Liberty Arts and Jefferson Center for the Arts: Siskiyou County Venues Where Art and Artists Flourish

Artistic spaces offer a place for people to come together and create in an atmosphere of non-judgement. This supportive environment is especially important to nurture budding young artists. Siskiyou County is blessed with two unique arts organizations, Liberty Arts in Yreka and Jefferson Arts Center in Mount Shasta, both of which work to provide artists of all ages with spaces, opportunities and support to discover and develop their creative talents.

Students enjoy creative expression through an Exploration workshop printmaking project.

An Exploration workshop student shows her weaving project inspired by a Liberty Arts textile exhibit.

Offering children exceptional opportunities for artistic expression

Liberty Arts on historic Miner Street in downtown Yreka is a carefully curated art gallery featuring local artists. The gallery also gives children exceptional access to art and artistic expression through their innovative Exploration workshops funded by an ongoing Art Education Exposure Grant from the California Arts Council. These art experiences are essential to Liberty Arts’ mission to provide K-12 children with access to a wide variety of artistic works and to experience creating their own masterpieces.

Education director Sharon Swingle designs each art project based on a piece from the current exhibit that she sees has the most educational value for children. To begin each 90-minute workshop, Sharon guides the class through the latest exhibits in the Liberty Arts gallery, helping them understand the objects on display and providing tools to interpret the art through their own lenses. She and the children then walk across the street to the newly renovated workshop studio space to experience the excitement of creating their own works of art. After the children assemble in the workshop, Sharon demonstrates how to use the materials for the project, inspiring the children to create unique and beautiful compositions of their own right there with the materials provided.

“We try to design art experiences that are different from what children might get in their school classroom”, says Liberty Arts Curator Ashley Fisher. Kim Presley, chief financial officer on the board of Liberty Arts and the founder of the Explorations program, recounts a remarkable workshop for Jackson Street school fifth graders based on the then current exhibit “Speak and Be Heard” which featured artists’ prose and poetry in various mediums. Kim says, “We were inspired to purchase inexpensive cards and printed about 300 with nouns, adverbs and adjectives. We then taught the students to play poker. They each got five cards and could exchange two of them. They were then tasked with putting the words together in a poem. We didn’t know if this would engage the children, but when they were invited to get up in front of the class to read their poems, there was a line of students waiting to read their poems out loud. It was a truly moving experience.”

A cultural and artistic hub

“Art is a universal language,” says Wendy James, Director of the Jefferson Center for the Arts (JCA) at ll24 Pine Grove Dr in Mount Shasta. “It creates positive physical and emotional connections that are essential to our health and well-being”.

Artists like local metal sculptor Ralph Staritt are invited to mentor Exploration workshop students.

An Emmy-award winning Broadway performer, Wendy came to Mt. Shasta in 2008 and has since educated hundreds of students in music, art, dance and theater as founder and director of Shasta Studios School of Theatrical Dance and Mt. Shasta Children’s Theatre, and founder of the JCA.

A premier nonprofit arts education venue, JCA incorporates the natural beauty of the Mount Shasta region to create a hub for live music, theater, art exhibits and classes for children in art, theater and music. Aspiring young artists can attend “Art Mentorship for Teens” (ages 13 and up) every Monday and Wednesday. This class is designed to let students explore fundamental skill sets in the creative process, including ideation and brainstorming, sketching, design, color and composition. Children ages 8–14 can let out their inner pop star in the Monday “Group Singing” class. In the Monday and Thursday “Preschool Music” class, tiny ones can sing too, in this wonderful introduction to music for ages 3-5.

The Regenerative Arts Learning Center is working with the JCA to offer nature-focused education for children. In spring, summer and early fall, JCA hosts outdoor cultural events, art fairs and fundraisers for other local nonprofit educational organizations that draw locals and tourists alike to enjoy the wealth of arts and culture in Mount Shasta and Siskiyou County.

Whether you are drawn to exploring the visual arts, music or the natural environment, you can find supportive community and creative spaces in which to grow and flourish at Liberty Arts and Jefferson Center for the Arts – two shining Siskiyou County meccas for art and culture.