The Montgomery County Arts Council will celebrate its 10th year in business this year with a full schedule of classes for children and adults.

A total of 60 classes will be held at the Arts Council building at 123 East Third Street in Montgomery City. The first class for 2023 was scheduled for Jan. 10 as board member Susie Keithley taught the first of her 12 watercolor classes.

There will also be 12 art classes for children, which are also known as Krafty Kids classes. To help with the rising cost of supplies, there will be a $5 fee per child for each class due at the time of signup.

The cost for six classes is $25 and 12 classes is $50. Jessica Davis, one of the Krafty Kids teachers, came up with the idea of the fees.

“I just did it because I thought it would help people get signed up,” Davis said. “I figured if you sign up for six months, I took $5 off. So instead of $30, you pay $25. If you sign up for the full year, I will take $10 off and you will pay $50 for the full year. I thought they were nice numbers. $50 is not bad for a full-year class.”

Krafty Kids classes are held from 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. on the third Saturday of each month. The first class is scheduled for Jan. 21 as students will get to make yarn snowballs. The other classes are scheduled for Feb. 18, March 18, April 15, May 20, June 17, July 15, Aug. 19, Sept. 16, Oct. 21, Nov. 18 and Dec. 16.

Also in the Krafty Kids classes this year, students will be making jewelry, decorating cookies and doing some watercolor painting.

Davis said she’s hoping that in the future, the Arts Council will hold two classes on a Saturday, one for children and the other for adults.

“There are so many times where it’s hard to balance out classes for little people and older people,” Davis said. “We’re leaning towards little people. We would like to push more towards a balance. I was thinking, ‘Ooh, would it be nice if we did two classes eventually on that Saturday, a younger set and an older set.’ That’s something for next year that I really like to shoot for.”

Also, Pat Moore will be teaching 35 basket classes during the year. She held her first basket class on Jan. 11. The other basket classes are scheduled for Jan. 27 and 29, Feb. 8, 24 and 26, March 8, 24 and 26, April 12, 28 and 30, May 10, 26 and 28, June 14, 23 and 25, July 12, 28 and 30, Aug. 9, 25 and 27, Sept. 13, 22 and 24, Oct. 11, 27 and 29, Nov. 8 and 17 and Dec. 13, 15 and 17.

Watercolor classes also will be held on Feb. 7, March 14, April 11, May 9, June 13, July 11, Aug. 8, Sept. 12, Oct. 10, Nov. 14 and Dec. 12. Keithley will also teach an acrylic canvas heart class at 6 p.m. on Jan. 24.

The Arts Council was recently awarded a $1,000 Ghost Light Funding Program grant by the Missouri Association of Community Arts Agencies that will help pay for the classes.

“This project is supported in part by a Ghost Light Program award from the Missouri Arts Council, in partnership with the Missouri Association of Community Arts Agencies,” MACAA said in a statement.

The Arts Council was founded in 2013. The organization plans to have a 10-year anniversary celebration on April 13.
To register for classes, call Davis at 636-399-2220, Keithley at 573-549-2179 or Moore at 636-667-1554.