if you have been thinking about taking art classes or want to improve your skills as a professional…read moreartist I cannot recommend RAAC enough! You will learn how to draw and paint (and sculpture) like the old masters! This is an Arc-Renewal accredited school which is the highest accreditation for realism. Living Master Ali is an amazing teacher! You can go PT, eve, weekend or FT and best of all you go at your own pace. I'm so blessed to have found RAAC!!

School works in the footsteps of the great master. It is the dream of every person who hopes to…read moreget real information to build high skills in the art .

I attended a Yelp elite painting class here and it was so much fun…read more They offer a huge schedule of art classes in all different mediums. I am planning to do some drawing and possibly more painting over the Summer. They offer kids classes too. We used water colors as the base today and she started by teaching several techniques, which was incredibly helpful once we started our abstract pieces. We also used pastels on top, which I thought added a really cool texture to my work. The teacher made each part seem so simple, everyone in the class was able to make something really beautiful. So much fun! Go check it out.

I was really excited to get in to the Yelp Elite event as I only just started to embroider January…read moreof this year. Being that the event was on a Saturday the parking lot was relatively empty so I didn't have to find street parking, but I did notice many of my classmates found street parking. No one complained do it must have been easy. The class was small and intimate with 8 of us present. The instructor Karin introduced us to the Art Students League of Denver, the offerings, and some history. We went around the room and discussed everyone's level of experience and interests. She really listened and worked to tailor our experience based on our responses. Each seat was set up with the materials we needed and we started off with introductory stitches. After an hour we focused on our Art piece and near the end of class picked up remaining supplies to finish our work at home. 10 mins before leaving we all did stretching exercises and cleaned up the room. I'd recommend attending if others are interested in learning something new or expanding their skill set.

My oldest daughter auditioned at DSA last winter and after several weeks of waiting for that letter…read moreto arrive it finally did and after screaming so loud she scared the tar out of our mailman the celebration began. Samantha had been accepted at DSA and her middle school career was about to begin! She has been at the school as a theater major for almost 8 months now and I must say, I am most impressed. Actually impressed doesn't quite cover it. I am completely and utterly floored, flabbergasted and blown away.... The talent here is ridiculous and like Colin mentioned in his review, DSA offers some of the most wonderful plays, musicals, concerts and dance productions in the entire Metro area. Last night's performance was a Broadway review which the kids will actually perform downtown tonight for a big fund-raising gala for The Kempe Foundation. There are simple not enough ways to describe just how talented these kids are and how spectacular the show was. As the first act began and the young lady opened her mouth, my God the sound that came out was quite literally unreal. To be so young and so gifted it was enough to bring a person to tears. Things got better from there, which is hard to believe considering it started out at FANTASTIC! There were dancers and singers and actors which easily rival anything on Broadway. Numbers from Annie, and Hair, Joesph and the Technicolor Dream coat, Hair spay, and several others, for 10 bucks. It was a night for the record books, and as a mama so full of pride and awe I must say... my baby kicked some series Broadway booty last night. Way to go kiddo! So if you are looking for some raw and insane talent for a very reasonable price and feel like contributing to a great, local and PUBLIC school in Denver, get yourself on their newsletter list and ENJOY!!! You'll be toe tapping and singing along I guarantee it!

My name is Dr. Don Shearer, Jr., PhD, MS, MBA, MS, BS, and a BBA…read more My son is a 9th grader and vocal major at DSA. He is a very accomplished vocalist and performer. Last year under vocal instructor Mr. Shively. He grew in his vocal skills, stage behavior, technical knowledge, and began to grow socially. His 8th grade tenure in Vocal had as an instructor Mr. Shively. Mr. Shively was wholly inspirational and a perfectionist. This man while having teaching methodologies which put students on the spot was sincerely trying to graduate skilled vocalists and further DSA's Vocal Department. He put people on the spot and caused 4 mediocre students to feel uncomfortable. He was fired for actually doing his job - to make DSA vocal graduates world class vocalists. All of his performances in 2017/18 were sold out. He was quite a revenue producer for DSA. He typically received standing ovations as did the performing artists in his performances. His and a vocal co-instructor's tenures with the DSA were cut short under very mysterious circumstances. Needless to say, their replacement who began teaching in fall of 2018, MKQ, has put the DSA vocal department into a death spiral with no upper level management intervention to improve a dying vocal department: 1) In trying to fill both ex-vocal instructors' shoes, MKQ is clearly in over her head and apparently going down for the third time. 2) The vetting in her hiring process was not shared very well with the vocal departments parents. The DSA hurt our vocal department because of their slipshod hiring practices And thus cast doubt on other candidates existence.Parents by the way who have realistic expectations and extreme investments to ensure their children graduate from a prestigious vocal school. MKQ may have been an emergency hire to plug the gaping hole in DSA's nationally renowned vocal program. A) Nearly all of the classes in 2018 and earlier had wonderful trips, e.g., my son had a chance to sing at the Radio City Music Hall in New York city. B) During MKQ's tenure the vocal department my son hasn't mentioned anything about guest performances. 3) MKQ's talents organizationally are abysmal in my opinion. I have taught at the college level and having graduate level training in assessing organizational skills. She can't set up a performance and have it come off in the way Mr. Shively did apparently very easily. 4) MKQ has in the facebook post for the bio that, "MKQ has brought a new teaching style that makes MKQ's students want to learn more. MKQ's undying enthusiasm and . . . 5) Just ask any Vocal major and you'll find students among them contemplating leaving DSA to attend another high school. My son plans to get his GED and attend a trade school. The principal Bill Kohut is leaving. Good God how much further will this fine school be a vocal major ghost town.

Won't let you use crayons in your drawings. Has put people through extreme emotional distressread more

Where to begin? RMCAD has the potential to be a great post-secondary art education institution -…read morethey have a beautiful intimate campus, and a great student-to-teacher ratio for in-person classes, and yet, they still fall short in so many ways. Post-COVID, on-campus enrollment plummeted--over 80% of students didn't return to in-person classes, leaving roughly 150 students now on campus each term. This caused major issues, including a lack of available in-person classes required for your major, and frequent professor reassignments. Instructors often don't know what they're teaching until one or two weeks before a term starts, leading to severe underpreparedness and a poor learning experience. Faculty professionalism is another major issue. While a few professors genuinely care about their students and try to do a good job, most fall short. So far, I would say only 30% of the professors I've had have been average / good, while the other 70% have been underprepared, unqualified to teach, and quite frankly don't seem like they even want to be here. The education quality is often worse than public high school and incomparable to my previous college experience. One professor didn't bother to grade assignments for the last four weeks of class, ignored feedback requests from her students, and openly talked about her desire to leave RMCAD. Instead of teaching, she spent most of our class time shopping online and watching TV shows--yet she remains employed despite official documented student complaints. What does that tell you about the quality of education here and the school's priorities? Some of the course curriculum being taught raises eyebrows too; there are many mistakes, out-of-order learning units, and outdated information in the LMS (learning management system), which each class is supposed to follow, whether you are an on-ground or online student. If you take classes online, not having direct access to your professor necessitates a lot of back-and-forth communication and easily creates confusion, whenever there are blatant mistakes in the learning module you are supposed to be following, since online classes do not have professors that lecture. RMCAD also struggles with student retention due to institutional ineffectiveness and poor communication. A major frustration is the inability to schedule your own classes, an unusual policy for higher education. While students can submit scheduling preferences, these are ignored 90% of the time. The registrar's office frequently assigns students to classes that don't fit their availability, even when better options exist. This makes maintaining a job or arranging childcare extremely difficult. Every term, I've had to fight for schedule corrections, despite clear solutions being available from the start - they just always get overlooked by the people in charge of making your schedule. If you try to be proactive, efforts to resolve issues are met with endless runarounds and finger-pointing between departments. Promised follow-ups rarely happen, requiring students to chase answers repeatedly. Younger, first-time college students would likely find this process even more frustrating. Despite being paying customers, students must constantly advocate for themselves to receive basic services. Despite being a student at RMCAD for less than a year, these are not the only alarming issues I've encountered here - I could go on but am limited by Google's review character count maximum. The root issue is that students are not RMCAD's priority. Instead, financial interests seem to dominate decision-making, which makes sense given it's a for-profit institution. Unfortunately, leadership seems unaware that taking care of students would, in turn, improve the school's financial health. The campus's main owners and the college's president all lack backgrounds in education, and this disconnect reverberates throughout the institution. As a result, students receive a poor experience and low-quality education, making RMCAD an unworthy investment.

Great class, and I'm a beast. I learned, teacher was nice and informative. I'd go againread more

Had a great first lesson with Christina. She was extremely patient, insightful, and very hands-on…read more We loved every minute of it! We'll definitely be signing up for the course. Thank you!!!!!

I will be the first one to tell you that I am NOT an artist. However, I had a vision of a clay…read moresculpture (vase) that I could see myself building. I always enjoy trying new things but art classes always seem over whelming for me. The staff was welcoming and they answered all of my many (and I'm sure, basic) beginning artist questions. They were so helpful throughout the process. My greatest apprehension was the glaze and how much different it looked on my piece versus coming out of the kiln. The environment is clean, friendly, welcoming and I will DEFINITELY be going back to practice sometime soon. Best of all, I have a beautiful new piece that I made all by myself on my shelf to look at.

Stephanie was great! We did a group session and it was lots of fun and very organized. I definitely…read morerecommend for anyone looking for a group activity. We are looking forward to coming back! P.S They have the cutest cats.

Still one of my favorite theaters. Parking is easy, everything is always clean, staff is friendly…read moreand helpful, great variety of shows and ticket prices are reasonable. What's not to love!

The Arvada Center is a spectacular venue, if you're not too far away. For us, the 25 minute drive…read moreis well worth it. Plan to arrive early if you're seeing a live performance as there are multiple galleries to spend some time with, along with light bites and beverages. There are so many seating areas sprinkled throughout the space, if ya wanna just lounge while you wait. Speaking of light bites and beverages, they have some decent offering and aren't too over the top for what'd you'd expect to pay at a live performance. I also don't mind supporting such a great venue and organization. We've seen a few performances at a couple of their theatres. My favorite is likely the most intimate space, The Black Box Theatre. The other larger space is well laid out, just bigger. I love the creativity and variety of their offerings. We've seen so many great shows. Def will return. And, the last time we were there, we learned about their spring plant sale that took place in their parking lot. Who knew? We went and really appreciated the local community collaboration. Check them out. It'll be a great experience.

This studio, and these classes, are the best around. She,…read moreJudy, is a truly gifted teacher, and the atmosphere is perfect for learning. Judy can teach almost any style of painting, and she is a gifted teacher and artist. In addition they have presentations by famous artists from all over the country. A wonderful atmosphere and experience.

let me just star out by saying that chimpsy offers photo WORKSHOPS, not classes. that being said,…read morethe workshops that Mark leads are great! I think some people have an incorrect expectation of being able to take ONE photography class and go from shooting in full auto to shooting in manual and being able to take pro photos. being able to take photos like a pro takes lot of practice. mark's workshops give you a way to speed up the learning process by having direct feedback and suggestions while you practice. the workshops help cut hours off of that learning curve, but don't expect to be a professional after just taking a workshop or two! I have never had a problem with the chimpsy staff getting back to me.. and I've communicated with them through email a ton -- both before and after the workshops. mark even sent me feedback on my photos within a day! I'd recommend chimpsy to anyone interested in learning how to use their camera, anyone with an interest in photography as a hobby, or anyone who just likes to take a lot of pictures! but for those who are aspiring pros, I'd say to look into photography schools.

I have had nothing but problems trying to take a Chimpsy class. I got a living social deal $100 for…read moretwo photography classes in Boston and it took about 2 months for me to actually get into one. First they said they would send me an email once new classes opened up (never happened). And after scouring the internet for a phone number, since they don't list one on their site, I finally got on their email list after I spoke with someone on the phone. I showed up for my first class on March 3rd at 10:00 am in the Prudential Center and no one was there. I waited 30 minutes and no one showed up. Another girl was also waiting with me. I work in the Prudential Center so I'm positive I had the right meeting spot. Not only that, but if the class was cancelled I received no notification. I paid $30 to park and spent an hour getting there and there was no class! I got there 10 minutes early so there is no way I would have missed a class of 10 people with cameras walking around. For the past 2 weeks I've called, left messages and emailed Chimpsy but no one has responded to me. I'm writing this review because it seems like this is the only way you can get a response from someone. At this point, I'm doubting if this company is real and I want my money back!