Summer Arts program returns for 25th year at Loyalist College

The cover of the brochure for this summer’s Summer Arts program at Loyalist College. Photo courtesy of Loyalist College

By Matthew Murray

BELLEVILLE – Loyalist College celebrates the 25th anniversary of its Summer Arts program this year, and the program’s co-ordinator says the program has a lot to offer.

Heather Cockerline said the college has already received over 150 applications since registration for the arts program opened in late February. That’s about a third of what the program usually sees each summer, Cockerline said.  There’s no deadline for registration, she said, but some classes have already been filled.

Loyalist will offer 37 arts courses taught by 27 professors, 11 of whom are local artists. Some of the more popular courses, such as a watercolour-painting course taught by Hi Sook Barker and courses on rug hooking, have returned, Cockerline said. A course on traditional oil painting taught by Doug Purdon is also being offered.

An oil painting by Doug Purdon, who will teach three Summer Arts courses at Loyalist College. Courtesy of Doug Purdon

There are 20 new courses this summer, Cockerline said. Loyalist has partnered with the Royal Air Force Museum for a new course on drawing and painting aircraft at Canadian Forces Base Trenton. A writing workshop by Caroline Pignat, a two-time winner of the Governor General’s Award for her young-adult fiction, is also being offered, as well as a course on digital illustration taught by Peggy Collins, an award-winning illustrator and Loyalist professor.

Collins graduated from the Sheridan College illustration program in 1997 and has gone on to illustrate over 30 books. This will be her second year of teaching in the Summer Arts program. Last year she ran The Art of Story Illustration, a course that returns this summer. The course has students develop a rough draft of an illustrated book that they can take to a publisher for consideration. As the illustration co-ordinator for eastern Canada for the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators, Collins told QNet News, she tries to help her students find agents and publishing houses for their work. Publication isn’t necessarily everyone’s goal, however, she said.

“Some people have gone into self-publication. Other people are just doing it because they wanted to do it for their grandkids.”

A piece of digital artwork by Peggy Collins. She says she hopes for a good turnout for her Digital Illustration class. Courtesy of Peggy Collins

Collins’s other course, Digital Illustration and Painting Techniques for Traditional Artists, will focus on making digital art on computers and tablets. Adobe Photoshop and an iPad application called Procreate will be among the programs she’ll use to teach the students, Collins said. Some of her students in Loyalist’s Animation program and some students from last year’s story-illustration class have told her they plan to take the course this summer, she said.

Despite both classes only lasting five days, Collins said, her students get a lot done.

“It’s amazing what they can do. Especially as adult learners – because they’ve set aside this time for themselves, they’re super-amped and they’re super-excited to work,” she said. “Every single person that’s there really wants to be there, so they maximize their time as much as I maximize their time.”

For more information about registering for the Summer Arts program, read the course outline, click here or call 613-969-7900.