Education & Classes in White Center

SailNow! Shore School takes place on the first Saturday of every session from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. On the Water classes set sail Saturdays and Sundays at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The schedule of the next three class sessions is:

In business for 22 years, Cook's World Cooking School infuses aspiring epicureans with cooking expertise in an appetizing assortment of hands-on classes. During each one-night class, a rotating cast of skilled and professionally-trained local chefs guide students through the basics of a specific type of cuisine, cooking skill, or saucepan percussion technique. Go Italian in a doughy pizza-making and throwing class, create sophisticated small plates of flavor-packed treats in the spanish tapas course, or slather on new skills in a barbecue class, in which students learn to tame the wild elemental forces of fire, smoke, and tangy sauce.

Classes run for three hours each with 15 or fewer students, ensuring ample time for participation and one-on-one guidance. All class sessions are held in Cook's World's well-equipped culinary studio, which houses a cornucopia of professional cooking equipment and a carpet woven from retired chefs’ hats.

When Joan Barnes founded Gymboree Play & Music in 1976, she envisioned a facility where parents and children could play together in a safe and age-appropriate environment. In the following decades, Gymboree Play & Music spread to more than 30 countries across the globe, helping youngsters from infants to 5 years old develop cognitive, physical, and social skills. The company's instructors lead classes such as Play & Learn, its flagship course, in which parents and kids move through a seven-level program filled with storytelling, play activities, and debates on the merits of sandwich crust. Talented staffers also prep youngsters for school and foster development in areas such as music, art, and sports. Throughout all classes, they make use of custom play equipment designed by acclaimed playground designer and seesaw-tamer Jay Beck.:m]]

When Photo Center NW was originally founded in the early 1980s it was known as the Exposure School of Photography. Since then it has undergone numerous transformations, some of which included becoming a nonprofit organization and an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. Now standing as a mecca for students and creators in the Pacific Northwest art community, the center hosts regular exhibitions in addition to a robust curriculum of classes and workshops. Their faculty conducts 53-credit certification programs and 10-week courses within the facility’s four labs devoted to black-and-white and digital photography. The building also houses an immense reference library and plans to add a daylight studio and a playground for the cameras to relax in the very near future.

Through hands-on training and practice sessions in a mock bar, Seattle Bartending College's experienced team of instructors has trained new generations of cocktail crafters and beer pourers since 1980. Broken into 14 sections, classes cover more than 100 types of alcohol, recipes for 150 drinks, and how to master freehand pouring and measuring techniques rather than arduously transferring booze from bottle to glass with a pipette. Along with the nitty-gritty of creating beverages, teachers refine their pupils' customer-service skills, and collaborate with local distilleries and breweries for in-depth seminars on their products. Instructors schedule class in one-week, two-week, or weekend sessions, allowing students to take refresher courses or repeat any class as often as they need. Once students earn their certification and license, the college's staff helps them secure local and nationwide jobs with resume-writing assistance, interview practice, and job leads.

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.