Master Class | Sweetwater Center for the Arts | Community. Classes. Culture.

A unique learning opportunity

Sweetwater’s Master Class series are led by highly skilled, nationally renowned artists in varying fields. These intensive workshops are designed to create an immersive learning experience for students. Working closely alongside the instructor, students receive in-depth instruction, guidance, and feedback over the course of two-days. Previous Master Class instructors include Barbara Jaenicke, Jen Allen, Christine Swann, Kensuke Yamada, Samuel Dunson, Tim Horn, Bryn Perrott, and Deborah Schwartzkopf.

UPCOMING MASTER CLASSES

A Bust, and the Weather of Surface with Cristina Córdova

Instructor: Cristina Córdova

Dates: Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26, 2026
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

In this two-day workshop, we’ll use templates to build a medium-scale bust that becomes a rich site for layered pigments and slips. Students will construct the figure from the chest up using slabs, focusing on efficient handbuilding methods and clear strategies for developing the head and facial anatomy. From there, we’ll explore multiple approaches to slip, building intentional layers that activate the surface and create meaning, atmosphere, and depth.

Cristina Córdova is a Puerto Rican artist and sculpting instructor known for her contributions to contemporary figurative ceramics. She holds a BA from the University of Puerto Rico and an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.

Her practice centers on the expressive potential of clay and the human figure, intertwining mythology, cultural memory, and identity. Her work has been widely exhibited and is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Everson Museum, the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico, the Asheville Art Museum, the Mobile Museum of Art, and others.

She is the recipient of the Maxwell-Hanrahan Craft Award (2024), the Herbert Adams Memorial Medal (2023), a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship, a Virginia Groot Foundation Recognition Grant, and a United States Artist Fellowship. She is also the author of Mastering Sculpture: The Figure in Clay (Quarry Books, 2021).

As an educator, Córdova has taught internationally and founded the Center for the Study of Figurative Ceramics, an online platform dedicated to advancing figurative sculpture and surface development. She divides her time between North Carolina and Puerto Rico, continuing to expand her studio practice while fostering creative communities through mentorship and collaborative initiatives.

Artist Statement

Growing up in Puerto Rico, I was immersed in a culture alive with history, tradition, and contradictions. The island is a place where beauty and struggle live side by side, where the rhythm of tradition beats against the undercurrent of its colonial history. My work reflects that tension: a deep connection to heritage as a living, breathing force, a language of lineage, and an equally persistent urge to question its confines.

The body is at the center of everything I do. It is both subject and conduit, a map and a mirror, carrying the weight of its own history while offering a stage for universal themes to unfold in new or forgotten ways. There is a kind of urgency in sculpting the figure—its scale, its placement, its surfaces—all of it building an experience that feels as much lived as observed. Through these forms, grounded in my inherited cultural symbology, I try to hold on to seismic moments that shift the ground beneath me, giving shape to the ephemeral, preserving not just memories but the sensations they leave behind.

Sculpting is, for me, an act of preservation and discovery. When I sculpt my daughter’s body I am marking a moment in time and a version of her that will never again be. And at the same time I am collaborating with some unknown force to give rise to a unique expression beyond simple documentation. Clay is the perfect ally in this, an ancient, generous instigator of creativity, connection, and transformation, always ready to take on the imprint of human intention and emotion yet with its own voice and revelations. I have been grateful for this material, daily, throughout decades.

I make these figures not to provide answers but to unravel and pose the questions that hover in the space between memory and identity, between the stories we inherit and the ones we craft. Each curve, each crease, holds the pull of my Puerto Rican roots—the weight of belonging and not belonging—but also gestures toward something much more universal, shared and enduring.

SUMMER MASTER CLASS

Seeing as an Artist with Ron Donoughe

Instructor: Ron Donoughe

Dates: Saturday June 27, and Sunday June 28, 2026
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

This workshop teaches students how to translate the world into compelling outdoor paintings through a focus on observation, design, and technique. Participants will learn about essential materials, the principles of light, color, and value, and how premixed “parent” colors create harmony and efficiency. Core instruction emphasizes composition as a foundation and brushwork as a tool for adding energy and visual interest, giving students both structure and freedom to develop their own plein air style.

Learn to observe and organize the world into dynamic paintings while exploring light, color, value, and composition. The workshop will cover the use of premixed colors for harmony and speed, along with brushwork techniques that bring energy and visual interest to outdoor paintings.

Artist statement

“As an artist/painter, I have lifelong commitment to capturing the spirit of Western Pennsylvania. Since 1985, I have documented the region’s varied landscapes—from farmlands to factories—through a process rooted in direct experience. Much of the work is painted en plein air, with others refined in the studio. The paintings reflect both immediacy and contemplation, aiming not just to interpret the present but also to preserve a visual record of a region in constant change, particularly its urban spaces.”

Ron Donoughe, a native of Loretto, PA, now living in Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh has been painting the Western Pennsylvania landscape for nearly 35 years. His work features the many textures of the region. Ron is a fulltime, professional artist. He has taught outdoor painting workshops throughout the United States and France. Ron is a Distinguished Alumni of Indiana University of Pennsylvania with additional studies at the California College of the Arts in the bay area.

Ron was awarded best of show at Three Rivers Arts Festival, 2003, and his work was selected for Salon International, Masters of Contemporary Fine Art, 2004. Ron’s was also featured in a one-person exhibition at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in November 2006 with the release of his first book, Essence of Pittsburgh. He has since published 7 books of his work.

His work was featured at the Pennsylvania Governor’s residence in 2011, in an exhibition titled Across the Alleghenies. His collection of 90 Pittsburgh Neighborhoods has been acquired by the Heinz History Center as a permanent exhibition, and can be found next to the Mr. Rogers exhibition on the 4^th floor.

The work can be found in many corporate and private collections as well as The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, The Duquesne Club and The University Museum at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

He recently completed an Artist-in-Residence at Fallingwater, where he offered plein air workshops over 5 years. In the fall of 2024 The American Embassy in Ottawa, Canada featured his work and invited him to give a lecture and workshop.

www.donoughe.com
@rdonoughe

FALL MASTER CLASS

From Pencil to Panel: Stained Glass Sketches

Instructor: Kelsie McNair

Dates: Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25, 2026
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

From Pencil to Panel is an introductory stained glass workshop designed for beginners interested in learning flat glass techniques. Students will start with paper and pencil, exploring shapes and linework to create original designs, then translate those sketches into glass.

Participants will learn foundational skills including glass cutting, grinding, copper foiling, soldering, and fi nishing. Throughout the workshop, we’ll also discuss basic stained glass design principles and examples from historical and contemporary work. By the end of the class, each student will complete and take home a fi nished stained glass object or small panel ready for display.

Kelsie McNair is a Brooklyn-based stained glass artist, educator, and founder of Soft Shapes Studio. She specializes in contemporary stained glass and fused glass work that blends traditional techniques with playful, modern design. Kelsie teaches workshops and intensives nationally and works with private and commercial clients on custom glass installations.

Website: Kelsiemcnair.com
Instagram: @soft_shapes
TikTok: @softshapes

Artist statement

My work explores stained glass as both a functional craft and a contemporary art form. Drawing from architecture, color theory, and personal storytelling, I use traditional techniques to create playful, expressive objects that invite everyday interaction. Through teaching, I aim to make glass accessible, empowering students to see themselves as both designers and makers.