Marwen | Courses & Workshops

Find Your Passion

What to know before you register:

+ Registration for Fall 2020 courses closed on Friday, October 9. Spring 2021 registration will open in late January or early February.

+ Marwen courses meet once a week and run for 8 weeks (typically).

+ Courses take place on Zoom and independently off-screen.

Have questions? Reach out to us anytime at registrar@marwen.org or via text at 312.374.2968.

In this fiber arts course, explore the power of a needle and thread and use drawing techniques to interpret and weave our stories. Learn about a range of sewing practices from embroidery to french knots, and create a personal toolkit of techniques to combine with your personal style. Experiment and find restoration as we explore this unique moment in our lives and dream up our futures, together.

Storytelling Through Thread: Visualizing Our Futures

Ishita Dharap

Grade: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Sat

1 PM - 3 PM

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In this sci-fi and fantasy inspired class, young artists will collaborate to build the world they would like to live in, complete with writing the storyline. Artists will utilize painting and drawing techniques, sculpture, and creative writing to build their sci-fi masterpiece. The class will culminate in the creation of a book to document the journey.

Sci-Fi and World-Building

Jasper Goodrich

Grade: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Thu

5:30 PM - 7 PM

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Storytelling Through Thread: Visualizing Our Futures

In this digital multimedia class, we’ll ask ourselves the question: how do we visualize ourselves, our communities, and our futures? Using free smartphone video/image-editing apps, journaling, found objects, and collage, we will reflect, collect, and create, exploring the relationship between identity, race, craft, culture, and technology.

Reflect, Collect & Cut-up: Digital & IRL Collage

Eason Bragg

Grade: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Sat

11 AM - 1 PM

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This course will explore storytelling utilizing identity, place, and representation as inspiration. We will use 2D techniques to depict our neighborhoods, reflect on the meaning of community, and make works that explore and foster self and community care. With a focus on sourcing art materials from our everyday lives, this interdisciplinary course will utilize a range of mediums from papermaking to bookmaking to sculpture.

Fluid Forms: Reimagining Our World Through Interdisciplinary Art

Abena Motaboli

Grade: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Fri

4 PM - 6 PM

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Utilizing the tools of photography, including composition, framing and image design, this multidisciplinary course will fuse photography with other storytelling mediums such as performance and map-making. This course will encourage us to explore, document, remix, and perform our own histories, as well as imagine the possibilities for a future we’d all like to live in together.

Mapping Our Identities: Documenting Our Journeys

Jose Alejandro Corcoles

Grade: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Sat

12:30 PM - 2:30 PM

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This course will embrace radical forms of self-expression while challenging conventional norms through unconventional characters using drawing, plushie making, and food art. Interpret your world through cute, complex, squishy, and tasty character creation. *No previous sewing experience needed.

Queering Character Design

Mikey Anderson

Grade: 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 10, 12

Fri

5 PM - 7 PM

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Marwen Lab is a 2-term program that gives you the opportunity to work with an experienced teaching artist and your peers to develop your own art-making techniques and concepts. You will have access to all of Marwen's studios and art-making resources to help you complete projects for your portfolio. Your work will also be featured in a special exhibition! Marwen Lab is open to students who will be in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade in the 2019-2020 school-year.

Marwen Lab Fall 2020

Grade: 10, 11, 12

Fri

AM - AM

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In this course, we will reflect on the monuments of our city and reimagine and mold statues to better represent the histories of our communities. Taking inspiration from traditional Mexican art forms like alebrijes, piñatas, and Day of the Dead altars, you will create brightly colored sculptures that depict your families' stories. Together, we will sculpt, embroider, and paint the vibrant narratives of our neighborhoods.

Sculpting our Hood: Rethinking our Monuments

Sarita Garcia

Grade: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Sat

10 AM - 12 PM

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