MISSION
To enhance the quality of life in the communities we serve by encouraging individual expression and communication through arts education. WWA programs provide motivating learning opportunities and a passionate community to encourage emerging to professional fine artists.
ADULT PROGRAMS THAT:
Help photographic artists and aspiring artists achieve their goals.
Offer workshops on creative, practical and thought provoking topics.
Promote exhibition of work.
Provide interactive public programs with workshop participants and instructors.
Provide an open and inviting community for the exchange of ideas.
Establish a series of workshops and classes with local contemporary artists in a number of USA and international locations, starting with Denver, Colorado. The majority of these workshops will be taught by artists whose work has achieved national recognition and who are continuing to produce new work.
Establish an exchange program for artists to teach in cities outside their own, enabling their work to be seen and their approach to be taught to people who might otherwise not have that opportunity. This exchange will also encourage the continued development and expansion of the national and international art community.
YOUTH PROGRAMS THAT
Provide young people the opportunity to explore the art of photography.
Offer fun and informative classes.
Invite creative thought
Invite the use of practical skills (logic, math, science).
Develop interpersonal skills and encourage self esteem.
Encourage the use of photography as communication and free expression.
GUIDING IDEA
Passion is contagious.
HISTORY & ONGOING ACTIVITIES
Working with Artists is a nonprofit art school offering programs focused in the photographic arts. Workshops and classes are offered year-round in our professional studio and digital classroom. WWA is located in Block 7 at Belmar, a contemporary arts and design community in Lakewood Colorado. Backcountry and international workshops in Europe, Indonesia and Australia are also offered through our Travels with Artists program. Each Travels with Artists program features a cultural exchange and opportunities to work with regional artists in their home countries.
Established as a Colorado corporation by Marsea Wynne and Ursula Holloway in August of 2001, Working with Artists has been running year-round programs in fine art photography continuously since its inception. The school received nonprofit status as an educational organization in January 2002. In 2002 Valerie Wolny (Photogoddess) joined the organization as a part time volunteer and was hired in 2005 as Associate Director/Gallery Manager. Working with Artists contracts with local fine artists and also invites celebrated artists from other parts of the world to teach a variety of programs to a diverse student body, from all walks of life, teenagers to retirees. International programs in Spain, France, Australia and Indonesia involve the participation of artists native to those countries, creating a true cultural exchange between instructors and participants, during workshops and beyond.
Youth programs have been presented for numerous public schools, museums and through community arts organizations, including Artstreet, Museum of Outdoor Arts, Art Students League of Denver and Lake Middle School. Ongoing youth programs include day and multi-week camps at the WWA studio and in our digital classroom.
Changing gallery exhibits, monthly Art & Ideas gatherings, Coffee with Jurors, a Photo Book Club, Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, and annual Workshop Sample Days are held free of charge to encourage the exchange of ideas and provide an opportunity for photographers to get input from their peers about their works in progress.
Working with Artists’’ ideals are steeped in concepts from Denver’s original fine art photography school, Denver Center for Fine Photography and creators of that program now advise WWA as Board members. In that orginal program, participants experienced the inspiration that comes from taking workshops with artists who have achieved an extraordinary level of quality and passion in their work. This was a place for artists and workshop participants to gather, share ideas and learn from each other. After DCFP closed its doors, the need remained for workshops that would motivate and inspire photographers to intensify their involvements in photographic arts, and Working with Artists was created to meet this need.
Instructors for Working with Artists are chosen for their teaching skills and their work as fine artists. Most create work which is widely exhibited by commercial and public fine art galleries and collected by major arts institutions including museums and arts centers. Their work is known and collected regionally, nationally and internationally.
