In the late 1950s, Washington D.C. became the epicenter of a significant artistic movement known as The Washington Color School. This group of abstract painters, including Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam and others, championed the use of vibrant color as a medium for expressing emotions. During this event, you’ll learn about this distinctly DC-based movement and create unique abstract paintings inspired by the lively color schemes that defined this influential group.

DC Movement

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who used thick brushwork and dreamlike colors to create beautiful imaginative paintings. In this lesson we will help you achieve his thick, impasto brushwork to create a depiction of a landscape that is significant to you - resulting in a swirling, fantasy-like painting.

Jackson Pollock was a pioneer of the Abstract Expressionist movement in New York, known for his large scale action paintings. Learn about Jackson Pollock and create your own action paintings incorporating Pollock’s signature drip technique.

New York Artist

Lee Krasner was an abstract, gestural, and expressive painter who was born in Brooklyn and spent a great deal of her early career living and working in the East Village. Her career was marked by an ever changing style as she refused to adopt a singular, recognizable method. Learn more about this pillar of the Abstract Expressionist movement and create a unique work in her style.

New York Artist

Female Artist

Helen Frankenthaler was an American Abstract Expressionist painter best known for her “soak stain” paintings, which she created by diluting her paint and soaking it into unprimed canvas. Like Jackson Pollock, Frankenthaler didn't use brushes, but rather poured her paint onto the canvas and used sponges to move it around. The result was a calming field of liquid-like color. Learn about Helen Frankenthaler and create your own calming soak stain paintings.

New York Artist
Female Artist

Keith Haring was a New York street artist and activist, whose cartoon-like characters have flooded public consciousness since the 1980s. His works told stories about his life and NY culture in the 80s. Learn about Keith Haring and create your own characters and symbols that tell stories about your life and experiences in New York today.

New York Artist
LGBTQ+ Artist
Activist Artist

Jean-Michel Basquiat took the art world by storm in the 1980s, when he became famous for his mixed-media works incorporating crowns, skulls, and cryptic words. He took his inspiration from everything he witnessed in New York's nightlife, street art culture, and politics. Learn about Jean-Michel Basquiat and create your paintings in his style reflecting your own New York experiences.

New York Artist
Artist of Color

Judy Chicago is a contemporary feminist artist, best known for her installation at the Brooklyn Museum, The Dinner Party, which features 39 elaborate place settings on a large triangular table, each designed to celebrate the accomplishments of an iconic female leader or creative, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Virginia Woolf. Learn about this epic masterpiece and create your own painted plate to represent your place at the table.

Female Artist
Activist Artist

Hilma af Klint was a visionary Swedish artist whose work was influenced by her spiritual beliefs and practices, including séances and automatic drawing. Her works, often considered visual representations of complex spiritual concepts, explore themes of evolution and the interconnectedness of all things. During this event, delve into Hilma af Klint's mystical world and create your own abstract masterpieces inspired by the spiritual qualities of nature.

Female Artist

Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama's goal in her art is to draw attention to what everything and everyone has in common, as opposed to the qualities that set us apart. In this effort, she covered the world in polka-dots to create a blaring commonality. Her favorite object to cover in polka dots is the pumpkin, which she describes as the least pretentious of all the vegetables. Kusama's pumpkin paintings and sculptures have become iconic symbols of contemporary art. During this event, you'll learn about Kusama's journey from a young artist in Japan to international artistic stardom. Then you'll create your own polka dotted paintings and pumpkin sculptures inspired by her work.

Japanese Artist
Female Artist

A major early 20th-century painter of Afro-Cuban heritage, Wifredo Lam created his own style by fusing Surrealism and Cubism with the spirit and forms of the Caribbean. Learn about Wifredo Lam’s inspiration and paint your own symbolic self-portraits, integrating Lam’s style and symbols with your own life and heritage.

Artist of Color
Cuban Artist

Towards the end of his life, Henri Matisse created a series of colorful and vibrant works capturing the energy of falling foliage. He used a technique he called “drawing with scissors," which involved painting with gouache on paper, cutting out leaf-shaped pieces and assembling them on boards. During this event, you'll learn about Matisse’s vibrant cut-out works and create your own works by painting, cutting, and assembling paper on board.

Claude Monet was a pioneer of the French Impressionist movement and is best known for his poetic paintings that capture fleeting moments in nature. Learn the story behind the famous paintings of Monet, from his sunsets and seascapes to his iconic water lilies. Then create paintings of your favorite nature scenes, taking inspiration from the Impressionist techniques of portraying light and color through energetic and perfunctory brushstrokes.

Georgia O'Keeffe's striking flower paintings are a powerful reminder to appreciate the beauty in the little things, even during the most chaotic times. She paved the way as the foremother of the feminist art movement and holds the record for the most expensive work ever sold by a female artist. Learn about the inspiration behind O'Keeffe's work and create your own abstract flower paintings.

Female Artist
New York Artist

Upon first glance, Mark Rothko’s paintings may appear to be simple blocks of vibrant colors. However, upon investigation one will realize that both the intention and the execution of these paintings are much more complex. During this event, you’ll learn about the inspiration behind Mark Rothko’s works, how he hoped his viewers would react to them, and the process he used to create them. Then, using similar materials and techniques, you’ll create your own color field paintings inspired by Mark Rothko!

First Gen American Artist
New York Artist

In 1920s Paris, the Surrealist artists invented a series of games, designed to help them access their unconscious minds and expand their imaginations. Learn about French Surrealism and the artistic techniques and games used by its members, like Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Max Ernst. Then play collaborative Surrealist Games and make your own dream-like artworks.

Most Collaborative Event

Alma Thomas was a DC-based artist known for her brightly colored, poetic paintings inspired by music and nature. Thomas was the first Black female artist to receive a solo show at the Whitney and the first to be shown in the White House Collection. Learn about Thomas' inspiring artistic journey and create your own rhythmic, nature-inspired compositions in her signature style.

DC Artist
Female Artist
Artist of Color

Andy Warhol is most known for his collaborative approach to creating silkscreen prints of everyday objects and celebrities, which came to define Pop Art of the 1960s. His work incorporating mass media and mass production led the world to question what it means to be an artist and how we value a work of art. During this event, you'll learn about Andy Warhol, snap polaroid pictures and create silkscreen prints incorporating Warhol's iconic images of Prince, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Flowers!

New York Artist
LGBTQ+ Artist

In this workshop you’ll learn to draw cartoons from New Yorker cartoonist Hilary Campbell. Not only will you learn the basics of cartooning, you'll also be given the tools to find humor and inspiration in your day to day life and build a routine to discover your creative side.

*Available in New York Only

Damien Hirst is a contemporary British painter known for his dot and spin paintings. During this event you can emulate some of his most iconic works and use our custom spin painting machine and other supplies to create your own unique masterpieces in the style of Damien Hirst!

Robert Rauschenberg was an American painter associated with both the Pop Art Movement and Abstract Expressionism. He is well known for his Combines, which took personal objects and found material from the streets of NYC and incorporated that into both 2D and 3D works which reflected the grit of the city. He also believed strongly in using the power of art as a catalyst for social change. He advocated for environmental causes, designing the first Earth Day poster. In this lesson you will use collage materials to make your own sculptural painting that reflects your experience in the city.

Activist Artist

LGBTQ+ Artist

New York Artist

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist who is very well known for her self portraits inspired by nature and the culture of her native Mexico. She is associated with the movements of Surrealism and Magical Realism. She became increasingly inspired by traditional Mexican folk art throughout her career. She defined herself as a communist and activist and continuously advocated for anti-colonial and feminist causes. Create a surreal self portrait using props provided by ArtsClub and assisted by expert guidance from our staff.

Activist Artist

Mexican Artist

LGBTQ+ Artist

Using inspiration from Matisse, Miró, Picasso and Chagall, create a beautiful painted ceramic piece. We provide an array of premade ceramics including vases, mugs, bowls, plates, and more as well as all the other materials you will need. It’s a great way to learn about art history and make your own unique and functional ceramic piece to remember the event for years to come!

Willem and Elaine de Kooning were both Abstract Expressionist painters who used gestural applications of paint to create textured and dynamic paintings, often in a larger-than-life scale. The couple thrived in New York in the 1950s, witnessing and taking part in the New York School of painting, alongside contemporaries such as Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock and Helen Frankenthaler. During this event, you’ll learn about one of art history’s most notable power couples who influenced each other’s art practices throughout their forty year marriage — and can influence yours as well!

Joan Miró is typically associated with the movement of Surrealism although his work also carries influences from Fauvism and Expressionism. He was born in Spain and worked in many different mediums including painting, sculpting, and ceramics. He was inspired by dreams and the Catalan landscapes, among other things. Learn about Joan Miró’s life and inspiration and create a surrealist landscape in his style.

Mondrian is known as a very early example of an abstract artist, throughout his career he moved further and further away from figurative painting until his work became simple geometric elements in mainly primary colors. Learn more about his life and inspiration and create a piece in his abstract style.

Bridget Riley is known for her op art paintings. Her work is characterized by geometric forms that create sensation or movement both in colorful works and the black and white pieces from her earlier career. She was very inspired by the post-impressionist artist Georges Seurat who worked in a style called pointillism. In this lesson we will help you create optical art that produces the sensation of movement.

Female Artist

German-born artist Gerhard Richter is known for a career that spans many types of artwork including photorealistic paintings, photographs, glass pieces, and abstract work. For this event we will focus on his abstract pieces which were created using a homemade squeegee. Create your own abstract painting in Richter’s style by using the same materials he used in his work.

In Picasso’s portraits, he did not paint his subjects as they looked physically, but rather used colors, shapes and symbols to reveal a deeper truth about them. During this event, you’ll learn about the portraits Picasso painted of the people that inspired him. Then you’ll create your own self portrait — or a portrait of a friend or colleague — using Picasso’s techniques to reveal inner thoughts and passions.

Impressionism is an art movement which began in 1860s France. It is based on the practice of painting spontaneously in nature as opposed to rigidly painting within an indoor studio. Because of this, Impressionist paintings look as though they were painted leisurely, resulting in an unfinished look that critics disparaged as simply “impressions” of subjects, as opposed to finished paintings. Discover how the Impressionists made their colorful and lively work and learn how to create your own.

The New York School refers to a group of painters, poets, and dancers working in New York City in the wake of the second world war. Through interdisciplinary exposure, each of these mediums impacted the development of one another, resulting in simultaneous breakthroughs in both the visual and performing arts. Learn about how radical new styles of abstract painting were catalyzed by other art forms, making NYC a locus for artistic expression, and get inspired by the incredible art of this period!

The Abstract Expressionist movement was greatly boosted by the artistic contributions of numerous female painters, who defied institutionalized sexism to create impressive and beautiful paintings in male-dominated spaces. These artists include Helen Frankethaler, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell, all of whom were integral parts of the exhibitions which elevated Ab-Ex to the globally recognized art movement it is today. Get inspired by these fearless icons of 20th century art, and learn how to create your own paintings which mirror their bold, rule-breaking styles.

Unwind and let mindfulness guide your artistic practice during Meditate and Paint- a special event where you can create your own artwork following a guided meditation led by a certified instructor.