For Immediate Release
Contact information: [email protected]
IAGOARTS: Art Space Opens in Downtown Staunton, VA
(Pronounced ‘Ee-ya-go’)
Local artist, D. Cruce Koćka, has opened a new art studio in the Old Stonewall Jackson Elementary School building in the historic district of downtown Staunton. IagoArts Studio offers a community space focused on expanding opportunities for local art lovers and enthusiasts to play and learn together. The Studio will hold children’s Art Classes, Art parties and Paint Nights for all ages and it is a working Studio / Gallery for the artist.
An Art Party provides a fun alternative to everyday entertainment, giving kids and adults alike a fun social environment to spark their creative side. Art Parties can be booked for special events such as birthdays, baby showers or for a fantabulously unique night out. All skill levels are welcome. Weekly Paint Nights and Couples Date Nights will be scheduled throughout the holidays. Check the website for the calendar.
“An advocate for the local resident and visitor alike, who just wants to get their hands on paint and have some fun.”
Koćka has been teaching for over 30 years and offers weekly Art Classes for homeschooled students grades three through high school. Classes are offered on a session basis and include a wide range of mediums, skills instruction, and art history and art theory. Iago Arts offers a great opportunity and arranges classes based on grade level. Workshops are offered for all ages with rotating subjects and medium.
IagoArts also serves as a gallery for selling her work and a studio for Koćka. - a portraitist, pleine air painter and muralist. The show room exhibits her work and is open to the public most days. Call for hours.
About Donna .Cruce Koćka
Born and raised in a southern family, Donna has been drawing since she could hold a pencil. Donna Cruce Kocka, BFA, The University of Tennessee, 1986 is a Staunton, VA resident. She is married and has three children, one beautiful grandson and a black lab named Leighla. When she is not painting, she leads group bible studies and teaches high school Art at Grace Christian School in Staunton. She also loves to hike in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, read, walk in the park with her dog, travel and have tea with friends.
She began teaching art to children during her senior year of college. And along the way as Donna was raising her children she was painting portraits, mural, theater set design and construction, faux finishes and a little graphic design. In 2011 she took a landmark oil painting class with Cedric Egeli, an internationally known colorist and portrait artist in Cape Cod. This outdoor portrait class began a new journey for her. She is fascinated with the effects of light and color and has since studied again with Camille Prezwodek and at Maryland Hall with John Ebersberger. Aat the local BSSS she has taken classes with Elise Blake, Jeffery Stockberger and numerous classes with the renowned colorist, Ron Boehmer. Boehmer is recognized as one of Virginia's foremost landscape painters and has had a heavy influence on Koćka’s painting.
Contact information: [email protected]
IAGOARTS: Art Space Opens in Downtown Staunton, VA
(Pronounced ‘Ee-ya-go’)
Local artist, D. Cruce Koćka, has opened a new art studio in the Old Stonewall Jackson Elementary School building in the historic district of downtown Staunton. IagoArts Studio offers a community space focused on expanding opportunities for local art lovers and enthusiasts to play and learn together. The Studio will hold children’s Art Classes, Art parties and Paint Nights for all ages and it is a working Studio / Gallery for the artist.
An Art Party provides a fun alternative to everyday entertainment, giving kids and adults alike a fun social environment to spark their creative side. Art Parties can be booked for special events such as birthdays, baby showers or for a fantabulously unique night out. All skill levels are welcome. Weekly Paint Nights and Couples Date Nights will be scheduled throughout the holidays. Check the website for the calendar.
“An advocate for the local resident and visitor alike, who just wants to get their hands on paint and have some fun.”
Koćka has been teaching for over 30 years and offers weekly Art Classes for homeschooled students grades three through high school. Classes are offered on a session basis and include a wide range of mediums, skills instruction, and art history and art theory. Iago Arts offers a great opportunity and arranges classes based on grade level. Workshops are offered for all ages with rotating subjects and medium.
IagoArts also serves as a gallery for selling her work and a studio for Koćka. - a portraitist, pleine air painter and muralist. The show room exhibits her work and is open to the public most days. Call for hours.
About Donna .Cruce Koćka
Born and raised in a southern family, Donna has been drawing since she could hold a pencil. Donna Cruce Kocka, BFA, The University of Tennessee, 1986 is a Staunton, VA resident. She is married and has three children, one beautiful grandson and a black lab named Leighla. When she is not painting, she leads group bible studies and teaches high school Art at Grace Christian School in Staunton. She also loves to hike in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, read, walk in the park with her dog, travel and have tea with friends.
She began teaching art to children during her senior year of college. And along the way as Donna was raising her children she was painting portraits, mural, theater set design and construction, faux finishes and a little graphic design. In 2011 she took a landmark oil painting class with Cedric Egeli, an internationally known colorist and portrait artist in Cape Cod. This outdoor portrait class began a new journey for her. She is fascinated with the effects of light and color and has since studied again with Camille Prezwodek and at Maryland Hall with John Ebersberger. Aat the local BSSS she has taken classes with Elise Blake, Jeffery Stockberger and numerous classes with the renowned colorist, Ron Boehmer. Boehmer is recognized as one of Virginia's foremost landscape painters and has had a heavy influence on Koćka’s painting.
