Have you always longed to take a painting class? Learn line dancing? Write a script? Play the trombone? Turn your kid into a mini-Monet? Classes, workshops and lessons abound in Shasta County, but until now, it was easier to construct your family tree than to find class times, locations and instructors. Along came Artazine, a complete resource for art classes and workshops.
Raette Meredith, a local artist and Americorps Vista volunteer for the Shasta County Arts Council, was motivated to create Artazine by her inability to locate an art instructor for her kids. Raette complied lists of classes and instructors she found online, in the telephone book, at Shasta College, in North State Parent Magazine, at the library and at individual art studios, and created Artazine – a comprehensive, free online catalog.
Artazine is sorted by art discipline: dance, literary arts, music, visual arts, theater arts and workshops and then again by age group: children, adults and all-ages. Each listing includes the days and dates, times, location, instructor, fees and registration instructions for each class, all in an easy-to-use, well-organized, color-coded format. Artazine also includes complete class descriptions and a biography of each instructor. Listings are free to instructors who are members of the Shasta County Arts Council.
The bonus is that Artazine is a work of art. Its pages are full of work by local artists, and artists compete for their work to grace its cover.
Raette hopes to expand Artazine to include streaming video of performing art classes, music recordings and poetry, but as is, Artazine is an amazing resource that assists artists to establish themselves and makes life much easier for those of us who want to develop our inner Picasso, Pavarotti or Astaire.
Find Artazine on the Shasta County Arts Council’s website at shastaartscouncil.org.
Adam Mankoski is a recent North State transplant who feels completely at home here. He enjoys experiencing and writing about the people, places and things that embody the free spirit of the State of Jefferson. He and his partner are the owners of HawkMan Studios and the creators of Redding’s 2nd Saturday Art Hop.
