I wanted to let everyone know about an upcoming workshop at The Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies in Mount Carroll, Illinois, in the northwest corner of the state. "Illustration for Education and Programming" will be taught by Peggy Macnamara and Dan Brinkmeier from Chicago's Field Museum and will be held August 5-7, 2013. I have attended programs at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies in the past. It is located in the previous location of Shimer College. The setting is fabulous! Gorgeous old college buildings and park-like campus. Housing is in the dorms. Classes are small and personal, everyone gets to know each other very well, and there is usually a group of people from your class or others joining together to go out to dinner at one of the unique restaurants in town and nearby. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks are held in the "cafeteria," which is much more cozy than the name suggests. I felt it was more like having a personal chef, and found myself, after the class was over, looking for my fresh-baked cookie around 3:00. The atmosphere is friendly, comfortable, and casual, and for me, it was a great get-a-way! Their website is http://campbellcenter.org/. Here is the announcement:

Illustration for Education and Programming

Instructors: Peggy McNamara and Dan Brinkmeier

Date: August 5-7, 2013

Cost: Tuition and Materials Fee: $715

Team-taught by Peggy MacNamara and Dan Brinkmeier, scientific illustrators and studio artists with a long professional association with Chicago’s Field Museum. This four-day course combines conceptual and thematic instruction, art history, and skill development through technical drawing and visualization of natural science concepts. Participants will be able to enhance their skills to better design and develop graphic materials and other visual elements used in exhibits, school outreach programs and areas of museum public programming such as environmental conservation. The course structure will include lecture, group discussion, and practice in drawing, illustration concepts, and studio art.

Other key aspects of this class include:  This course is suitable for participants with all levels of drawing skills or art; as participants may choose to concentrate on simple visualization techniques (planning and design) leading to conceptual development of exhibit elements, educational activities or materials, or illustrations used in publications or electronic media. For example, the entire course may be spent visualizing and developing a museum exhibit diorama or large mural that is to be completed by another artist. Finished artwork may not be an outcome in this case, but there will be an emphasis on development of concept visualizations and content organization using simple sketches or rough drawings. Participants are also encouraged to bring their own projects to the course. For those desiring more art instruction and skill development in drawing techniques, there will be two main areas to be covered:  (1.), scientific (technical) illustration or rendering, and the visual representation of artifacts, biological specimens, and other objects common to natural history museums; and  (2.), an introduction to other forms of illustration and visual representation used in public media and education, such as the use of comics in natural science programs. To the greatest degree possible, the course will also make use of the local environment as subject matter, depicting locally obtained cultural objects, biological specimens, and working from the local landscape through drawing and painting. Although some basic drawing materials are provided, participants are also encouraged to bring their own preferred art materials  if they plan to work in a medium in which they are already familiar (such as watercolor or acrylic). 

Because of the open-ended structure of this course, instruction will be provided at all levels of artistic skill, from the beginning stage to more advanced levels in drawing and painting. There will also be the opportunity for course participants to work together on a group project, so that participants with less developed art skills may concentrate on thematic content and design/development, while collaborating with more advanced participant/artists to do the actual production, much in the way that a museum exhibit team would function to produce a diorama, mural, or exhibit.