Creative Workshops
Led by Professional Teaching Artists
Networking & Support
Upcoming Free Art Workshops for Veterans
Blue Line Arts is proud to offer art workshops for active military and retired veterans. The following activities are a special opportunity for the veteran community to relax, embrace their creativity and learn something new during a workshop led by local, professional teaching artists.
More Art Workshops for Veterans coming soon 2020-2021
Teaching Artists & Contributors
Blue Line Arts is grateful to have the following instructors, guides and photographer involved in these workshops for veterans:
Deidre Trudeau is a veteran, professional mixed media artist, and has served as a Teaching Artist for many educational arts programs for Blue Line Arts and many area veterans groups. Deidre's approach as a teacher encourages students to connect on a spiritual and emotional level to the work they create. Trudeau is an award-winning fine artist, designer and an impassioned art instructor for new, or experienced artists in mixed media, acrylic, watercolor, drawing and design. She owns and runs Brush of Creativity art programs and lessons where she integrates her art, teaching and coaching skills into elevated art courses for a number of teaching modalities/levels for individual or group settings, team building, multi generational, as well as powerful journeys of self-discovery in mixed-media art playshops, presentations, and seminars.
Marsha Schindler is the studio business owner of clayARTstudio814, and coordinates yearly art events and ceramic classes. A longtime studio artist, she specializes in original artworks, specifically a body of ceramic sculptures, drawings and paintings in her art studio in Sacramento. She has a rich history of art education, having been a professor of art at the Art Institute of California, Sacramento State, American River College and a Master Studio Art Instructor at the Crocker Museum, teaching a variety of art classes and workshops. Marsha also has worked for several companies, designing graphics and exhibits. Simultaneously she created beautiful murals, including a mural for the office of California State Capitol's first lady Maria Shiver.
Gloria Rill specializes in creative approaches to treatment combining verbal, CBT, Expressive Art Therapy and mindfulness to increase self-awareness, cultivate inner resources, discover new ideas, flexibility and promote healthy change, acceptance and resolution.
She has an Expressive Arts Therapy Certificate from JFK University and training in Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts. She uses DBT-informed art therapy for developing skills of core mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance and nonjudgmental acceptance.
Previously, Gloria Rill, a veteran herself, collaborated with Blue Line Arts to launch the pilot program for the ceramic mask-making for veterans at Blue Line Arts, and in 2018 was a part of the CAC Veterans in the Arts grant program at Blue Line Arts, guiding mindful discussion during art free ceramic workshops for women veterans.
James Morrison is a Northern Californian photographer and founding partner of James R. Morrison Photography. His passion is to influence positive changes by photographing individuals and organizations that make a difference in the world. Currently he is working on a project about women veterans who are often "invisible" to the general population. To learn more about this project, visit www.vanquishingtheinvisible.com.
These programs are made possible thanks to a Veterans in the Arts grant awarded by the California Arts Council
This project aims to elevate veteran's voices by giving them in-depth, high quality arts instruction that will equip them with skills needed to improve their artistic practice and create original works of art. Receiving training in fine arts will enable veterans to feel more confident using varying forms of creative expression and will more likely be use a creative, therapeutic outlet in the future. These workshop components empower and helps veterans to express their emotions creatively.
Following the workshops, we will be giving the participants the opportunity to display selected works in public buildings. We aim to provide our community with a daily reminder of the contributions made by veterans while exposing the general public to the perspectives of a range of different veteran groups. This also highlights the complexity and completeness of our veterans, whose identity is not solely defined by their service.
Learn more about the California Art Council's Veterans in the Arts Program
Past Programs
Veterans in the Arts Winter 2018 Clay Mask Workshops
During the winter of 2018, Blue Line Arts hosted two sessions of Clay Mask Making Workshops for Women Veterans. …
Veterans in the Arts 2019 Mosaic Workshop
In early 2019, Blue Line Arts hosted its first Mosaic Workshop for Women Veterans. Over the course of three…