McColl Center Programs and Events

Date: Saturday, October 4
Time: 2:00 PM —5:00 PM
Location: McColl Center
Cost: $20
Register Here

This workshop, led by Sharon Louden, is designed for artists and creative professionals seeking to build sustainable practices rooted in community. Through group discussion and guided exercises, participants will explore the many roles artists play in society and develop strategies to connect meaningfully with their networks.
After a group exchange and discussion, the workshop dives into essential topics, including:

• Who makes up your community?
• Establishing realistic and aspirational goals—both professional and personal
• Sharpening research habits to find collaborators who share your values
• Building a core database as your personal currency
• Creative approaches to connecting with others in your arts community
• Identifying and creating your own opportunities—financial, personal, and community-based
• Organizing time, priorities, skill sets, and deadlines
• Resources and pragmatic solutions

Because of the amount of information covered, participants receive a follow-up email about a week later with resources discussed. A final group Zoom session then provides space for open-ended guidance and conversation.

About the Artist:

Sharon Louden wears many interchangeable hats: artist, educator, advocate, consultant, community builder, founder and director of the Institute for Sustained Creativity, and editor of the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life series of books. As a changemaker, Louden amplifies unheard voices and advances meaningful opportunities for artists across all disciplines toward sustaining their creative lives.
As an artist, her work has evolved from using writing as a medium, to figuration then abstraction through her paintings and drawings, to creating many physical environments that involve an inclusive advocacy using a varied range of media.
A visionary leader with decades of experience in academia, Louden is also a committed connector—bridging communities and catalyzing change, particularly on behalf of underserved artists within institutional structures. She is a skilled collaborator, bringing together siloed stakeholders from the nonprofit and business sectors to spark dialogue and drive collective progress. All of her work—no matter the form—is rooted in her active creative practice as a working artist.

For complete Biography: Sharon Louden

Generously supported by Bank of America.

Date: Saturday, October 4
Time: 6:00 PM —8:00 PM
Location: McColl Center
Cost: Complimentary Admission | $10 Suggested Donation
Register Here

As part of her national book tour for Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50, Sharon Louden convenes a panel of artists and cultural leaders, MyLoan Dinh, Juan Logan, and Tracey Morgan, to explore what it takes to sustain a creative life today. The conversation will touch on resilience, the many roles artists play in society, and the importance of community and collaboration in shaping long-term practices.
The evening will conclude with an audience Q&A and book signing.

About the Artists:

Sharon Louden wears many interchangeable hats: artist, educator, advocate, consultant, community builder, founder and director of the Institute for Sustained Creativity, and editor of the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life series of books. As a changemaker, Louden amplifies unheard voices and advances meaningful opportunities for artists across all disciplines toward sustaining their creative lives.
As an artist, her work has evolved from using writing as a medium, to figuration then abstraction through her paintings and drawings, to creating many physical environments that involve an inclusive advocacy using a varied range of media.
A visionary leader with decades of experience in academia, Louden is also a committed connector—bridging communities and catalyzing change, particularly on behalf of underserved artists within institutional structures. She is a skilled collaborator, bringing together siloed stakeholders from the nonprofit and business sectors to spark dialogue and drive collective progress. All of her work—no matter the form—is rooted in her active creative practice as a working artist.
For complete biography: Sharon Louden

MyLoan Dinh:

As a Vietnamese American multidisciplinary artist, MyLoan Dinh explores the porous boundary between personal and collective histories. Through deconstructing materials and images, she (re)constructs narratives within the greater cultural context of which she is a part.
Through her work, Dinh learns to hold the specificity of her experiences as a refugee and immigrant in tension with the more universal dimensions of human experience. Drawing from geographic and cultural confluences, she reveals through sculpture, painting, installation, and performance the everyday manifestations of identity, memory, and displacement.
For complete biography: MyLoan Dinh

Juan Logan:

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Juan Logan now lives and works in Belmont, North Carolina. Logan’s artworks address subjects relevant to the American experience. At once abstract and representational, his paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, and videos address the interconnections of race, place, and power. They make visible how hierarchical relations and social stereotypes shape individuals, institutions, and the material and mental landscapes of contemporary life.
For complete biography: Juan Logan

Tracey Morgan:

Tracey Norman-Morgan has just shy of thirty-years of gallery and research experience, including over a decade specializing in photographic based art work. Morgan began her career with Eaton Fine Art in West Palm Beach Florida, before working as a Director in several esteemed galleries including Yancey Richardson and Pace/MacGill in New York City. Morgan currently serves on the Dean's Advisory Council for the College of Fine Arts at Florida State University and the Collections Council for the Bardo Art Center at Western Carolina University.

For complete biography: Tracey Morgan

Generously supported by Bank of America.

REGISTER HERE

Step inside the studios of McColl Center’s Fall 2025 Artists-in-Residence for an evening of conversation and connection. The evening begins with a 30-minute mix and mingle with drinks available at the cash bar. From there, we’ll move into each artist’s studio for intimate conversations led by Asa Jackson, McColl Center’s President + CEO. Together, we’ll explore their work, creative practice, and the journeys that brought them here.
This is more than a talk, it’s an opportunity to meet the artists, see their studios up close, and engage in meaningful dialogue with our fall cohort.
Join us and experience the creativity happening inside McColl Center, directly from the artists themselves.

REGISTER HERE

Registration free: $275
Register here: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/studiopracticeseries/event/liberatedbrush/

The Liberated Brush is a two-day acrylic painting workshop led by artist Felicia van Bork. Open to artists of all levels, it is designed for painters who want to loosen their brushwork in a supportive space where mistakes are valued and experimentation is encouraged. Felicia offers hands-on guidance through demonstrations and step-by-step instruction, using acrylic paint, helpful handouts, and live models. With all materials provided, participants will explore expressive portrait painting, discover techniques adaptable to any medium, and see a clear contrast between their usual approach and the bold, liberated work created in class.

Class Dates:
Saturday, November 1, 11 AM-3 PM
Sunday, November 2, 11 AM-3 PM

About the Artist:
Felicia Van Bork is the creator of the popular Liberated Brush workshop and a McColl Center Alumni. Her portrait paintings have been featured in solo exhibitions at Upstairs Gallery, Waterworks Visual Art Center, C3 Lab, and Courtroom Gallery. Her commissioned paintings of philanthropists, provosts, and university presidents are in the permanent collections of Penn State University, Behrend College and The University of Nevada at Reno.