (now called the Shelburne Art Center). After high school Mary studied art at Johnson State College with Peter Heller, John Battdorf and Ken Leslie. She danced with Maris Wolf and a trio called 3-D performing “guerrilla improv” around Vermont. Drawing, sculpture, batik, clay were all part of her studies there. Later she studied at SUNY Purchase and Parsons. At Puchase, she studied photography and 3 dimensional art. At Parsons she studied weaving and sewing. It was later on after she created Spudprints, a handprinted/handpainted clothing company that she started using brilliant combinations of color. Her rich, playful banners began in 1999 after experimenting painting on wooden blocks. The banners led to her photographing her work for greeting cards. Mary’s paintings are her latest passion. Accepted into the Vermont Studio School in Johnson, Vermont in 2007, she had some time to begin investigating painting in a deeper way. Mary also creates interiors for clients in Vermont, New York and Maryland. Her latest mural project is for Sugarbush Ski Resort in their brand new ski school building “The Schoolhouse”. She teaches a community art class for middle school kids in St. Albans. Mary also offers art camps for kids during vacation weeks and in the summer. Recently relocated from the Mad River Valley, Mary lives in Underhill with her husband Rick Heh, their four teenage boys and two cats, Tiger and Cutie.
Saturday, February 25, 9-2
Cost: 85.00 ( financial assistance available) Materials included!
Anusara® Yoga 101 with Margaret Pitkin –
Sunday, February 19, 26, March 4, & 18, 2-3:30pm
Bio:
Margaret has been a dedicated student of Anusara Yoga for over ten years, a yoga teacher for over six years, and Vermont’s first Certified Anusara Yoga teacher since January 1st, 2011. She has spent over 1000 hours studying yoga under the guidance of John Friend (founder of Anusara), Deborah Neubauer, Todd Norian, and world-renowned scholars of the Hindu Tantra Douglas Brooks and Paul Muller-Ortega. Margaret is a national Yoga Alliance Registered Teacher.
In each of her classes Margaret’s intense love of life, sharp wit, and precise understanding of Anusara’s elegantly simple principles of biomechanical alignment blend together to create an experience that is uplifting, transformational, and healing, whether it’s your thousandth time on a yoga mat or your first!
Cost: $55 (financial assistance available)
To register, click here
Tying Flies for Salt Water with Alan Erdossy
Saturday, February 11th, 9-5pm
Two thirds of the earth’s surface is water, most of it salt. That means a significant percentage of the 20,000 species of fish reside in our oceans. If you enjoy fly fishing Vermont’s lakes, rivers, streams and brooks, why not take your fly rod along when you visit coastal waters. Spend a full day at the fly tying vise, learning proven patterns to attract the many species that inhabit our coastal waters from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico. Casting a fly into the vastness of an ocean may seem futile, but in reality, big fish eat little fish and they can be easily imitated by the fly fisher, and you don’t have to bait a hook. Our instructor started fishing the fly in salt water in 1966 and lured fish to the fly in the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and the North Atlantic ever since. Learn his techniques and patterns at this all day workshop designed to provide participants with a selection of traditional and contemporary flies for fishing salt water.
Alan Erdossy is the chairman/founder of Broadside International, offering fly fishing schools, publications, excursions and an international custom tackle exchange since 1980. He has been teaching fly tying for 45 years and has had as mentors, some of the most creative and accomplished fly tyers of the last century. This popular class has been offered at W.S. Hunter’s in NH and The Fly Rod Shop in Stowe.
Saturday, February 11th, 9-5pm
Cost: $ 115 (financial assistance available) Materials and lunch included (participants bring a light, a vise, tools and thread)
Introduction to Printmaking with Phillip Robertson
Saturday, February 11, 9:30-12:30pm
Come join us for a printmaking workshop for artists of all experience levels. Using a Holbein table-top printing press we will experiment with the monotype technique. Each student will be able to create original prints and learn some basic press technique.