Stop by the FRANK Gallery for Coffee and Donuts

For those who love coffee, donuts and expanding your artistic horizons, the FRANK Gallery’s new educational series is here.

Coffee and Donuts, a free set of classes at the Gallery the first Saturday of every month, aims to bring straightforward, digestible bits of art education to the masses — and anyone with an empty morning and an interest in learning new things is invited to take part.

“We always want to be seen as an approachable art gallery,” said Natalie Knox, the gallery’s manager. 

Knox said art can be intimidating, and she wants the Gallery to be a place where people feel free to ask questions. 

That is a running theme for FRANK Gallery, she said. The Gallery’s artists work in a broad range of media, but they’re unified in their passion for their work — and in their eagerness to share it.

The classes offered are eclectic, with topics ranging from the step-by-step construction of papier-mâché birds to the reasonable pricing of artwork to the layman’s guide to beginning their own collection. Sudie Rakusin, a member artist at the Gallery and the host of the next Coffee and Donuts talk, said that’s by design to ensure they reach as many people as possible.

“You want to make it accessible,” Rakusin said. “I can speak for myself, I want my work to be out in the world. I want people to have my work ... because I have something to say.”

Mary Stone Lamb, the artist mainly responsible for developing the series, said at the end of the day, it’s about bringing art to everyone — to people intimidated by it, to people unsure about it and to people who might not venture forth into it without a welcoming and accessible entry point. 

The FRANK Gallery is tied closely to its community, the manager and artists said. It even operates an extremely elaborately named secondary space — for simplicity’s sake, dubbed the “community gallery” by Knox — that acts as a showcase for student artists and those who may have difficulty getting their work exhibited otherwise.

When asked if they are a populist gallery, Knox said absolutely. 

"For the people,” Knox said, laughing.

arts@dailytarheel.com