Barrett Arts Center
When Creativity Knocks….Let It Come On In
by Claire Fountain

Though 2008 is well under way, there is no time like the present to get in touch with your creative side. Artists and art appreciators may enjoy ventures to the city for visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or a bit of gallery hopping, but when a craving for an expansive and diverse, yet locally accessible art calls, one need go no farther than the Barrett Clay Works and Barrett Art Center. Located near downtown Poughkeepsie, the Art Center is actually the historic home of Thomas W. Barrett, Dutchess County Art Association founder and its original president. An artist himself, involved with painting, murals, and printmaking, he understood the need artists have for a common ground and the community value that local galleries and art schools bestow.

Today the Barretts are thriving, and are an ongoing host to regional, as well as national exhibitions, providing an oasis here in which to showcase regional art in a variety of ways, including competitions, exhibitions, and scheduled “paint out” programs which allow an artist to spend the day outside painting in a selected area of our beautiful Hudson Valley. Upon returning, their artwork is immediately auctioned off and sold. Even more enlightening is the Barrett Salon, which offers a different lecture the last Thursday of every month at the Muddy Cup coffee house in Poughkeepsie. This month, the event is on February 28, featuring photographer Eric Lebloom. Lectures generally feature all genres of artists, open to all.

Are you trying to find your inner artist? Barrett Clay Works and Barrett Art Center both include a School of Art, offering many classes in myriad mediums of the visual arts for you and yours to try. It is the perfect place to tap into talents you might have forgotten, or rekindle a love of the arts. From printmaking to water colors, figure drawing to technique classes, photography to framing, there are options for every ability level and available time constraints. One and two day workshops are available in a wide range of artistic disciplines as well. Classes are taken very seriously, continuing to be taught in the “salon” style of instruction in which the individual is given personal attention, allowing technique to be emphasized and perfected. With many people working too long these days, and not relaxing enough, an art class could serve as a gift one gives the self or a loved one as a time to get away from the everyday world, and retreat to a world of canvas, oils, pastels, clay and fabric.

Children are welcome as well, with an “Art for Kids” program on Saturdays during the school year. Each Saturday a different workshop is taught by a skilled artist instructor. The workshops are crafted to be alluring and enjoyable for the children without them even realizing the educational aspect or invaluable experiences gained. At Barrett, art is considered a powerful means for children and youth to realize their own potentials in other realms than the academic or athletic, increasing critical thinking skills, while empowering the child with his or her own creative abilities.

Barrett Clay Works offers a “Family Clay Day,” where families or individuals can come the last Saturday of every month from 10 AM until 1 PM and “play with clay” in an open studio. A small firing rate applies, and donations are welcome, but everyone will enjoy the time spent in the classroom, which hums with excitement, energy, and life. Forget about your worries, the cold weather, the mid-winter blues and retreat to a little world of clay. Barrett Clay Works is looking into artist slide slams or pot luck gatherings on Sunday afternoons for later this winter and spring. More Saturday art programs or events for children and youth are also being developed as a way to offer even more opportunities for families in the area to participate.

If wandering around a gallery is more your speed, both Barretts are always offering something worth checking out. An upstairs gallery showcases a select solo exhibitor, and national exhibitions come through three or more times a year. Coming up at Barrett Clay Works is a photography exhibit by Decora, a member of the ReadNex Poetry Squad, a regional hip-hop poetry group who work to show young people there are alternatives to violence and negative stereotypes. This show starts February 16 in honor of Black History Month, with a return on April 12 with the whole band workshopping at Barrett Clay Works. Barrett Art Center has a Faculty Art show running from February 2 until early March, and coming up in the spring are many workshops, including some in April with well known Hudson Valley potter, Steve Fabrico.

The main galleries aside, Barrett functions for the community, and is reaching out to their surrounding by working with area schools, boy and girl scout troops, Grace Smith House, and Miles for Hope, to name a few. A membership basis is established, but not required, where for a flat rate you can secure an individual, family, student or senior membership. Upon joining you will receive the Barrett Art Center Newsletter and Art School Brochure, which is printed quarterly, and keeps you abreast of the latest Barrett happenings and events. Class and facility rates are reduced for members, and you become eligible to be a valuable part of maintaining the visual art experience by working or participating in exhibitions, on and off site.

Classes are ongoing, and open to everyone. The gallery is open Thursday and Friday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, Tuesdays and Wednesdays by appointment, and Saturdays 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Closed on Sunday and Monday (even the art minded need some days off). With the website updated regularly, take a moment to look up ongoing or upcoming shows, or download a printable schedule of classes and workshops.

Contact or visit Barrett Clay Works, 485 Main Street, and Barrett Art Center, 55 Noxon Street, Poughkeepsie, www.barrettartcenter.org 845.471.2550