Before the Harwood Art Center was Albuquerque’s largest multi-media art space, the building housed the Harwood Girls School from 1925 to 1976. The former Methodist boarding school has been transformed into a community learning center and houses four galleries; the dorms and classrooms were converted into studio space, and the former dining hall now serves as a performance space. Harwood offers all-ages art classes, including painting, sculpture, jewelry, photography, book making and graphic design. This spring’s roster of weekend art workshops includes themes like "Boot Camp for the Imagination" and "Loosen Up! Intuitive Artmaking."Harwood also maintains the spirit of a community center in its gallery space — two of the galleries are community art galleries. The main gallery and the front gallery house works from local and national artists in all visual mediums, including installations. March is Women and Creativity Month at Harwood and the center is hosting three exhibits through the 25 th of the month: Santa Fe-based Lauren Camp debuts "Flinch: A Study of Yourself," an exploration of the unique experiences of being female executed in as quilted, near-photo-real self-portraits; Lindy Hirst, founder of The Studio, shows new paintings; "Synergy: Word + Visual Art + Printmaking" is collaboration between Harwood Art Center, Art Street and Tamarind Institute that documents the process of providing a formal technical grounding for artists in the homeless community who lack access to the arts and artistic instruction.See the Harwood Art Center’s Web site, including an archive of past exhibits and information on class registration, at harwoodartcenter.org.[ Gallery Box: ArtStreet | Gallery Box: The Trillion Space ]
Harwood Art Center is located at 1114 Seventh St. NW. 242-6367; Mon-Fri 10 a.m.-4 p.m, First Fridays and Artscrawls 6-8 p.m.
