Art Events at Cultivate
The Cultivate Education and Exhibitions Team are proud to share a variety of art events and gallery programs throughout the year.
These programs specifically share opportunities for free art making and exploration, invite deeper study into art history, critique, or contemporary art study, or life drawing studies.
Cultivate Visiting Artist Lectures and Panel Discussions
Cultivate is proud to share a variety of art events online and in-person. Events for interested community members, students, and professional artists alike, the Visiting Artist Lecture and Panel Discussion series is central to Cultivate's educational program. Encouraging connection, learning, and growth, these events support a greater understanding and appreciation of contemporary art and culture.
Teen Open Studio
We are excited to provide teens in the community with a space to explore, create, and cultivate their artistic talents. Our studio provides teens with an open and inviting atmosphere for both individual and collaborative art projects.
Every Monday from 6-8pm, starting in April. Always free.
Children and Family Open Studio
Join us for a morning of play-based art-making for children, parents, caregivers, and guardians! Join us to make your own art inspired by works on view in the collection and current exhibitions. Each week we offer a different artmaking project.
Every Saturday from 10am-12pm at Cultivate. Always free.
Adult Open Studio
Open studio is for artists, makers, and creatives in West Michigan. Designed to connect the artistic community, we invite you to join us for an evening of creativity, making of all kinds, and conversation.
Adult Open Studio is second and fourth Tuesdays at Cultivate!
Drop in! Always free.
Life Drawing Evenings
Join us for an evening of figure drawing with a live model.
Learn new skills or hone old ones as we share an evening of observational figure drawing. We invite beginning to advanced artists for this community event. Every session starts with a warm-up, followed by a guided demo.
Following gestures, the model will pose for 10 and 20-minute increments.
Students join and share their own unique drawing styles. It is a great way to be together with an art-making community, and practice various drawing practices including form and proportion, shading for depth, and anatomy.
We are proud to share a variety of models and experiences.
Life drawing is every first and third Tuesday at Cultivate, from 6-8pm. $15
Artist Critique and Portfolio Review Days
The Artist Critique and Portfolio Review Days are where we share in critique and conversation about our work and assess our portfolios in preparation for a job, a gallery proposal, art colleges, or in continuation of a body of work. Critiques and art criticism are a vital assessment tool for development and growth in the arts. By cultivating an atmosphere that encourages artistic risk-taking, we empower both artists and community members to advance their skills to advance to higher cognitive and creative levels. Such exercise has the potential to make art lessons more enjoyable and culturally relevant and to sharpen students’ perceptual skills and heighten their appreciation of the visual world around them.
Our critiques will serve the following purposes:
Grant the artist the opportunity to describe their work
Hold a kind, but constructive space and conversation for analysis of the art with the artist and group
Conversation about the interpretation of the piece(s) or body of work from the artist
Reviewing the work(s) with personal thoughts and assessment
Break it Down | Make it Better
Break it Down | Make it Better is an annual professional development conference for emerging to midcareer artists based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The mission of this conference is to gain new skills, form connections with one another, dream together as a creative community, and find inspiration in the journeys of others. This year we are excited to welcome attendees to the historic Federal Building, generously provided by Kendall College of Art and Design.
This event is in partnership with Avenue for the Arts, ArtPrize, and Cultivate.
The 10th year of Break It Down | Make It Better will be held on Friday, March, 24th from 10:30AM–5:30PM. Tickets are on sale now!