This foundational sewing class is perfect for anyone who wants to learn how to sew from scratch. Designed for complete beginners, the class will guide you step by step through the essential skills needed to start sewing with confidence.

You’ll begin by learning how to use a sewing machine, including threading, adjusting basic settings, and practicing common stitches. From there, you’ll apply these skills to create your first sewing project, gaining hands-on experience while building confidence and accuracy. The class also introduces you to using a sewing pattern. You’ll learn how to read pattern instructions, understand pattern pieces, and follow them correctly to bring a project together. By the end of the class, you’ll have a finished project and a solid foundation in sewing basics, giving you the skills and confidence to continue sewing on your own. No prior experience is required. All materials and machines provided.

Are you an Artspace member or ambassador? Email Danny Peña, Director of Education + Community Programs at [email protected] for your one-time promo code and receive your discount.

About the instructor

Michelle Wilkie is a self-taught textile artist and designer of modern quilts. Her artistic practice revolves around modern quilting where I seamlessly blend traditional techniques with a contemporary twist, embracing both Improvisation and Minimalism. Many of her designs are inspired by the details she finds or experiences every day. She transforms these into art through piecing, editing, and quilting.

This year, Michelle has had work exhibited in a solo art show at Golden Belt, NC, and has participated and exhibited in a community exhibition at the NC Museum of Art (NCMA). She has taught at several classes this year at events such as QuiltCon and Quilters Affair. In 2023, Michelle was an artist in residence at Durham Art Guild and Penland School of Craft. She had her first solo art exhibition Page-Walker Center and has exhibited at CAM Raleigh, Truist Gallery, 311 Gallery and Artspace NC (open call + final) and curated international shows in France and Italy. She regularly has work juried into International Quilt Exhibitions (inc. QuiltCon, Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, International Quilt Festival). She was featured in several magazines and published in the book Modern Quilts: Design of the New Century.

About Artspace //

Artspace is a non-profit visual arts center located in Downtown Raleigh. Visit Artspace to explore exhibitions featuring national and community artists, engage with more than 35 artists working in their studios, and enjoy art classes and community events for all ages and abilities. To learn more about Artspace, visit artspacenc.org

Parking and Accessibility

Free street parking is available on Davie Street. Parking decks with free weekend parking include:

• City Center Deck, 429 S. Wilmington St.
• Moore Square Deck, 233 S. Wilmington St.
• Municipal Complex Deck, 201 W. Morgan St.
• Wilmington Street Station Deck, 117 S. Wilmington St.

Explore accessibility information with our Know Before You Go Guide.

Join us in making a world made of fabric! Families will design and build their own layered fabric landscape, from rolling hills and glowing moons to tiny houses, gardens, animals, and imaginative characters. Using recycled textiles, patterned scraps, yarn, lace, trims, and other tactile treasures, you’ll learn how to cut, layer, and attach materials to create depth, texture, and dimension. This collaborative experience invites parents and children to dream up a shared story and bring it to life through color, shape, and texture. By the end of the workshop, you’ll leave with a one-of-a-kind soft collage artwork filled with personality, imagination, and meaningful moments you created together.

Tickets are sold in pairs, one parent and one child. Additional tickets for both an adult or child may be purchased. This is a collaborative workshop designed for ages 5-12 along with their parent/guardian.

Instructor: Renée Boyette

Are you an Artspace member or ambassador? Email Danny Peña, Director of Education at [email protected] for your one-time promo code and receive your discount.

About Artspace //

Artspace is a non-profit visual arts center located in Downtown Raleigh. Visit Artspace to explore exhibitions featuring national and community artists, engage with more than 35 artists working in their studios, and enjoy art classes and community events for all ages and abilities. To learn more about Artspace, visit artspacenc.org

Parking and Accessibility

Free street parking is available on Davie Street. Parking decks with free weekend parking include:

• City Center Deck, 429 S. Wilmington St.
• Moore Square Deck, 233 S. Wilmington St.
• Municipal Complex Deck, 201 W. Morgan St.
• Wilmington Street Station Deck, 117 S. Wilmington St.

Explore accessibility information with our Know Before You Go Guide.

Join artist Rowena Federico Finn for a discussion on migration, memory, identity, colonization, and more related to her solo exhibition Inventing a Homeland on view at Artspace until April 4.

About Rowena Federico Finn

ROWENA FEDERICO FINN’s work combines Philippine Indigenous materials with American crafting traditions to create what she calls Filipina-Futurism: intricate, tactile pieces that form a new visual and cultural language—one that speaks to the experience of being neither fully from one place nor the other, while imagining futures in which those in-between spaces are sources of power. Her practice is rooted in her lived experiences as an artist, mother, educator, and community activist shaped by colonialism, patriarchy, and other forces that define belonging. Through these lenses, Rowena creates work that holds space for viewers to reflect on their own identities, inheritances, and the environments that have shaped them; the personal becomes a point of connection, inviting others to see their own stories mirrored in the tension and resilience embedded in each piece. She has won numerous awards and exhibited throughout the country, and her work was recently acquired by the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA. Rowena lives in Virginia with her husband and three children.

About Artspace

Artspace is a non-profit visual arts center located in Downtown Raleigh. Visit Artspace to explore exhibitions featuring national and community artists, engage with more than 35 artists working in their studios, and enjoy art classes and community events for all ages and abilities. To learn more about Artspace, visit artspacenc.org

Parking and Accessibility

Free street parking is available on Davie Street. Free parking is available at the following parking decks:

• City Center Deck, 429 S. Wilmington St.
• Moore Square Deck, 233 S. Wilmington St.
• Municipal Complex Deck, 201 W. Morgan St.
• Wilmington Street Station Deck, 117 S. Wilmington St.

There are also several pay lots nearby: City Market parking lot and several Secure P lots for night + weekend parking (314 E Davie St, 415 S Person St, 417 S Person St).

Explore accessibility information with our Know Before You Go Guide.

From the Mud Grows a Garden: Painting Emotional Connections with Nature

Focus: Painting: Nature Scenes | Instructor: Leslie Pruneau

It is a wonder to see vibrant life emerge from a muddy plot of soil. And similarly in painting, we can quickly transform a muddy palette and messy underpaintings into colorful canvases filled with emotion and enough visual information to spark change in the viewer’s experience. Join oil painter Leslie Pruneau at Artspace for this immersive half-day painting workshop where we will explore both the external and our internal landscapes.

Through quick warm-up exercises and live demonstrations, participants will receive personalized one-on-one critiques as they work independently, with a focus on application processes and the powerful and personal use of color, to reveal their own connections with the natural world.

This is an intermediate level painting workshop as such. Intermediate acrylic and watercolorists are welcome, but demos will be performed in oil. Click here for the recommended supply list for this workshop. Artspace will help supplement some materials, but it is strongly recommended you arrive with your own.

About Artspace //

Artspace is a non-profit visual arts center located in Downtown Raleigh. Visit Artspace to explore exhibitions featuring national and community artists, engage with more than 35 artists working in their studios, and enjoy art classes and community events for all ages and abilities. To learn more about Artspace, visit artspacenc.org

Parking and Accessibility

Free street parking is available on Davie Street. Parking decks with free weekend parking include:

• City Center Deck, 429 S. Wilmington St.
• Moore Square Deck, 233 S. Wilmington St.
• Municipal Complex Deck, 201 W. Morgan St.
• Wilmington Street Station Deck, 117 S. Wilmington St.

Explore accessibility information with our Know Before You Go Guide.

Arts on the Block is a free block party for all ages hosted by Artspace, celebrating the power of community and visual art. Historic City Market and Davie Street will come alive with local DJs, hands-on artist-led demonstrations, art exhibitions, make + take activities, and a special installation. Shop and eat local with 30 artisan vendors, City Market retail stores and restaurants, and guest food trucks while exploring visual art.

Funds raised during Arts on the Block will support Artspace's mission to provide accessible art exhibitions, affordable studio spaces, career-building artist residencies, low and no-cost art education programs, and community events.

Arts on the Block Experiences:

Creativity Block - Participate in hands on artist-led demos, enjoy make + take activities for creatives of all ages and engage with our art & cultural partners.

Social Block - Dance to beats by local DJs, meet our community partners and play lawn games, and enjoy pop-up performances.

Food Truck Block - Eat local with guest food trucks and vendors and surrounding City Market restaurants.

Market Block - Shop for local art, goods, and gifts with 35 artisan vendors

Inside Artspace - Stroll through our spring exhibitions with work by Ellen Lindner, Gabriele DiTota, Tyler Starr, and Melissa Huang. Meet and shop with our 30+ studio artists and chill out in our sensory friendly space.

See the full event details here: https://artspacenc.org/arts-on-the-block/

Parking and Accessibility //

Free parking is available at the following parking decks:

• City Center Deck, 429 S. Wilmington St.
• Moore Square Deck, 233 S. Wilmington St.
• Municipal Complex Deck, 201 W. Morgan St.
• Wilmington Street Station Deck, 117 S. Wilmington St.

There are also several pay lots nearby: City Market parking lot and several Secure P lots for night + weekend parking (314 E Davie St, 415 S Person St, 417 S Person St).

Explore accessibility information with our Know Before You Go Guide.