Watercolor Journaling Intensive: The Season Unfolding (100-05-05-12)
Saturday, May 5, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
$90.00 member/$95.00 non-member, Beginner-Intermediate, Lecture / Demo, Limit 16, Learning Center

Observe and record the season of promise and growth at the Arboretum. Sandy Muzzy will demonstrate easy-to-manage techniques in watercolor, ink, colored pencils, markers, mono-printing, and collage, help you develop your own style, and discuss book-binding options. Classes will start in the Learning Center, and then you will go out to explore what is emerging. Experience helpful but not required. A supplies list will be sent when you register. A popular teacher, Sandy is an award-winning watercolorist who has exhibited widely in the Twin Cities, including at the Arboretum. Dress for painting outdoors. Rain back-up: Class will take place at the Learning Center.

Paint Break-Out: Spring Bulbs Glory Captured in Watercolor (100-05-19-12)
Saturday, May 19, 9:45 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
$90 member/$95 non-member, Beginner-Intermediate, Lecture / Demo, Limit 16, Learning Center

As the Arboretum's spring bulbs burst forth, capture the magic and loveliness in watercolor. Georgia Kandiko, watercolor artist and instructor, will guide you in creating fresh, dynamic, and beautiful paintings guaranteed not to wilt. Class will meet in the Snyder Building Lobby at 9:45 a.m. Participants will explore the bulb gardens, discover what is blooming, and learn innovative techniques for developing paintings that seem to explode off of the paper. In case of rain, class will be held at the Learning Center. Boxed lunch included.

Spring Up Close and Personal: The Blossom as Watercolor Portrait Subject (100-06-02-12)
Saturday, June 2, 9:45 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
$90 member/$95 non-member, Beginner-Intermediate, Lecture / Demo, Limit 16, Learning Center

Minnesotans earn the glorious springtime. Learn to paint it up close and personal with watercolor artist and instructor, Georgia Kandiko. Class will meet in the Snyder Building Lobby at 9:45 am. Participants will seek and find spectacular blooms and learn to develop paintings that employ composition and design to highlight the bloom structure. In case of rain, class will be held at the Learning Center. Includes a boxed lunch.

The Andersen Horticultural Library has a surprising number of sumptuously illustrated ornithological works on birds from around the world. Delve into some of these works with library head Kathy Allen. Many of these have rarely been viewed, and this course offers you an exclusive opportunity to get close to these treasures of feathered beauty-some no longer with us, and others whose living examples fill the Arboretum with song.

The Andersen Horticultural Library collection includes a seven-volume work considered by botanical art expert Wilfrid Blunt to be "one of the most splendid books on fruit ever produced." Explore this work and other stunning fruit images, found in the pomological books of the mid-1800's, and in samples of nursery catalogs and nurserymen's plate-books, with the head of the collection Kathy Allen.

Regions, countries, and states are all proud of the wildflowers that grow in their area. Wildflowers of the Holy Land, Wildflowers of America, and Wildflowers of California are just some of the titles from the Rare Book Room, not to mention charming illustrations in antique seed catalogs. With Andersen Horticultural Library head Kathy Allen, you will have an exclusive viewing of these treasures, after which you might want to take the time to look at the living examples in the gardens.

Let nature inspire and inform your writing. Delve into the work of writers moved by nature and examine choices made in their prose and poetry. Use these examples as points of departure for your own writing. In various Arboretum settings, engage your muse, generate material and uncover new approaches to old material. Revel in seasonal changes and surprises in the gardens and in the richness of writing you will generate. You will be guided by author Susan Thurston, whose recent work was published in Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Alamanac" (February 8, 2011), Low Down and Coming On, (Red Dragonfly Press, 2010), and as co-author of Cooking Up the Good Life (University of Minnesota Press, 2011).

Herbals from the 16th century offer an eye into how important the knowledge of plants was in treating ailments. Without professional doctors at hand, men and women needed to be able to recognize the plants that could provide relief to a large range of illnesses. In this class, Andersen Horticultural Library head Kathy Allen will take you on a journey through these wonderfully illustrated volumes about the plants and what they reveal about how these plants should be used (or not).

The scope and definition of landscape design has drastically evolved in thought and practice of the centuries. In this class, led by Andersen Horticulture Library head Kathy Allen, you will gain an understanding of how changes have occurred and reoccurred in landscape design and architecture, from the innovative "red books" of Humphry Repton, to a look at formal gardens in England and Scotland.

Music in the Garden: Vivaldi, Winter, and More (100-02-16-12)
Thursday, February 16, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
$35 member/$45 non-member, All Levels, Lecture / Demo, Limit 50, Oswald Visitor Center

Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi created some of the most beloved classics of Western music, including the string-rich Four Seasons. This first of three music appreciation sessions explores why this work revolutionized music composition. In a setting similar to what inspired this work, you will delve into the composer's life and times. Learn how Vivaldi evoked storms and a frozen landscape in the concerto Winter, and delight in other favorites with acclaimed musicologist Daniel Freeman, Ph.D. Freeman has taught courses in music history at the many universities and the Smithsonian Institution, and his research has focused on composers Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi. Each session stands on its own, but together they offer even deeper enrichment.

Music in the Garden: Vivaldi, Spring, and More (100-04-19-12)
Thursday, April 19, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
$35 member/$45 non-member, All Levels, Lecture / Demo, Limit 50, Oswald Visitor Center

Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi created some of the most beloved classics of Western music, including the string-rich Four Seasons. In this second of three music appreciation sessions dedicated to this work, you will listen to and explore how Vivaldi evoked the awakening season, from bird song to babbling brooks. While in a garden setting similar to what inspired this work, you will delve into his life and times, and delight in other favorites with acclaimed musicologist and pianist Daniel Freeman, Ph.D. Freeman has taught at the University of Minnesota and the Smithsonian Institution. Through his engaging presentations, which stand alone as well as together, you will learn how the Four Seasons revolutionized music conception.

Music in the Garden: Vivaldi, Summer, and More (100-06-21-12)
Thursday, June 21, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
$35 member/$45 non-member, All Levels, Lecture / Demo, Limit 50, Snyder Auditorium

Enter lush summer on the notes of Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi's beloved Four Seasons. In the third of three music appreciation sessions dedicated to his work, you will revel in a garden setting similar to what inspired this work. You will delve into the composer's life and times and listen to and explore how he evoked the leaning landscapes and summer heat in the concerto Summer. You will also delight in other favorites with acclaimed musicologist and pianist Daniel Freeman, Ph.D. Freeman has taught courses in music history at the University of Minnesota, other universities, and the Smithsonian Institution, and his research has focused on the music of composers Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi.