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Community Center moves the arts online

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Sonoma Valley Sun

SCC artist-in-residence Naomi Clement is, ironically, teaching from her home studio in Canada. 

By Jackie Lee 

Sonoma Community Center was in a bind, faced with the need to cancel all in-person classes for its wide range of arts programs which were filled and paid for long before the shelter-in-place order went out. “We had an initial scramble about how to take care of our members,” said Josh Cutler, Director of Operations. 

Cutler said the goal was to honor the commitment made to the attendees expecting to learn from classes, while meeting the required distancing requirements. “Most importantly, to support them and keep their creative energy active. We started to digitize, then Kala Stein spearheaded everything.”

Staff got involved to get it going, but Stein took the lead managing the equipment needed to video the classes. It all involves cameras, lighting, sound equipment, iPhones, iPads, cameras, and getting onto Zoom, not to mention the knowledge to operate it all. “We had 96 virtual attendees recently,” adds cutler. “Zoom sessions go up to 100 people so we’ll now go to their next level to accommodate all who want to join in.” 

The virtual offerings can be accessed anywhere. “Zoom events go to other states too – and other countries like Canada, Australia, The Netherlands, among others,” he said. “It was a challenge to accommodate all the time zones, but there’s an option to watch recordings on YouTube afterward.”

Stein, the center’s Director of Ceramics and Art, says, “It’s a way to bring social activity to the home. The instructors had no classes to instruct, so it worked out well for them too; it offered them employment.”

She said the mix of virtual attendees is 80 percent adults, 20  percent kids. “It’s a tactile experience for kids and keeps them engaged and entertained, and the adults enjoy having extra activity time to spend with them. Some enjoy just watching the videos, and there’s a simultaneous Q&A session.”

Virtual class programs offered are: Virtual Comfort Food cuisine with chefs Julie Steinfeld and Lisa Lavagetto; fiber crafts with quilter Laura Lee Fritz; a Fiber Arts Summer Camp in July with Pia Andersson; printmaking with Kelly Autumn; and painting/collage with Colleen Gianatiempo’s Beginning Abstraction workshop. The Center’s artist-in-residence, Naomi Clement, is not back in residence until the County lifts the distancing requirement but offers clay lessons from her studio in Canada.

First up this month was a ceramics class led by teacher Lynn Wood. It was so popular with the 96 virtual attendees that six more classes are planned. After the one-hour Zoom session, teacher Lexi Bakker presented a special Kids Clay Hour for the younger crowd. SCC had already arranged to sell clay to regular members on a drive-up basis during the shutdown, and that extended to provide clay, tip sheets and materials for in-home attendees to pick up. They drop off their masterpieces later at SCC to be fired and pick them up when ready.

Faithful followers of SCC classes are glad to have art activities continued virtually, while still looking forward to having the personal experience again when it’s time to reopen. With artists everywhere having the gift of extra time to make art, SCC stepped up to make the learning experience a valuable and sustaining factor without missing a beat.

Jackie Lee is a writer and artist living in Sonoma. Her focus is to showcase individual events and artists as well as those represented by established galleries. She may be reached at [email protected].

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