Plan a Creative Party at Pratt Fine Arts Center

Luckily, there are a number of opportunities to gather with family, friends, and co-workers throughout the year.  Whether it's a birthday, anniversary, holiday, team building event or an awards ceremony, it's always fun to come up with an exciting and memorable experience to celebrate.  Most of the time these parties and events take place in restaurants, banquet halls, public parks or our homes, but there might be something better the next time you plan a party.

Let me introduce you to a different kind of party that only some of us have experienced.  It's engaging, informational, fun and you get to use your imagination...I'm talking about a creative party!  Everything from painting to glass blowing and jewelry making to knitting, the list goes on and on.  These are fantastic alternatives that give us an opportunity to work together, use the right side of our brain to create something unique, and make a memory to last a lifetime.  You can easily organize such a party by yourself if you have the venue and materials or you can find local organizations that offer these options. 

One such institution is Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle.  Pratt has been supporting the local community since 1976 and has over 150 instructors and 3,600 students that use their campus annually to teach and learn together.  In addition to being an institution that offers various forms of arts and crafts, they also make their studios available to host your party or event.

So, what are the options available?  Pratt offers a variety of disciplines to explore including Printmaking, 2D Arts, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Blacksmithing, Bronze Casting, Stone Carving, Welding, Jewelry Making, Glass Blowing and many more.  Where else can you find one place with so many choices?  It's very impressive!  Pratt has been organizing creative parties and events for many years and Grace Meils and Amanda Ondrick are in charge of managing this process.  I had the opportunity to talk to both of them and they provided me with some great information in our discussion that I wanted to pass along today:

Meylah: Can you tell me a little more about Pratt Fine Arts Center?
Pratt: Pratt is a non-profit community art center available to everyone.  We have classes, studio rental, scholarships, tuition assistance, and events. There are many ways for people to be involved whether it's a student, studio renter, volunteer, work-study student, instructor, or donor.

Meylah: How would you characterize Pratt’s events compared to other such options?
Pratt: Pratt is a renowned institution and we pride ourselves in keeping up with the times.  The instructors are working professionals with extensive experience.  Pratt offers a wide range of options and we are here to make sure that your party and event is memorable.  We work with each individual to customize the event to their needs.

Meylah: What is the individual capacity for each event and how do you support a larger group?
Pratt: Typically the group size for each discipline area is limited to about 10.  This allows for good interactions, hands on learning and quality instruction.  For a larger group we can organize several discipline areas and have them rotate through each area if you need the event to last longer.  The largest group we have ever organized was 40.  A small group helps for good interaction and that's one of the most important aspects especially in a team building type of activity.

Meylah: Can you customize the experience based on the type of party or event?
Pratt: We can customize the event in several ways.  Based on the type of event we can accommodate special requests.  It could be the type of food or drink, special handouts, a specific project or activity, special theme, etc.  Our instructors are very experienced and are very accommodating to personal requests.

Meylah: What are the costs involved to host a party or event at Pratt?
Pratt: The event pricing starts at $60/person and lasts about 4 hours.  The events are a lot of fun, they give a hands on experience to each individual and our instructors are professional artists experienced in guiding everyone, including complete beginners, through a playful, rewarding and productive experience.

Obviously this is extremely exciting stuff and I know I am looking forward to organizing a creative party very soon!  If you have any comments, suggestions or other creative event ideas, please share your thoughts.  And, if you want to plan your own creative party or event at Pratt, contact Amanda Ondrick or visit www.pratt.org.

Have fun and start planning!

Photos courtesy of Pratt Fine Arts Center