The past past five months have required a significant pivot in the way Fleisher presents its programs. Those of you who have participated in our online classes for adults have helped us hone our ability to provide meaningful artistic experiences with our resourceful faculty, and we remain incredibly grateful for your support and patience during this time of social distancing.

Based on your feedback and experiences, we are thrilled to roll out a fall term that will include a robust slate of online classes and workshops paired with a number of in-person workshops and open studios. Registration will begin on Monday, July 20, and classes will begin Tuesday, September 8. A digital copy of our fall course guide is available by clicking here, and our online class and workshop listings will be available tomorrow morning. If you are new to online learning or are unsure about your current equipment, please contact Dominic Mercier, Fleisher’s communications director, to schedule a brief consultation and to learn the basics of Zoom. Dominic can be reached at dmercier@fleisher.org.

One thing that you may notice about our fall schedule is that our tuition-free offerings will look different. We recognize that many students rely on tuition-free classes as a key avenue to participation at Fleisher, so, to that end, Fleisher From a Distance, our series of online learning and community building events, will continue to be offered on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. The internet’s reach has allowed us to reach a broad audience, with participants from overseas regularly tuning in to learn from our teaching artists.

In addition, to ensure that our programs remain as affordable as possible, we offer tuition assistance each term so that everyone can join our creative community. To make the process smoother and easier, we recently streamlined the process to a simple Google form – available in English and Spanish – removing paper forms from the equation. Tuition assistance is available to anyone who needs it and no documentation is required. Applications will open at the same time as registration. Click here to learn more about tuition assistance and to apply.

Our in-person programming will include a number of plein air painting and drawing workshops and open studio times in nearly every medium. All in-person offerings will include rigorous social distancing and safety protocols. Besides two figure drawing open studios, which will meet in the Sanctuary every week and will be limited to a total of eight registrants each, open studio time will require reservations through a simple online system. Registered open studio participants will receive a link every Friday at 9:00 a.m. and will be able to register for up to six three-hour slots each week. Open studio participants must wear an appropriate face covering at all times and keep a six-foot distance from all other students. Our facilities team will continue to follow its enhanced sanitation protocols and will sanitize each studio after every three-hour session.

We have learned a lot since March, and we continue to evaluate our programs regularly. As the fall grows nearer, we will continue to follow the guidance of Governor Wolf and other health experts and our class schedule will remain flexible. If we are able to safely add additional in-person offerings we will announce them through email and on our website.

We hope that you enjoy the rest of your summer and we look forward to seeing you again in September.

Pictured artwork created in our spring online classes by: Marjorie Levy, Eddie Luks, and Lindsey Benitz.