(bright music) - Well, how would you rate your art skills on a scale of one to 10?

Well, if you're like me and fall on the lower end of that scale, there's hope.

The Visual Arts Institute's Figure Academy could elevate your craft.

Bruce Robertson joins us now to share how a few summer sessions could lead to a rich portfolio-ready experience.

Welcome, Bruce.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- So tell me about this program.

I see that you say you should at least have taken one drawing class before you hop into this, right?

- Well, it's probably a good idea, but it's not necessary.

- What kind of students is this program for?

- Well, it's for basically ages 12 to on up.

The first two sessions are generally middle school, high school students, but scattering of adults in there, and then we have one that's really geared toward high school teachers and adults.

- [Liz] Wow, and what are some of the things that they're drawing or painting during this course?

- Well, it's the Figure Academy, so it's primarily the figures.

They do some days of drawing, some days of painting.

We're learning different skills and skillsets, so we do critiques, and we work with them nine hours a day.

- I hear it can be pretty intense.

- It is intense, yes.

It's intended to be that way.

- Why is it important to have that intensity as a part of the program?

- They remember it, for one thing.

They get the practice that usually, if they come in a high school for two hours or an hour and a half every other day, you just don't get it as if you're doing it immersively every day, and you're doing it for a long time, and we have two instructors that are working with them, and we're getting around, giving 'em individual attention and everything, and then they do critiques at the end of the day, so they're getting immediate feedback, and so the students critique themselves and each other, so that's a good thing, too.

- That's amazing, and I hear that this program attracts people not just from Utah, but from all over the world.

- Yeah, we've had students from China.

Sometimes, it's a grandparent, and kids are visiting their grandparent, and their parent says, well, I'm gonna sign 'em up for something for two weeks, and so we've had that where, from China, we had a girl from Japan that came for five years.

- Wow.

That's amazing.

Well, thank you so much for being here and for sharing this.

If you would like to check out this program and just bring your art skills to the next level, it's the Figure Academy Sessions.

Enrollment is now open, and classes go from June 29th until July 31st.

Just head to visualartinstitute.org for more information.

I'm Liz Adeola, and thank you so much for watching "Contact."

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