The Centre for the Living Arts at 301 Conti Street in downtown Mobile announced a busy late-summer and fall calendar, with classes, workshops, artist talks and film screenings running from August through October as part of its ongoing Futures Project.
August: hands-on classes return
Pre-K and Kids Studio classes resumed the week of Aug. 7, with free sessions for children ages 3 to 5 every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to noon, tied to the center’s Futures Project exhibition. Older kids and adults had plenty of options too: “Caricatures in Clay” with artist April Hopkins ran Saturdays Aug. 10 through Sept. 7 ($90), Alison Schaub taught a digital photography class around Cathedral Square on Aug. 10 ($20), and family printmaking workshops were set for Aug. 31 ($15). The monthly Art Lounge & Yoga night with teachers from Kula Yoga Community continued on fourth Fridays for a $3 admission plus yoga donation.
September: John Cage, sci-fi cinema and big-name talks
September opened with a free John Cage birthday party workshop led by Futures Project artist Tom Leeser of CalArts on Sept. 7, followed by a DIY Cage-quote T-shirt session that afternoon. The CLA Art Park on lower Dauphin Street hosted an outdoor screening of the 1924 Soviet sci-fi landmark “Aelita: Queen of Mars” on Sept. 8 with a live improvised score ($5), and Leeser returned Sept. 10 with Chris Marker’s “La Jetée” ($5).
Two free artist talks anchored the month: urban planner and public-space artist Candy Chang, co-founder of Civic Center and Neighborland, spoke at Ben May Public Library’s Bernheim Hall on Sept. 19, and New Orleans new-media pioneer Dawn DeDeaux discussed her installation “Aboard the Mothership: Postulations on Myth and Math” at the CLA Main Gallery on Sept. 26. The month also included an ASL-interpreted ceramics studio for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students (RSVP by Sept. 18) and a five-week acrylic painting course with Lucy Gafford starting Sept. 23.
October: film series with the library
The Futures Project film collaboration with Ben May Public Library carried into October with free screenings of “Minority Report” (Oct. 5), the climate documentary “Chasing Ice” introduced by the Mobile Bay Sierra Club’s Carol Adams-Davis (Oct. 10), Pixar’s “WALL-E” (Oct. 12) and Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” introduced by South Alabama Film Festival creative director Carson Kennedy (Oct. 19). A tar-paper painting studio for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students closed out the programming Oct. 13, and Art Lounge & Yoga returned Oct. 25.