Things to Do in Vero Beach

The fun-loving teachers at Uptown Art: West Palm Beach believe they can teach anyone to paint work they'll be proud of. Child brush wielders get inspiration from helpful instructors who mentor them in their strokes, and adult classes find similar guidance from both the pro painters and their own BYOB beverages. The airy downtown studio attracts budding painters to its varied schedule of evening painting classes and daytime children's classes that span up to three festive hours of guided artmaking. Students return home with their masterpieces at their sides, each based on a class topic such as a homage to a beloved pet, a poignant still-life of potted flowers, or a self-portrait that looks suspiciously like Audrey Hepburn.

The late artist Joe LaPierre often dreamed of opening a studio where anyone could come in and learn to paint with the help of friendly, experienced instructors. The artist's children, Sarah and Jesse, realized his legacy with Alla Prima Creations—named for the Italian phrase for works of art that are begun and finished in a single session. The center offers classes five days a week where students learn to replicate a bright, cheerful painting. The calendar gives pupils a wide range of artwork options, any of which students can learn to replicate on their own 16"x20" canvas. Students can tote along a favorite beverage or snack—which allows for a relaxed classroom environment as students sip on wine or nibble crackers while they create fanciful scenes of artists sipping wine and nibbling crackers. For a change of medium, lass-painting sessions give students the opportunity to customize champagne, margarita, and wine goblets with abstract designs.

A nonprofit organization dedicated to the visual arts, Palm Beach Photographic Centre has kept citizens abreast of ever-evolving aesthetics since it was incorporated in 1985. Recently settled into their brand-new facility in the City Hall complex, guest instructors including Robert Farber, Ross Whitaker, and Laurence Gartel hold more than 300 photography workshops every year. The in-house staff teaches other classes, with curricula ranging from Photoshop tutorials to technology-oriented lectures to far-flung traveling workshops in such locales as Peru, Bali, and the mirror city located beneath Lake Mangonia. Members earn discounts on all of these opportunities, receive invitations to exclusive events, and get the chance to be displayed in the annual INFOCUS juried exhibition.

Beads on the Ave combines an impressive selection of gewgaws with expert instruction. Inside the shop, Swarovski crystals, semiprecious and precious gemstones, and glittering pieces from local artists glimmer as light floods through them from the all-glass storefront. In the spacious back room, instructors lead up to 25 students through a range of hands-on classes, teaching them how to create stunning works of wearable art as they sip on brought-from-home libations. The teacher provides supplies appropriate for each class, though they may charge extra for specialty beads, more expensive materials, or top-secret access codes to the White House's ruby vault.