Education & Classes in Marysville

Art On The Ridge’s galleries display fine art from accomplished local artists, but it’s not there to intimidate. The facility’s open philosophy for its classes and workshops revolves around encouragement: anyone can create art, and should have fun doing it. Painting classes for adults use wine to fuel creativity, whereas children’s sessions cover everything from pop-up art to classes illustrating how art links to math, science, and history. The lineup of instructors has included a fine-arts professor from Antioch University.

Local and visiting artists present their work in the gallery, introducing visitors to exhibits as wide-ranging as Mexican Oil Landscapes and Chainsaw meets Fine Art. Guests can purchase pieces or inquire about commissioning artwork from represented artists to fill their living rooms with portraits or acquire a masterfully forged signature on a report card.

Claiming certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration, Regal Air's instructors have trained aspiring pilots for more than 25 years. Located at Paine Field, the flight school's team adheres to FAA-approved syllabuses, helping students obtain certifications to fly vessels such as private planes and multiengine aircrafts. Training ranges from supervised, hands-on instruction in the air to simulated instruction on the ground in a Garmin 430 DomeAir flight simulator.

Beyond the flight school, Regal Air's operations span a rental fleet of Cessna and Piper planes that let experienced pilots easily reach their castles in the sky. A service team caters to aircraft owners, maintaining planes in accordance with FAA standards.

In the barrel room at Port Gardner Bay Winery, Chris Covington stays vigilant watching over casks of reds and whites with the anticipation and pride of a master winemaker. After learning that their engineering and chemistry knowledge could be put to use fermenting grapes and crafting unique alcoholic nectars, Chris and his wife Linnea began experimenting the wine-making process, eventually producing their own wines independently. Together, they now craft vintages ranging from cabernet sauvignons and merlots to malbecs and gewürztraminers, earning them a spot in Evening Magazine's "The Best of Western Washington". In addition to their day-to-day production duties, the couple also hosts frequent events, from tastings featuring live performances from local musicians to wine classes that discuss the wine-making process and dispel rumors that the best way to crush a grape is by breaking its heart.

Founder Neil Buckland grew up with a Canon FTb in his hands, and as an adult, parlayed his affinity for striking images into a lucrative career in advertising design and branding. But something wasn’t right. As time passed, Buckland was spending more and more time finding excuses to ditch work and take some snapshots. Finally in 2008, he gave into his true calling, ditched the workaday world of office life, and founded REDred Photo School & Studio.

Today, his accessible workshops and classes help students learn some of the trickier intricacies of modern photography—from understanding what exposure is and how to manipulate it to how to rejigger a DSLR’s auto-modes so that it actually takes decent pictures. Other classes cover more technical concepts such as studio lighting, while still others such as The Art of Photography focus on the aesthetic side. Buckland’s studio is available to rent for personal or commercial photo shoots of any kind, and, for additional fees, the staff can augment such shoots with make-up services, lighting assistance, models for hire, and old-fashioned pterodactyl-powered cameras.

Wings Aloft BFI's experienced flight instructors share their love of cloud wrangling during hands-on lessons that help pupils log hours of in-flight and ground instruction. The instructors are matched with students based on personality fits, and their instructional flight programs mix and match ground and in-flight lessons to teach students that staying airborne requires more than a pair of pigeon wings. The membership program also grants access to Wings Aloft's Cessnas, and rental of their planes allows pilots to fly from city to city with proper clearance and large jet-stream hearts.