The 2022 catalog can be explored online at www.ShakeRagAlley.org and in print.
Class registrations have been strong and steady and several workshops have already sold out since Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts launched its 2022 catalog of arts and crafts workshops, retreats, events and programs online Dec. 1 and this month in print.
The 2022 catalog can be explored online at www.ShakeRagAlley.org and in print. Find one at a location near you, stop by the office at 18 Shake Rag St. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday, or call (608) 987-3292 to request one by mail. Staff are glad to assist with workshop registrations or lodging reservations (workshop students enjoy a 10 percent discount off Shake Rag Alley’s five guest spaces).
More than 170 adult arts and crafts adult workshops are scheduled to be offered this year in safe, small-scale settings or via Zoom in blacksmithing and welding, the Business of Art (a six-part virtual series), ceramics and pottery, creative writing, culinary arts, fiber arts, glass, jewelry, mixed media, painting and 2D art, printmaking, and rustic arts and nature crafts. More than 20 instructors hail from Mineral Point while additional Wisconsin teaching artists as well as instructors from several states, British Columbia and Nova Scotia, Canada, will present classes this year. A particular honor will be the opportunity to welcome 2022 United States Artist Fellow and 2020 NEA National Heritage Fellow Karen Ann Hoffman (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin), who will present a two-day workshop in April on Building Community Through Haudenosaunee Raised Beadwork.
The 2022 summer Youth Program will feature on-campus classes June-August and make-at-home art kits. Remaining 2021 kits are available to order online through April, and 2022 kits will be purchasable beginning in May and while supplies last. K-12 workshops are scheduled to be held mid-morning and afternoons Monday-Friday and will include the return of Paper Maché Art Camp ahead of the July 4 parade and popular Free Arts Camps, and Laura Ingalls Wilder Day and Be in a Play Camp in August. The Youth Program is supported in part by a grant from the Mineral Point Community Chest.
In addition to fulfilling its mission to provide educational experiences in arts and crafts for adults and children through workshops that range from half a day to up to six days, Shake Rag Alley will continue to cultivate the creativity that thrives in rural southwestern Wisconsin with free or low-cost community programs and events.
This year’s Winter Writers Reading Series of free readings by award-winning authors began this month and continues virtually through March with support from Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine and the Wisconsin Writers Association. The free Driftless Poets monthly workshop continues to meet in person and via Zoom, and a new free monthly workshop for prose writers kicked off this month. The virtual Antiracism Book Club continues the third Thursday of the month to continue the crucial conversations that began during the 2020 NEA Big Read of Claudia Rankine’s award-winning “Citizen: An American Lyric.”
New this year, the monthly Women’s Art Parties will return as Maker & Shaker Art Parties the third Wednesday in March through November. Volunteers lead creative projects every month that are open to everyone age 12 and older (registration required). Annual community events will include the free Make-a-Fairy-House Workshop on April 2, June 4 Tour of Fairy Homes, June 16 Mineral Point Museum Night, Oct. 31 Trick’r Treat event and Dec. 4 Santa Day. Shake Rag Alley fundraisers in 2022 will include the spring garage sale full of fun and eclectic finds in April, public vendor nights during our Jewelry Boot Camp in April and Art Adventure mixed media retreat in August and the second annual Ghostly Gathering on Oct. 22.
For more information and updates throughout the year, see www.ShakeRagAlley.org, call (608) 987-3292, subscribe to twice-monthly e-newsletters and follow Shake Rag Alley on Facebook and Instagram.