After-school art projects include a catapult.
“In what other job do you get to meet a 9-year-old girl who wants to have a Day of the Dead birthday party because she’s inspired by Frida Kahlo?” asks Amy Mietzel, director of Bare Knuckle Arts, an independent art center on Madison’s east side. “Or an octogenarian excited to be taking her first painting class because the original one she was signed up for was canceled due to the Nazi invasion of Greece?”
While she’s grateful for the many years she spent teaching art at Cherokee Heights Middle School, Mietzel always knew she wanted to open her own studio. “I genuinely enjoyed teaching the middle school ages for 20 years,” she says. “But I really wanted to teach 3-year-olds and 83-year-olds, too.”
Since its 2013 opening, Bare Knuckle Arts has been a fixture of the Schenk’s Corners neighborhood offering a novel range of art classes with all-ages appeal. Adults and teens who sign up to take the Nov. 18 nuno felting scarf workshop will learn how to combine roving wool (usually used for spinning) into an elegant and fashionable scarf they can sport this coming winter. Or if folks are starting to tire of the whole elf-on-a-shelf-as-décor thing, they can stop by Bare Knuckle from 1 to 4 p.m. on Dec. 4 to create a set of whimsical nesting dolls to reflect their own holiday traditions.
Cats gain wheels and Minions go wild in these Bare Knuckle Arts projects.
Youth programming, from workshops to private birthday parties, is still Bare Knuckle’s bread and butter. “I love that I’m able to provide an array of classes for kids that really taps into their interests,” says Mietzel. She is known for incorporating pop culture into many of her kid offerings. In her Pokémon Go workshops, participants bring their favorite character to life through activities like “create-your-own Poké egg,” or they make their own Minions from two-liter soda bottles. “Kids want to talk about and create art around what they know,” says Mietzel.
Bare Knuckle also hosts drop-in classes after school on Mondays (when Madison public schools have early release). Instruction for home-schooled students and a Friday morning “Curiosity Club” for toddlers are popular, as well. “Most parents would prefer their toddlers paint here,” rather than at home, says Mietzel with a smile. “I’m pretty used to paint on the walls.”
Most special, to Mietzel, is when multiple generations are creating together. “I love to see a grandpa and his granddaughter working on a piece together,” says Mietzel. “Having this center has allowed me to help families make memories. And those memories will likely last longer than whatever they’ve painted, sculpted or decorated in the studio that day.”
Bare Knuckle Arts 1949 Winnebago St., Madison, 608-852-1394, bareknucklearts.com
