Master Classes
Take Your Practice Further
Master Classes at Anderson Ranch Arts Center are highly selective, limited-enrollment workshops which provide advanced students with even greater access to world-renowned artists and educators. These rigorous classes are geared toward professional and committed artists who want to take their work to the next level with mentoring from master teachers, but who may not have the time for a years-long committed mentorship or residency. In the interest of continuity, some Master Classes also offer additional virtual sessions following the in-person summer workshop. Master classes require a portfolio review for admission.
Concentrating on aesthetic, technical and conceptual development, classes specifically address how to improve one’s work through group discussions, individual sessions with the instructor and studio time. Students dive deeply into the dynamics of their art-making and medium. The goal is to unleash a student’s potential with rigor and exploration, direction and critique. Our Master Classes are a dynamic new offering as well as an essential addition to our artistic programs.
2025 Master Classes
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IV
Level IV
Students have advanced skill and knowledge of painting and drawing. Students are highly motivated and self-directed, have a minimum of five years experience in their field and have multiple portfolios of their artwork. Portfolio review is required for admittance to some Level IV classes.
Jun 23 - 27, 2025
9AM-5PM
Master Class: Inquiries into Subject Matter, Narrative and Formal Concerns
Becky Suss
Tuition $1,415
Code D0409-25
In this master class workshop for advanced painters, participants come prepared to work on paintings of their choice. If they are unsure of what subject matter they would like to tackle, they may bring a personal object, writing, or photograph as a point of departure to explore their own personal narrative. There are several optional readings that range from fiction to science writing along with an image lecture and a short screening. The majority of class time is spent as studio time along with several group discussions, critiques, and individual meetings with the instructor. TO APPLY: Applications for enrollment are accepted on a rolling basis. To apply, please fill out the 2025 Master Class Online Application Form
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III
Level III
Photography students have some formal training and significant experience making, capturing and digitally processing images using Adobe Lightroom and/or Adobe Photoshop. New Media students have some formal training in conceptual and technological aspects of video, multimedia, coding or animation and are versed in the appropriate software applications. Students have a portfolio of their artwork.
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IV
Level IV
Photography students have advanced skills and knowledge of photography and digital image processing. New Media students have advanced skills and knowledge of video, multimedia, coding or animation. Students are self-motivated and have multiple portfolios of their artwork.
Jun 30 - Jul 4, 2025
9AM-12PM
Master Class: Translating the Photograph through Memory
Dr. Deborah Willis
Tuition $1,325
Code P0514-25
This workshop invites participants to rigorously re-imagine the experiences of migration, home, beauty, and work through innovative discourses on memory and desire. By engaging with a curated selection of films, artworks, and readings, participants are encouraged to take creative risks as they explore how to rethink the cultural dimensions of migration, narratives of work, and evolving concepts of beauty. We print original work and utilize archival images as valuable resources for inspiration and context. A commitment to dedication, mutual respect for peers, and a passion for artistic exploration are essential components of this transformative experience.
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IV
Level IV
Students have advanced skill and knowledge of the printmaking fields. Students are highly motivated and self-directed, have a minimum of five years experience in their field, and have multiple portfolios of their artwork. Portfolio review is required for admittance to some Level IV classes.
Jul 14 - 18, 2025
9AM-5PM
Master Class: Innovations in Lithography
Brian Shure, Valpuri Remling
Tuition $1,345
Code R0706-25
In this workshop, advanced printmakers explore photographic and hand-drawn imagery with film positives on pre-sensitized photo plates as well as direct mark making on ball-grained aluminum plates. Prior background in lithography or extensive work in other printmaking media is the foundation for exploration of image preparation, plate processing, and printing techniques to develop an understanding of efficient methods for production of consistent lithographic editions. *This workshop does not require that students be proficient in lithography, but they must have significant experience in the field of printmaking. Please feel free to submit portfolio images that aren’t lithographic prints. Applications for enrollment are accepted on a rolling basis. TO APPLY: Applications for enrollment are accepted on a rolling basis. To apply, please fill out the 2025 Master Class Online Application Form.
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III
Level III
Photography students have some formal training and significant experience making, capturing and digitally processing images using Adobe Lightroom and/or Adobe Photoshop. New Media students have some formal training in conceptual and technological aspects of video, multimedia, coding or animation and are versed in the appropriate software applications. Students have a portfolio of their artwork.
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IV
Level IV
Photography students have advanced skills and knowledge of photography and digital image processing. New Media students have advanced skills and knowledge of video, multimedia, coding or animation. Students are self-motivated and have multiple portfolios of their artwork.
Jul 28 - Aug 1, 2025
9AM-5PM
Master Class: From Concept to Completion: Project Development and Professional Practices
Kris Graves, Aline Smithson
Tuition $1,380
Code P0922-25
Advance your documentary or narrative-based photography projects with the expert guidance of renowned artists Kris Graves and Aline Smithson. This Masterclass is tailored for photographers seeking to refine and complete a body of work, preparing it for exhibition, publication, or other distribution platforms. Over the course of an intensive week-long workshop participants receive in-depth support in researching and producing their projects, honing their aesthetic approach, and mastering the art of editing and sequencing. Real-life case studies from guest artists offer valuable insights into the professional world, while peer engagement fosters a dynamic creative community. This is a unique opportunity for dedicated photographers to elevate their work to the next level. TO APPLY: Applications for enrollment are accepted on a rolling basis. To apply, please fill out the 2025 Advanced Mentored Studies Online Application Form.
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IV
Level IV
Students have advanced skill and knowledge of painting and drawing. Students are highly motivated and self-directed, have a minimum of five years experience in their field and have multiple portfolios of their artwork. Portfolio review is required for admittance to some Level IV classes.
Aug 4 - 8, 2025
9AM-5PM
Master Class: New Avenues and Investigations
Liz Ferrill, Ruby Neri
Tuition $1,480
Code D1020-25
In this master class workshop for advanced painters, students investigate their intentions and concerns within their painting practice, while working at a rigorous pace in the studio. Class consists of one-on-one and group critiques, discussion, and ample studio time to make new inquiries into your work. Participants are challenged to explore new avenues and dive deep into the content and methods behind their practice. Topics for discussion include content, color and gesture, symbolism, and more. Ruby Neri teaches daily from 1pm – 5pm. Mornings are dedicated to independent studio time with Liz Ferrill present for feedback and dialogue. Students are asked to bring a digital portfolio of recent work to share with the class. TO APPLY: Applications for enrollment are accepted on a rolling basis. To apply, please fill out the 2025 Master Class Online Application Form.
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IV
Level IV
Students have advanced skill and knowledge of painting and drawing. Students are highly motivated and self-directed, have a minimum of five years experience in their field and have multiple portfolios of their artwork. Portfolio review is required for admittance to some Level IV classes.
Aug 11 - 15, 2025
9AM-5PM
Master Class: Career Momentum: Professional Practices for Artists
Jasmine Wahi
Tuition $1,630
Code D1122-25
Artists at all stages of their careers often wish they could have more guidance when approaching galleries, making sales, navigating and choosing exhibitions in which to participate, and even writing off sales and donations. This nuts-and-bolts workshop gets to the core of these questions, while at the same time mentoring artists to consider their goals within the art world and find the tools to achieve them. Every artist has a different trajectory, but there are many common struggles and questions along the way, several of which form the content of this course designed to inform, energize, and empower. This workshop takes place in the painting building but invites artists of all disciplines to apply. Applications for enrollment are accepted on a rolling basis. TO APPLY: Applications for enrollment are accepted on a rolling basis. To apply, please fill out the 2025 Master Class Online Application Form.
2025 Master Class Faculty
Kris Graves
Kris Graves is an artist and publisher based in New York and California. Graves creates artwork that deals with societal problems and aims to use art as a means to inform people about cultural issues. His publishing group, +KGP, collaborates with artists to create limited edition publications and archival prints, focusing on contemporary photography and works on paper that address issues of race, identity, equity, gender, sexuality, and class.
Valpuri Remling
Valpuri Remling is the master printer and workshop manager at Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque NM. Prior to relocating to the US, she worked at Helsinki Litho, a lithography workshop in Helsinki, Finland, as a master printer and artist, simultaneously teaching planographic methods at the Academy of Fine Arts. Remling holds an MFA in printmaking from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki and has studied in the Estonian Academy of Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
Andrew Ross
Andrew Ross is an artist working within the intersections of assemblage sculpture and digital imaging. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Ross has exhibited in group exhibitions at The Hessel Museum, The Drawing Center, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Artists Space, and Greene Naftali. He has staged solo exhibitions at Kai Matsumiya Fine Arts Gallery, Signal, American Medium, Clima, and False Flag.
Aline Smithson
Aline Smithson is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, educator, and editor based in Los Angeles, California. Her practice examines the archetypal foundations of the creative impulse and she uses humor and pathos to explore the performative potential of photography. She received a BA in art from the University of California at Santa Barbara and was accepted into the College of Creative Studies, studying under significant California artists. After a decade-long career as a New York Fashion Editor, Smithson returned to Los Angeles and to her own artistic practice.
Becky Suss
Becky Suss is a painter living and working in Philadelphia. She has recently exhibited in venues including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, Oakland University Art Gallery, The Fralin Museum of Art, and LAMOCA.
Fred Tomaselli
Fred Tomaselli has shown his work in museums, biennials and galleries around the world, including MoMA, LA MoCA, The Whitney, and SF MoMA. Solo museum shows include the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, S.I.T.E. Santa Fe, The Albright Knox Gallery, Palm Beach ICA, The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Orange County Museum of Art, and Laguna Art Museum. In 2010, his work was the subject of a twenty-year survey that originated at the Aspen Art Museum and subsequently traveled to the Tang Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. A native Californian, he has lived in Brooklyn since 1985.
Jasmine Wahi
Jasmine Wahi is the founder and co-director of Project for Empty Space, a nonprofit organization in New York City and Newark, NJ. Her multifaceted curatorial practice predominantly focuses on issues of femme empowerment, complicating binary structures within social discourses, and exploring multi-positional cultural identities through the lens of intersectional feminism. In 2023, she was honored by The Metropolitan Museum of Art for exemplary social impact work. In 2020, Wahi became the inaugural Holly Block Social Justice Curator at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
Dr. Deborah Willis
Deborah Willis, Ph.D, is a curator and a professor in the Department of Photography & Imaging at New York University, Tisch. She received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the author of The Black Civil War Soldier, and Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present.