Most people think of summer as an opportunity to take a break and relax from work and school. But summer can also be an opportunity to improve yourself.
Rhode Island offers a myriad of opportunities to learn a new skill – from astronomical tours of the stars to barista classes and do-it-yourself projects. These courses will help you improve yourself and, in the process, impress your friends.
Location: 10 Sims Ave Unit 101, Providence
Price: $30
Nothing beats a well-brewed cup of coffee in the morning. The trick is actually knowing how to brew a good cup in the first place.
If you are a coffee novice or a more experienced brewer who wants to improve your skills, New Harvest Coffee Roasters has you covered. For the past six years Britta Gustafson, who heads New Harvest Coffee Roasters’ education arm, has taught people how to improve their coffee game.
“Coffee is one of those things where it's very easy to take it for granted because it's accessible,” Gustafson said. On the other hand, she added, “Getting good coffee is a little more of a challenge.”
Students can choose from classes on how to brew cold coffee and make espresso at home – including how to steam milk and extract well-calibrated espresso shots. One of Gustafson’s favorite classes is a seed-to-cup overview of the history and methods of growing and brewing coffee.
New Harvest also offers professional development classes for baristas and those seeking to work at a café.
newharvestcoffee.com/pages/classes.
Blow your own glass ornament at Gather Glass
Location: 521 Atwells Ave., Providence
Price: $65-$85
If you have attended WaterFire, the public arts festival held downtown throughout the summer, you may have spotted Benjamin Giguere. He is hard to miss, partly because he has a roaring furnace shooting flames into the air and is holding a long pipe to his mouth with a glowing orb at its end.
For the past nine years Giguere has taught students the 5,000-year-old art of blowing molten glass into objects and sculptures at Gather Glass. The studio offers classes on making drinking and pint glasses, bowls, ornaments, paperweights and pumpkins. Up to four people can sign up to take a class together.
Giguere said glassblowing is a new experience for most people, and he has often seen repeat visitors. Glass, Giguere explained, offers “a never-ending curve of learning.”
“I've been doing it for 27 years, and I'm still learning daily,” Giguere said.
Learn to crotchet, knit or embroider at a community library
Location: Various community libraries
Price: Free (bring your own yarn)
Judging by the movies, crocheting and knitting are the pastimes of the elderly. The truth is people from a wide range of ages enjoy the activity – and thanks to the time people spent stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, its popularity in recent years has grown. Research has even shown the crafts have therapeutic benefits.
One of the upsides of crocheting and knitting is that their practitioners are often happy and willing to pass on their knowledge to others, so people interested in learning the crafts may need only ask a neighbor for help. If you are looking for a place to learn and a community to do it with, you can join a free class at one of Providence’s community libraries. Some provide supplies, but it is always a good idea to bring your own yarn.
https://clpvd.org/.
Learn about the stars and the planets at the Ladd and Frosty Drew observatories
Location: Ladd Observatory, 210 Doyle Avenue, Providence; Frosty Drew Observatory, 62 Park Lane, Charlestown
Price: Free
On mild summer evenings you can find a dark spot outside, lay on a blanket and gaze at the stars. If the sky is clear, from your perch on the ground you may be able to spot Scorpius, a long string of stars with a hooked end, or perhaps catch a glimpse of Sagittarius, a spiderweb of lights ending in a bow with an arrow cocked on it. Stargazing is a family-friendly activity, often involving little to no cost.
If you want the full experience, though, you should visit an observatory, where powerful telescopes bridge the distance between the ground and the sky above. Brown University’s Ladd Observatory, on Doyle Avenue in Providence, is an operational, 132-year-old observatory with a 12.5-inch refracting telescope. On Tuesday nights visitors can come look through the main telescope — and other portable ones — at the moon, constellations and distant nebulas. Workers also do a good job of explaining the history of the observatory and how the telescopes work.
If you want to venture out further, check out Frosty Drew Observatory in Charlestown’s Ninigret Park. On Friday nights visitors can walk around the park’s dark grounds and gaze through the observatory’s 24-inch telescope at the rings of Saturn, the cratered surface of the moon, the moons of Jupiter, the polar ice caps of Mars and Venus, among other celestial bodies. Enthusiasts are welcome to bring their own equipment and set up in the park so other visitors can enjoy different sights of the night sky.
Both observatories offer free stargazing nights, but tickets are required in advance. For tickets to Frosty Drew Observatory visit here. Tickets to Ladd Observatory are available through Eventbrite.
Most Popular
Comments / 0