This fall the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council gets to spread its wings and fly a wider path in meeting its mission.

TRAHC will offer several art classes for both adults and children starting Oct. 10 at its new Stewart Title Arts Annex building just across the street from the Perot Theatre.

That building was donated to TRAHC a few years ago, and now the arts organization sees the building’s future as both studio space and a classroom environment. Renovations began recently at the building to get it up and running for its new purpose.

“We got it in 2006. Stewart Title had a lot of their records in it for a long, long time,” said Brian Goesl, TRAHC’s executive director. “They were using it for storage, and we just were involved in many other things and really just didn’t have the opportunity to begin to think how we would do this.”

But Goesl said holding art classes is not far removed from what TRAHC has already been doing. So expanding on its mission this way seems like a good fit for TRAHC.

“We on a regular basis have been having the drawing class on Thursday afternoon on the third floor,” he said, “and so it was sort of a natural extension for us to then go, well, we’ve got this building, what are we going to do with it?”

There was some consternation about the potential cost of taking over and maintaining another building, but TRAHC talked about it and moved forward with the idea to offer something more permanent as usable space for the kinds of activities that happen now and will happen once classes meet.

“We really have thought the last couple of years that as an arts center with just the drawing that’s going on upstairs and with Kindermusik being here on a regular basis and the ArtsSmart workshops going on down in the basement, that we didn’t have any space we could utilize as quasi-permanent space for artists,” Goesl said. “Everything was pretty transitory. So by having this space we could then actually offer space to an artist that they could work in and not have to strike everything once their class is done, which is what happens in this building.”

Adult classes confirmed for the fall so far are Story Illustration, Intro to Handbuilt Ceramics, Intro to Pastel Workshop, Intro to Mosaics/Ceramic, Figure Drawing Workshop, Intro to Watercolor Painting and Intro to Digital Photography/Photoshop. A handful of other classes are also being considered: Painting, Calligraphy, Metalworking and Drawing.

“We as an art center should be offering art classes,” Goesl said. “We should be like the Arkansas Arts Center.”

When he was community programs outreach director, he saw firsthand the need to have arts programming like this. However, he said, “There needed to be an anchor.”

In the past, TRAHC emphasized its involvement with Perot Theatre programming and the development of ArtsSmart, but now providing a space for art classes is something the arts organization can build on for the future.

“It’s growing people and communities through the arts. It’s our mission. We should be doing it,” said Goesl.

He said TRAHC approached a few local artists directly and asked if they’d be interested in teaching classes. If so, what kind of class would they teach? How often? What would they need to be compensated for their time and expertise?

Initiating classes in this new Stewart Title Arts Annex space will be a work-in-progress for TRAHC, but Goesl believes building on it as the program goes along will let people see the growth, making it a creative space where folks can participate in its evolution. It’s also about raising the bar, bringing the best teachers, and providing experiences people wouldn’t normally have, he said.

“We don’t know exactly where it’s going to evolve to at this point ... this allows us to really build on the initial feelings of what an arts center should be, so we’re sort of going back to those kinds of roots,” Goesl said.

Bryan Phillips, community programs director for TRAHC, said building renovation consists primarily of expanding small areas into large ones, making the entire space more usable. That means tearing down some walls.

“They were small, cubicle-like offices before, and you know with four to five people you probably couldn’t get somebody else in there with a shoehorn,” he said. “So expanding it out a little bit will certainly serve the teachers and the students a lot better.”

The renovation will likely be done in phases. Phillips said TRAHC hopes to have gallery space up front near a reception area. And classrooms down the hallway will give local art teachers a chance to do something they want to do.

“The teachers that we’ve enlisted are really excited because a lot of them want to teach but they just don’t have the facilities to do so,” Phillips said. He’ll offer an introductory course in digital photography.

The building will provide a space for TRAHC—and the artists—to give back to the community. Apart from the college, there’s not a single venue to find classes like this, he said.

“With this, if you want to take an art course we’ve got one for you,” said Phillips. “We’d like to have some diversity—obviously, start off small, doing some baby steps. We don’t want to overwhelm the community, the teachers, or us.”

He said one teacher wants to instruct in writing and illustration. Music is a possible area of course work. Diversity, said Phillips, is key.

In addition to the adult classes, children’s classes are also on tap for local arts learners. So far that tentative list includes arts exploration classes in drawing, clay, printmaking, painting and paper mache.

He agrees with Goesl that the process of seeing the program build on itself will give people some attachment to seeing it grow. And as someone who works with students when they visit the Regional Arts Center, he enjoys doing the research and seeing students learn about how to see art and appreciate it.

“There’s tons of studies out that that show that art classes improve student academics all across the board,” Phillips said.

Classes provide just another avenue for youth to explore in the arts, and they offer a hands-on, active way to get the arts across to them.

Registration for TRAHC’s classes begins Sept. 1 and classes run from Oct. 10 to Nov. 21. For more information on classes, call 903-792-8681.