High school and college students, as well as adults, can bolster their drawing portfolios with a trio of Saturday morning workshops set for September at the Albany Museum of Art. 

The sessions will be conducted 9 am-11:30 am on three Saturdays—Sept 12, 19 and 26—in the AMA classroom.

Noelle Petersen, art teacher at Deerfield-Windsor School, will instruct the sessions, which will exercise and strengthen skills and help participants build up their body of work. Subject matter will vary as students work on their individual styles and techniques.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for teens and adults to build up their drawing portfolios,” Annie Vanoteghem, director of education and public programming for the AMA, said. 

She said the workshops are for all skill levels. Participants may sign up for one, two or all three sessions. The cost for each session is $10 for AMA members and $15 for future members. 

Participants will need to bring the following supplies: 18-by-24-inch drawing paper, 18-by-24-inch plain newsprint, vine charcoal, compressed charcoal (black and white), and a set of drawing pencils (HB, 2B, 4B, etc.).

Because of health guidelines, the workshops will be limited to 12 participants. Contact Vanoteghem at [email protected] or call her at 229.439.8400 to register. 

“Our drawing classes before the COVID-19 shutdown were very popular, so I am encouraging those who are interested to register early because we expect high demand for these workshops,” Vanoteghem said. “Noelle is an accomplished art teacher who will guide the artists as they tackle a variety of subject matter, enabling them to work on their techniques and to learn new ones.” 

Petersen has 20 years of experience as an art educator and is the president of the Georgia Art Education Association.  She has undergraduate and graduate degrees in art education from the University of North Georgia.  She has taught at the university level, as well as at public and private high schools in Georgia. Petersen is teaching at Deerfield-Windsor Upper School, where she is the Fine Arts Department chair. 

She has taught a variety of visual arts media, and has worked with all levels of high school aged students. Petersen has experience teaching upper level courses such as Advanced Placement Drawing and Advanced Placement 2-Dimensional Design, IB Art, Darkroom Photography, Drawing, Painting and Printmaking.

Petersen is an advocate for involving students in the visual arts community. In her 19 years of teaching in North Georgia and Atlanta, her students participated annually in over 15 art shows, juried exhibitions and scholarship competitions such as the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, Scholastic Art & Writing Competition, SCAD Challenge, National Portfolio Day, Capitol Art Exhibition, Governor's Honors, the High Museum Metro Exhibition and the 5th Congressional Art Competition. 

Many of her students have been accepted to attend prestigious colleges such as Rhode Island School of Design, Pratt Institute, Washington University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Parsons School for Fashion Design, and state colleges such as The University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Georgia State. Several of her former students are living and working as artists in Atlanta, New York, Minneapolis, Denver and Paris in various creative fields, including fashion, urban murals, leather works, dance, music and cultural affairs.