Full Schedule is live for 9th Annual MAD Celebration of the Arts EXPO on July 8th, 10am-4pm at the Kingston Center of SUNY Ulster in Midtown

Family-friendly, hands-on arts demos and workshops for artists of all ages and skills

This lively, fun day celebrates the arts, creativity and community offering residents of Kingston and surrounding towns a FREE hands-on opportunity to explore the various art forms of local artists and arts organizations with interactive art workshops and demonstrations.

The 9th annual EXPO will feature a full day of workshops in a variety of arts genres. Professional working artists will lead all of the workshops with assistance from PUGG our teen workforce interns managed by The D.R.A.W. 

This year’s teaching artists include Maxine Leu, Francine Glasser, Marielena Ferrer, Elinor Levy, Evry Mann, Richard Frumess, Tom De Looza Photography, Kingston Library, Elizabeth Dahmen, Corina Wilette, Maclain Maier, Aurora Brush, Dahlia Jarrett, China Blue, Kai Navarrete, Andrea del Cid, Sikena Khadija, CPW, Drew Andrews, Star Nigro, Joanne Helftert Sullam, Bailey Pottery, Isabel Cotarelo, Cornell Creative Art Center, and the D.R.A.W.

Coordinated by the MAD Events Committee: Neville Bean, Chair; Zach Bowman, Susan Whalen
Expo Producer: Amy Husten

Expo Workshop Schedule

Broken Monarchs with Marielena Ferrer:
10:15am-11:15am – Room 101

In this workshop participants will engage in collective artmaking while learning about the monarch butterfly migration quest, its symbolic connection to human migrations and more specifically, with migrant children in the U.S.-Mexican border affected by the “zero-tolerance” policy.

Marielena Ferrer is a socially engaged artist who serves on the Kingston Arts Commission, is the executive director of Humanamente, a diversity management organization, and chairs the Alianza Cultural de Kingston, whose mission is to foment, preserve and celebrate the culture and traditions of our diverse Hispanic/Latino heritage communities.

Mini Linocuts and Stamp Making with Aurora Brush:
10:15am-11:15am – Room 103

Participants will  create small rubber stamps out of old erasers and scraps of linoleum. Demonstration of carving techniques will be provided, as well as paper and pre folded mini zines for folks to stamp, design and take home! Anyone who makes a mini rubber stamp is welcome to take it home as well.

Aurora Brush is an artist, print maker, book binder and founder of Cosmic Dog House Press. CDH Press is an independent publishing service in Kingston, NY that specializes in risograph printing, screen printing, zines, book making while supporting the visions of local creators, collectives, and organizations through the printing of independent work, collaborative projects and periodicals. 

Chinese Brush Painting with Maxine Leu:
10:15am-11:15am – Room 104, Station 1

Participants will learn how to draw bamboo with Chinese ink and brush. They will be introduced to basic techniques like brush holding, strokes, water control, composition in Eastern painting, and signature. The workshop is open to beginners. 

Maxine Leu is an interdisciplinary artist, art educator, and environmentalist from Taiwan. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Leu has been promoting workshops about painting, printmaking, recycling art, and Chinese brush painting in a number of places since 2015. 

Saturn Walk with China Blue
10:15-11:15am – Room 204

This workshop is an introduction to mindful soundwalking. In it you will learn about and experience soundwalking and practice mindfulness exercises. This will lead to an all-body awareness to fully experience being connected to the earth through walking and by listening to unique Saturnian sounds will inspire an exploration of our relationship to the cosmos. Finally everyone will be encouraged to share their experiences.

China Blue is an internationally exhibiting, award winning, sound based visual artist. Over the past two decades she has created work based on the sounds produced by our brains, discovered in the Eiffel Tower, and for NASA contained in the Vertical Gun and embedded in Saturn’s rings. 

Cyanotype with Tom de Looza
10:15-11:15am – Room 210

Tom will give a brief history of photography, show the mixing of chemistry and demonstrate  making a cyanotype photogram from start to finish. Each student will be able to coat and make their own image.

Tom DeLooza is a Kingston based photographer who primarily works with alternative processes. His passion is for the Wet-plate collodion, but also loves making hand colored prints. 

World Rhythms with Evry Mann
10:15-11:15 am – Room 215

Students will be introduced to a variety of percussion instruments and will learn some basic rhythms from Cuba, Brazil and West Africa.

Evry Mann has been playing drums since the sixth grade and has been a professional drummer since 1975.  Ev has studied with master drummers in Cuba, Mali, Senegal and Ghana and is the founding director of POOK, the Percussion Orchestra of Kingston which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.   Ev was also artist in residence for the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico from 1975-1981 and is fluent in Spanish.

Community Clay Room
10:15am-3:00pm – Room 212

Experience the fun of working with clay in the Clay Room with Bailey Pottery and Cornell Creative Art Center. Four separate projects will be happening simultaneously. Participates will be allowed in as space becomes available to avoid overcrowding.

Community Coil Pot  Many hands create something extraordinary! Add your coil to 2023’s Community Coil Pot.

Community Mosiac “What does Kingston mean to you?”  Participants will have the opportunity to decorate a tile inspired by what makes Kingston special to them. Tiles will be fired and then installed in a public venue where community members can visit and view their finished tiles at a later date. 

Sculpting Demonstration  JoAnne Helfert-Sullam will perform a live sculpting demonstration of an animal form from a reference model/image. Clay will be available for participants to join the sculptor and experience the process of sculpting with water-based clay. Examples of finished and work- in-progress works will be available for inspiration.

Wheel Throwing  Beth Schoenfeld will demo wheel throwing clay and give you an opportunity to try it yourself!

How Do you Choose Your Colors? with Richard Frumess:
10:30am-12pm – Room 208

When you walk into an art store, you are faced with a huge range of colors. How do you know which ones to choose and how they will work? Understanding the characteristics of a color’s pigment is an important guide. One of the most important characteristics is whether the pigment is opaque or translucent. Using oil paint sticks, we will explore how that difference affects color interaction and color mixing.

Richard Frumess is the founder of R&F Handmade Paints. Starting out as a painter, a day job as a paint maker turned into a full time business. His 40+ years experience in the manufacture of paint has given him an unusual insight into color and color mixing.

Rock + Eggs = Paint with Corina Willette:
11:00am-12:00pm – Room 104, Station 2

This workshop will be a presentation of using rocks and dirt to create pigment, and binding them with eggs. Participants can assist in the grinding process, and experiment with mixing the binder into pigment and use the materials to create an image on paper. Participants can take with them the images that they make during the session. My process has included using a combination of commercial materials, and found and homemade materials.

Corina Willette received her MFA in Drawing and Painting from SUNY New Paltz, NY in 2020. Willette works in oils and mixed media, and her work is fascinated with design, art, story and the politics of being human.

Dancing, Improving and Finding Flow with 4 Elements with Laura Victoria Ward
11:45am-12:45pm – Room 204

This will be an improvisational dance class using the 4 elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire) to find grounding, flow, and freedom of expression. The 4 elements are integrated in many cultures around the globe, Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern. All levels are welcome.

Laura Victoria Ward is a dancer/choreographer and maximalist artist. She is a Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst and a Somatic Movement Educator. Laura is the artistic director of the Kingston Contemporary Dance Theatre, formerly known as Octavia Cup Dance Theatre. She teaches online, at the YMCA, and at the Cornell Creative Arts Center.

Anthotypes with Kai Navarette:
11:45am-12:45pm – Room 103

Participants will create light sensitive photographic emulsion by extracting pigments from materials like fruits, vegetables and spices (tbd). Paper will be coated to create a printable surface. Images will be exposed onto paper by using a negative stencil and placing them under UV lights. Exposed image will then be stabilized and dried. Participants will take with them: emulsion, coated paper and processed print.

Kai Navarette’s artistic practice consists of making two-dimensional work that shines a light on the struggles of being a foreigner in this country. His artistic practice began thirteen years ago in high school as a need to empathize and connect with others more deeply. As a result of cultivating a greater connection with his external world, Kai’s artwork reflects on our shared human experiences.

Polaroid Transfers with CPW’s Debra Trebitz
11:45am-12:45pm – Room 210

Join CPW’s summer photo camp instructor Debra Trebitz in learning how to make beautiful and unique Polaroid transfers using only water! Participants will take their own B&W Polaroid photograph and lift the emulsion onto fine art paper over the course of this one-hour workshop. Everyone will leave with their own print.

Debra Trebitz is a photographer with over thirty-five years experience. Image making led her to an extensive career in music and celebrity portrait photography. Her work has been featured in more than two dozen publications, including Rolling Stone, Time, and Vogue. Over the past fourteen years, Trebitz has shared her enthusiasm and knowledge for photography through high school and elementary school programs exploring alternative processes and studio photography.

Acting 101: The Joy of Performing with HVPAL’s Elizabeth Dahmen
11:45-12:45 pm – Room 215

In this workshop we explore the tools and techniques that are the foundation of actor training. We will use games and short dialogues to play with expression, intention and gesture. This workshop is for all ages and experience levels, come ready to play.

Liz Dahmen is the founder of the Hudson Valley Performing Arts Laboratory. Liz teaches all around the Hudson Valley with the Lab, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and Vassar’s Powerhouse. She has a BFA in Acting from the Tisch School of the Arts and an MA in Educational Theatre from Steinhardt/NYU.

Roundtable Discussion – “The Art of Living”
12:00-1:00pm – Room 101

Fireside chat with: Isabel Cotarelo, Daniel Venture and Marielena Ferrer. A conversation about the challenges of artists’ everyday life, success and ways to face inevitable losses and disappointments with style. Spanish speaking roundtable with simultaneous English interpretation

3D Humble Abodes with Francine Glasser:
12:00-1:00pm – Room 104, Station 1

The workshop  will begin with a short meditation to set our intentions on creating life inside of a cigar box.  A variety of paints, stickers, three dimensional objects along with paint brushes, scissors, tape, glue sticks, will be available to make participant’s visions come alive. Projects are free to all participants to take home with them. 

Francine Glasser creates worlds and stories within the boundaries of cigar boxes…Creating palettes of coordinated colors and textures or patterns is part of her process. She builds pieces as gifts or as commissions.  Francine’s  past work consisted of recycled and up cycled creations from nature and discarded objects.

Printmaking with D.R.A.W.
1-4pm – Room 103

Drop in Printmaking Demo Workshops with assistance from the PUGG internship program. Room sponsored by Herzog’s Home Center.

Community Linocut

Drop in and make your mark on our community linocut! The finished collaborative linocut will become a beautiful large scale steamrolled print during our Draw A Thon August 12th. 

Pull Your Own Block Print

Participants can also make a block print to take home. 

The Department of Regional Art Workers (D.R.A.W.) is the arts education program of MAD offering various visual arts workshops all year long for all ages at Energy Square on Cedar St in Midtown. For more information visit drawkingston.org 

Picture Your Future – Goal Mandala with Dahlia Jarrett:
1:00-2:00pm – Room 104, Station 2

Dahlia will explain  the proper use of a mandala tool and participants will be asked to respond to a goal related questionnaire. Everyone will create their own images, or choose collage images which resonate with their goals. Images will be used to map out a mandala pattern and enhanced with a variety of art materials. In this workshop, participants will write about their goals,  share thoughts, feelings and reflections.

Dahlia Jarrett is an art therapist and artist and enjoys assisting others attain their goals and dreams, while incorporating humor, mindfulness and a sense of delight.

Flash Fiction Writing with Maclain Maier:
1:00-2:00pm – Room 208

Participants will learn tools to write, edit, and give feedback on short pieces of fiction no longer than 1 page in length.

Maclain Maier writes and performs with Happenstancery Improv troupe, Siren Theatre, Arm-of-the-Sea Theater, and is the creator of Funny Kid Comedy Class. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BA in Creative Writing. His short stories have appeared in Ubiquitous Magazine and Z Publishing’s Best Emerging Writers Series.

Moving Still: A Curious tale of Moving Fluids with Florence Poulain:
1:15pm-2:15pm – Room 204

Moving Still will explore gravity and stillness in space, through a 30 minute movement exploration in relationship with earth and the sky. The second half of the workshop will explore how bodies go from laying on the floor to standing up. Two groups will each take  turns  holding a gesture, while the other witnesses the stances. 

Florence Poulain dances Butoh Theatre and is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator of the school of Body-Mind Centering® . Florence has a Masters in Cinema Studies and worked as a Film / Video Producer in Advertising, Documentary and Indie productions. More recently she has worked as an Arts Activities Therapist and a Substance Abuse Counselor on emergency units at the Health Alliance Hospital of Kingston, NY.

Phonetography: Flower Abstracts With Your Cellphone with Sikena Khadija:
1:15pm-2:15pm – Room 210

Sikena will begin the workshop with an overview of flower abstract phonetography, its artistic potential, and visual impact. Following her presentation, participants will be shown how to constructing a DIY tripod using readily available materials, engage in a phonetography session and encourage participants to to share their captured images. Participants will be able to take home a print of their images.

Sikena Khadija is a photographer who lives, works, and plays in Kingston, NY. A self-taught landscape photographer, Sikena’s work reflects her deep love for the environment and her commitment to its preservation.

Introduction to Hip Hop with CCE’s Drew Andrews:
1:15-2:15 pm – Room 215

This workshop isn’t just about learning the moves; it’s about embracing the spirit of Hip Hop. Beyond just the dance moves, we’ll dive into the rich history and cultural significance of Hip Hop, providing you with a deeper understanding of its roots and evolution.  

Bryant “Drew” Andrews is the Executive Director at the Center for Creative Education – a nonprofit community center for arts, wellness and education in Kingston, NY. Drew is a dynamic, energizing force that brings over 25 years of human service, dance and fitness experience to communities worldwide. 

Roundtable Discussion – “Navigating the Creative Path”
1:30-2:30pm – Room 101

Moderated by Neville Bean with Pablo Shine, Felix Olivieri and Lisa B Kelley. A panel discussion about the unique, often circuitous path each artist travels in their life. What does it take to balance / juggle artistic practice, personal life and finances, and, how do the serendipities of life open up new vistas and adventures? English speaking roundtable with simultaneous Spanish interpretation.

Venezuela Mask Making with Elinor Levy and Marielena Ferrer:
2:00-3:00pm – Room 104, Station 1

This workshop will be an introduction to mask making and the making of Venezuelan masks.

Marielena  Ferrer is a socially engaged artist who serves on the Kingston Arts Commission, is the executive director of Humanamente, a diversity management organization, and chairs the Alianza Cultural de Kingston, whose mission is to foment, preserve and celebrate the culture and traditions of our diverse Hispanic/Latino heritage communities.

Elinor Levy is the Folk Arts Program Manager for Arts Mid-Hudson. She works with the cultural communities in the region. Levy is also a fiber artist whose focus right now is soft sculptural work with vintage gloves.

Mini-zine Workshop with the Kingston Library’s Brian James and Addie Smock:
2:45-3:45pm – Room 208

Creating a zine is an awesome way to express yourself and showcase your artistic talents. No matter what your artistic capabilities are, you too can publish your work and be in print! We’ll show people how to make a zine with one sheet of 8.5 by 11 paper.

In addition to being a librarian at Kingston Library, Brian James has  written numerous children’s books and is the author of several award-winning YA novels. 

Addie Smock is the Assistant Director at Kingston Library. Outside of work, you can find Addie watching birds, walking the dog, and making kissy sounds at neighborhood cats. A voracious reader, she is a lover of speculative fiction and romance.

Photomontage and Decoupage with MyKingstonKids’ Star Nigro:
2:45-3:45 pm – Room 210

In this workshop, participants will create a photo montage and decoupage masterpiece through sharing innovative ways and techniques working with a variety of materials provided for all to decorate. Participants  are invited to bring pictures, random objects or whatever inspires them to make more personalized pieces. Experience a fun activity for all ages and skill levels while producing a special piece to bring home.

Star Nigro is an award-winning professional photographer, interdisciplinary artist and teaching artist. Her appreciation for photography goes beyond the final print, often transforming them into 3d creations from photo jewelry to photo sculpture.  Star has extensive experience and success as a teaching artist with programs/ workshops for all ages including the Bronx Council on the Arts, Cornell Cooperative Extension  and Ulster County, SUNY Newburgh College. For the past four years and currently she is the director/ instructor for MyKingstonKids Photography Now! program she designed for local youth ages 13-18. 

Catchall Your Hopes in a Recycled Container with Isabel Cotarelo – SPANISH ONLY:
3:00pm-4:00pm – Room 101

This family friendly workshop will work to bring awareness  of one of the greatest existential threats of our time: climate change. Recycled discarded objects will be made into art as attendees will create their own catchall by “decoupaging” recycled candy wrappers, magazine images, and newspaper clippings. Participants can take home their projects.  

Isabel Cotarelo was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has been showing her work in the Hudson Valley since moving to Kingston in 2017. Since 2022, Isabel has served as a Commissioner for the Kingston Art Commission. In 2023, she was the Art Out Loud Youth Exhibition Chair.

Worry Dolls with Andrea del Cid:
3:00-4:00pm – Room 104, Station 2

For this workshop you will be making worry dolls. Dolls that help take our worries away. You will be making worry dolls based on a Mayan legend for kids and adults to help take our worries away. You will use pipe cleaners, yarn and fabrics to create our own worry doll that you will be able to take home. 

Andrea Celeste Del Cid was born in Guatemala City.  Her love for art started when she was 8 years old and would  visit her grandma Julia who lived in a very small town where there were no toys and so they made their own  kites, paper boats and dolls, among other things. Andrea fell in love with the idea that she could create something using only her imagination and whatever was available to work with.

Drawing from Nature with JoAnne Helfert-Sullam:
3:00-4:00pm – Room 204

Students will learn the basics of drawing animals and some tips on how to work in the field from life. We will focus on basic shapes, behaviors and how to capture the essence of an animal that is often on the move. The wolf/ dog, horse, owl, song bird and or deer.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, JoAnne Helfert-Sullam is a professional artist who specializes in animal and landscape art. JoAnne is an advocate for conservation, an author and producer who writes, lectures and films both wild and domestic animals. Committed to her cause, she has been featured in The New York Times, Who’s Who in America, Art Business News, and Polo Players Magazines. Ms. Sullam is no stranger to television and film, having worked on the Martha Stewart Show; and has interviewed personalities such as Richard Gere, Bobby Kennedy Jr. and concert pianist/animal activist, Helene Grimaud. Additionally, JoAnne has had the pleasure of working with Academy Award-winning actress Melissa Leo and Jim Fowler of Omaha’s Wild Life Kingdom. JoAnne has spoken at special events including The Salmagundi Art Club, Yellowstone Park, as well as numerous schools and nature centers. JoAnne is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, animal handler, and consultant. She currently resides in Hudson Valley, New York.

Introduction to Improv Comedy with Maclain Maier:
3:00-4:00pm – Room 215

In this workshop participants will learn the fundamentals of improv comedy including creating a character, partner listening and agreement, and thinking on the spot. Everybody will get a chance to perform as we take people through a series of games that will grow these skills and allow them to get more comfortable on stage, all culminating in a showcase of their characters in a series of completely improvised scenes. 

Maclain Maier is a writer and performer from South Orange, New Jersey. His short fiction has appeared in Ubiquitous Magazine and Z Publishing’s Best Emerging Writers series.