Joy Liberman joined the SPA community in 1983 as an art teacher eager to work with the students. Her love for art and her goals for her students have remained consistent since she started. “The making of visual art is mental and physical. It’s a process of becoming and is learned by doing. The visual arts are learned by wondering, observing, looking inward, looking outward. As an art educator, I strive to share this language with my students. Whether or not they become artists is irrelevant. But understanding many languages can help us better see and appreciate the wonderfully diverse world in which we live,” Liberman said. 

There are many artistic opportunities offered beyond the classroom for students in grades five through 12. Lieberman’s painting workshops give students a place where they can work on their artistic abilities while focusing on different aspects of painting. The workshops are divided into fall, winter, and spring sessions. In each of these sessions, the group focuses on different skills and techniques. 

Sophomore Milo Zelle has attended multiple workshops and has had the opportunity to dive deeper and continue the work he started at a workshop. He began his piece by observing a painting of a landscape, which inspired him to create his own painting of a landscape. Joy’s workshops have given him the opportunity to focus on a more creative piece that he has wanted to work on and interact with students of different ages. After attending workshops over the years, Zelle mentioned his appreciation for, “Getting a chance to work in a studio environment.” 

9th grader Lela Tilney-Kaemmer has also attended multiple workshops during her time at SPA. Tilney-Kaemmer has had the opportunity to improve her painting skills as well as create memories she will cherish when looking back at her time as SPA. “Going to Ms. Joy’s painting class has allowed me to see my art become better over the years, but the main reason I continue to go is because of Ms. Joy, she’s such a nice person… I will always really enjoy the memories painting with Ms. Joy. It continuously reminds me of when I was younger,” Tilney-Kaemmer said. 

The winter sessions will focus on working with different depths of space. The first one is going to focus on depth, whereas the second one will focus on how to work with that space and positioning. Students will review and discuss works from many different artists, as well as creating works of their own. 

The spring sessions have a focus on working with colors. In the first session, students will focus on using color to portray clouds in their pieces. In the second session, they will be tackling the difficult task of painting water. What color is water? Attend a session to find out.