Arts & Humanities   

In this combined lecture and studio experience, Legacy Instructor Allen Reamer guides you through Georgia O’Keeffe’s life year by year, exploring how her distinctive style developed: when, where, and why it changed. You’ll gain insight into the influences that shaped her work, including periods of illness and the key individuals who supported her career. Beyond learning about her art, you’ll create your own original works inspired by O’Keeffe’s techniques and compositions, without copying her paintings. Working with large-scale forms and expressive design, you’ll explore a variety of media and complete one or two pieces each session. Please bring your materials from the supply list to the first class. For questions regarding the class, contact areamerart@mindspring.com.

Nature journaling blends observation, curiosity, reflection, and creativity to deepen your connection with the natural world, and the research is clear: time in nature supports both physical and psychological well-being. In this class, a short indoor lecture is followed by time outdoors in the beautiful desert landscape surrounding ASU’s Health Futures Center. You’ll explore a variety of observational techniques like drawing, labeling, mapping, and descriptive writing, and discover which approaches resonate most with your own style. You’ll also reflect on your personal experiences in nature, deepening your awareness and appreciation of the world around you. The goal isn’t to become an expert artist or naturalist, but to cultivate a lasting practice of curiosity, wonder, and building a mindful connection to nature.

Alfred Hitchcock was a master at weaving together intimate personal drama and sweeping geopolitical tension — often in the very same scene. In this two-week online course, the third installment of our popular "Best of Hitchcock" series, we'll explore four films from the early 1940s that showcase his uncanny ability to capture both domestic life and international intrigue. Watch the films on your own before class (all four are available to rent inexpensively online), then join us to examine key clips and dig into the themes and motifs that make Hitchcock endlessly fascinating. Another lively trip into the suspenseful, unsettling world only Hitchcock could create.

Week 1 films: Domestic Drama Rebecca and Suspicion
Week 2 films: International Intrigue Foreign Correspondent and Saboteu

If you loved The Sheep Detectives in theaters, don't miss the book that started it all: Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. Originally written in German and translated into thirty languages, this utterly charming mystery follows a flock of sheep as they conduct spirited debates about the borders between life and death, good and evil, with surprising philosophical depth. Class is a blend of lecture and discussion, with reading questions distributed in advance. Use whatever book format you prefer; Dr. Pacheco will reference the paperback edition (Soho Crime, ISBN-10: 1641296828) during class.

Design, bind, and personalize your very own sketchbook in this hands-on makerspace workshop at the Arizona Science Center. Learn the basics of bookbinding and cover design as you craft a one-of-a-kind space for your ideas, doodles, or journaling. All materials and tools are provided, just bring your creativity!

Few authors are as quotable, or as consistently underestimated, as Dorothy Parker. Her caustic wit and succinct wisdom have secured her status as a literary powerhouse who moved seamlessly between essays and poetry, fiction and observation, sharp social commentary and deep personal feeling. Yet Parker herself worried that audiences were too dazzled by her "calisthenics with words" to grasp the deeper truths behind her cultural observations. This class gives Parker's life and literature the thoughtful, close reading they deserve. We'll sketch her character and intentions through her own words, then discuss a selection of her most notable work. All readings provided.

This class, led by Kathe Anderson, community scientist and conservation educator, combines an indoor presentation with an outdoor birding experience. We'll explore the surprising story of turkeys, from what's really behind the familiar Butterball label to how Wild Turkeys came back from the brink of extinction. Along the way, we'll cover their distinctive features (the wattle, snood, and beard), plus habitat, diet, and breeding behavior. Then we'll head outside to see what shows up in the area, possibly a turkey cousin, the Gambel's Quail. Bring your binoculars!

Every life is a story worth telling and yours is no exception. Autobiography transforms lived experience into a written self-portrait, and this class will guide you every step of the way. You'll learn what makes autobiography distinct from other forms of creative writing, how to tap into the memorable events that have shaped you, and how to deepen your understanding of the person you've become. Drawing on years of teaching and research in autobiography and adult learning, Irene Karpiak, Emerita Professor at the University of Oklahoma, will introduce a clear framework for life writing that is both enjoyable and deeply rewarding.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds one of the world's greatest collections of medieval art and much of it tells a story that may surprise you. These objects traveled from across the globe, revealing the international trade and cultural networks that shaped beliefs, artistic practices, and daily life far beyond Europe. We'll explore some of the most spectacular examples of this global contact: a seventh-century Chinese vase shaped like a Greco-Roman amphora, Chinese lions carved into a 12th-century capital in a Catalonian monastery, and a Chinese sword on the 13th-century tomb of a French knight. Through these and other works, we will explore the long-distance contacts of the Middle Ages, and how they shaped art and history.

2026 is "The Year of Craft" at Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum and this class takes you behind the curatorial curtain. Hear insights from the team whose vision shaped this landmark year, then explore the galleries firsthand with a guided walk-through and a hands-on art activity. Developed in partnership with Craft in America's Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, the museum's spring and fall exhibitions featured contemporary artists experimenting with, challenging, and reinventing traditional American craft techniques and materials. Discover how the curatorial team brought it all to life and what's still in store before the year is out.

For ninety fast-paced minutes, this acclaimed actor-director-producer transforms into the legendary comedian, delivering a performance that CBS News called the work of “the legendary comedian, writer and star of vaudeville, film, radio and television.” Following the performance, Ferrante will hold a one-hour class on the creation and evolution of his celebrated one-person show which began as a senior thesis at USC, caught the attention of Arthur Marx (Groucho’s son), and has since taken him to stages in New York, London, and around the world. In London, he received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award. A Q&A session follows the class.

Johnny Guitar (1954) bursts at the seams with sexual tension and expressionist frenzy, two feuding female leads (Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge), the men they love (Sterling Hayden and Scott Brady), and a story that defies every convention of the Western genre. Director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause, In a Lonely Place) shreds the genre's rulebook through operatic close-ups, tilted angles, flamboyant performances, a lush score, and eye-popping color. And threaded through every frame: the paranoia, suspicion, and betrayal of the McCarthy era, bleeding through like few films of its time. Coffee Pot Rock, the Two Nuns, and Oak Creek Canyon form the backdrop as ASU's Dr. Kevin Sandler guides us through the film's themes and its equally wild production history at Republic Pictures' permanent Western set in Sedona.

Pre-med students from HON 394 Poetry & Medicine (a Barrett Honors College taught by Dr. Rosemarie Dombrowski) will facilitate a session that explores the resurging practice of poetic medicine, an intervention that involves the reading, discussion, and writing of poetry as a means to navigating illness, ageing, and the stress we hold in our bodies and minds. Students will overview the efficacy of poetic interventions and guide participants through the act of reflective reading and writing. Resources/tools for continuing the practice will also be provided.