The Metro Arts Center won a 2018 Critic's Choice award in the 2018 Best of Louisville awards.
Metro Arts Center, 8360 Dixie Hwy.
Nearly every surface inside the Metro Arts Center is patinaed with something: rainbow splatters of paint stain tabletops alongside remnants of melted wax; dust from dried clay coats surfaces next to works ready for the kiln; scraps of unfinished projects fill bins discolored from use; murals by teenagers in the painting courses cover the walls. No need to fear getting your hands dirty.
When we were kids, my brother would come home one night a week from the Metro Arts Center with various “wounds”: latex and fake blood, courtesy of the special-effects makeup class. My husband and I carved wax and spun melted sterling silver in a centrifuge to create our wedding rings.
You may need to take a trek to earn your newfound painting or pottery techniques. The Metro Arts Center is on Dixie Highway between I-264 and I-265. (Look for the asymmetrical roof.) It has been offering seasonal classes since moving there in the late 1970s. Each course lasts about six to eight weeks in three-hour sessions, encompassing everything from silversmithing to screen-printing to guitar lessons. Most classes are a steal at about $100.
Marty Edlin, who has been supervising the Metro Arts Center since 2000, says it is a place that was designed to teach people art — not a place to make a profit. “It kind of relaxes you,” he says. “I know it sounds maybe a little metaphysical, but it seems to me that all of the things that have been created here create a mood or just a feeling in the air.”
This originally appeared in the July 2018 issue of Louisville Magazine as a Best of Louisville Critic's Choice winner. To subscribe to Louisville Magazine, click here. To find us on newsstands, click here.
To see more Critic's Choices, click here.
Cover photo: Pexels.com
