Post-Impressive Art
In our progressive world, artistic skills are quickly becoming more marketable, viable career options—no longer career paths for your parents to fret over. Expand skills picked up in high school or during personal downtime at Dutchess Community College with courses in writing, photography, painting, and music. Even those not geared toward art-making will find courses available at Dutchess each semester. In The Art of Photography course the Rule of Thirds, Golden Ratio, and Golden Spiral will be covered along with camera basics. An Introduction to Adobe Lightroom will walk students through the essentials of this photography software such as customizing desktops, editing techniques, and importing photos. A new class, Post Impressionist Landscape Painting, will use photos from greats such as Cezanne and Van Gogh as inspiration for students to emulate and craft their own masterpieces. (845) 341-8000; Sunydutchess.edu
Secrets of the CIA
We've all always wanted to wear a chef's hat. Those towering papal cylinders that somehow seem to contain within them all the powers and gravitas of a professional chef: the virtuosic knife skills, pan flipping mastery, stoically steady seasoning hands, and extensive knowledge of flavor combinations. But, unfortunately for the untrained home cooks among us, the hats are nothing more than upscale hairnets. That doesn't mean the secrets of cooking gourmet-level food are unavailable to the general public, to be cultishly kept among a handful of tall-hated chefs. The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park is offering a smorgasbord of daylong summer classes called Saturday Kitchens. Each class—and there are dozens of them—focuses on one particular type of cuisine. There are classes in Indian food, breakfast food, artisan bread baking, knife skills, and Mediterranean cuisine, just to name a few. Each class will include instruction from expert CIA chefs, a delicious lunch, a free CIA logo apron and Master Collection kitchen utensil, and, of course, the chance to don a sugar-what chef's hat. (800) 888-7850; Enthusiasts.ciachef.edu
A Holistic Curriculum
Two-hundred and fifty serene acres in Rhinebeck are the oasis of the Omega Institute, an organization devoted to holistic learning and spiritual growth. The Institute offers hundreds of classes focusing on creativity, health, healing, relationships, sustainable living, and more. Classes at Omega focus on values and mindfulness that often go ignored in our hectic everyday bustling. For example, nature-based philosopher Daniel Vitalis will hold a series of immersion-experience workshops in October designed to bring out your wild, authentic, natural self. His course will lay out strategies and tactics to aid students in navigating an increasingly toxic world. Vitalis will also work with his students to develop individualized health and personal development strategies, allowing them to discover the foods and chemical compositions biologically suited to each individual. (845) 944-2002; Eomega.org
The Art Academy
The Hudson Valley is home to legions of artists. Chances are, if you live in the area, at the very least you're an art-enthusiast. If so, that enthusiasm can blossom into an avidity for artistic creation with summer art classes at the Art School of Colombia County in Harlemville. Classes in printing, oil painting, photography, and Sumi-e (East Asian brush-painting) are only a few of the 13 classes offered throughout the months of July and August at the campus. Of particular interest is the return of Tim Ebneth, a Hudson Valley artist, to the school, who will instruct a mixed media course this month. His course will focus on mastering various media including charcoal, acrylic, oil, and graphite—but will also explore the difficult and slippery question of how an artist becomes inspired. (518) 672-7140; Artschoolofcolombiacounty.org
Under the Sea
Aquaman, Poseidon, Ariel—they can all breath underwater. Fortunately for us land-dwellers, the scuba suit was invented circa 1800, so now we can also experience what it's like to plunge under the spuming sea into the world of coral reefs and clownfish (region depending). On July 7 and September 16, SUNY Orange in Middletown will be offering scuba diving lessons. Basic scuba and skin diving skills will be taught to prepare the student for open water diving, and eventual international certification. If classes in scuba diving seem too far off the deep-end, SUNY Orange also offers a plethora of classes in arts and crafts, computing, language, music, and workplace skills. (845) 343-2858; Sunyorange.edu
