Columbia university free online courses with certificate

Free Columbia began in 2009 as a year long program based in experiential two dimensional art: painting and drawing. Over the years Free Columbia expanded to include puppetry, Goethean science, social change, children’s classes and much more, but the base in experience runs through all of our programs. 

Now visual art at Free Columbia is taught in a variety of programs. Some years we have residential programs. Some years short courses and low residency programs. We have new online classes and we teach week long and weekend workshops in many places around the country. Visual art is also part of the MC Richards program. Through all of these programs runs the investigation in to the realm of quality.  Example  how is red different from blue on a feeling level; what does heaviness feel like as opposed to levity?

One of our students once said,   “I completed a four year BFA and they never used the word experience, you guys use it everyday”. 

To enter into the realm of quality is a lesson in slowing down and listening to locate a perceptive capacity in yourself that goes beyond sympathy and antipathy. All of Free Columbia’s work in the visual arts encourages this perspective. 

ONLINE PROGRAMS 2022/2023:

Class Schedule:

Wednesdays, September 21- December 21

all times are NY time

For more information, see descriptions below.

8am Color Dynamics14 weeks- 14 zoom calls - 7 lessonszoom calls every week(This class will be replaced by a class on Rudolf Steiner’s color lectures in 2023)

10 am Rudolf Steiner’s sketches for painters ( Nature Moods)1 lesson/month this class will meet every 2 weeks September 28-December 21

10 am Rudolf Steiner’s Genesis lectures1 lesson/month this class will meet every 2 weeks September 21 – December 14

Both of these classes will continue in 2023

2pm Color, Composition, Contemplation (there will be a continuing session in 2023)14 weeks – 14 zoom calls – 7 lessonszoom calls every week

4pm Color Dynamics14 weeks- 14 zoom calls - 7 lessonszoom calls every week(This class will be replaced by a class on Rudolf Steiner’s color lectures in 2023)

7pm Color, Composition, Contemplation (there will be a continuing session in 2023)14 weeks – 14 zoom calls – 7 lessonszoom calls every weekThis class will continue in 2023

 Color Dynamics

14 weeks- 14 zoom calls - 7 lessons

zoom calls every week

(this class will be replaced by a class on Rudolf Steiner’s color lectures in 2023)

The course will include after images, complementary colors, color perspective and various compositional considerations. This course will include written and video instruction as well as weekly group calls. Each call will take about 1 hour and participants will share their work.

 Rudolf Steiner’s sketches for painters ( Nature Moods)

            1 lesson/month this class will meet every 2 weeks September 28-December 21

For each sketch I will provide a number of exercises. Some are obviously directly related to the colors of the sketch, some are more investigations, some are concerned with movement or gesture.  If you do all of them you should gain an overall understanding of what is happening in that sketch. For each sketch I have also suggested a word gathering exercise. This will help you enter into the realm of translating from color and form to word. Color could also be translated into music or movement and an exercise for that could be developed by a musician or movement specialist.

 Rudolf Steiner’s Genesis lectures

            1 lesson/month this class will meet every 2 weeks September 21 – December 14

Using Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on Genesis we will try to paint these images, exercises will be given but also free work is encouraged.

Online CourseColor, Composition, Contemplation

If you are interested in joining, contact Laura.

Working with painting and drawing can be health giving and transformative. Working with color and composition in relation to meaning and expression can be life engendering for your soul. Whatever style of painting you are inclined toward, understanding color and composition will increase your capacity and enjoyment of your work. This course will include written and video instruction as well as weekly group calls with participants from all over the world. Through this creative work a supportive transcultural community will be formed. Often in a group, working together, we can feel inspiration and understanding flow between us. Each month will be devoted to a color. Each week three exercises will be given for the student to work on during the week.     Developing color perception by painting.     Developing compositional capacity through black-and-white drawing.     Entering the realm of meaning through working with text and mixed-media Students should expect to spend at least three hours per week on this work in addition to the weekly zoom call where we will share work, ask questions and make comments on our process of learning together. The course will begin in September and end in May. The course is taught in two sections (September - December and January - May). At the end of the course students can expect to know color in a deep and different way, including : being able to identify the realm of qualities and polarities, (ex:large/small, strong/weak, simple/complex),  on the level of feeling; being able to work with these qualities consciously in their painting; being able to work expressively in relation to ideas, text, poetry and meaning. 

Tuition: Free Columbia is committed to making the cultural realm financially accessible to everyone. Students are expected to make a monthly pledge that is possible and significant for them in order to support Free Columbia. A sliding scale based on your financial situation will be sent when you register for the course.  Contact Laura Summer for more information.

Visual Art: Exercises in Painting and Coloran Educaredo course by Laura Summer 

This course is an overview of the work Laura has done with color. The student receives a lesson each month, work is done at home and Laura provides email support and mentoring. Sign up is through Educaredo.

Reflections from students in previous courses:

“This course has helped me to break out of many narrow habits.   I see how my own artwork is subtly transformed. And how in looking out into the world, I see relationships of form and color that I’ve never noticed before.  They show themselves to me and I can imagine them saying, “Where have you been?”  I had the image around the time of our third session that I was riding on a train and that the course wasn’t putting me on a different track but that the track I was already on was climbing higher and through new territory.” Jo Valens

“If you want to know how color works, how it lives, how it walks, how it sits on a page - take this course. Color had always been a blind spot for me. I'd always been a black-white-gray, light-and-shadow artist. I hadn't learned about color theory beyond memorizing the color wheel, and the only way I knew about complimentary colors was by remembering to look across the wheel from one color to the other. Now I know how the color wheel works, why compliments exist, how they're useful, and how the individual colors themselves act. This course will require a lot of exertion at times, and will ask you to do things you've never done before, but it'll be worth it.” Andrew Madey

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