Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship
BURLINGTON — When approached with the opportunity to guide a figure drawing class, Olivia Biondo, a Clevelander who moved to Vermont 10 years ago, took the reins of the Vermont Figure Drawing Collective.
She began facilitating the weekly sessions in Jan. 2025. The year-round sessions are held every Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Once the artists arrive at the studio on 47 Maple Street, a live model strikes various poses for participants to draw.
Biondo’s friend, Kirsten Hurley, ran the sessions before asking Biondo to take over.
“My friend Kirsten Hurley, amazing artist, she actually started this. It was called the Vermont Conservatory of Art. She ran it for two years,” said Biondo.
“I’m not, like, teaching the class, I’m just facilitating and encouraging it,” Biondo said later.
She has a studio on Pine Street and resells vintage clothing and has a few cleaning jobs on the side.
Each session costs $20, and many participants said the Vermont Figure Drawing Collective was one of the most accessible figure drawing classes in the area. Other figure drawing courses in the area, according to participants, require prior experience and your own materials. Vermont Figure Drawing Collective requires neither.
One of the participants in the session, Naomi Carabin, is from South Burlington and studied art in college. When she was searching for figure drawing classes, she ran into a seemingly common issue: pricing.
“We were looking around for figure drawing classes, and most of them are expensive, but this one is just twenty bucks a week,” Carabin said.
All of the other figure drawing classes she found were priced at a much higher rate.
“Three-hundred bucks a class is the cheapest we could find,” Carabin said.
She’s been going to the Vermont Figure Drawing Collective sessions almost every week since August.
The class was filled with all ages and skill levels. The artists were encouraged to share their work with each other during breaks. The longest break, about 20 minutes, turned into a gallery walk as participants shared their thoughts and feelings about the pieces created around the room.
Oliver Ostby, who is also from South Burlington and studied art in college, has also been attending the sessions since August.
“It’s been really nice to have a place to practice. Everybody’s pretty thoughtful, just going around looking at people’s work is always nice. People give their thoughts sometimes, which is always appreciated,” he said.
Participant Jo Neby tries to drop in at least once a month. They said they have enjoyed appreciating others’ art and the different pieces they’ve made over time.
“I recognize a lot of people. There’s certainly people that I really admire their styles. Seeing them over and over again is really nice,” they said.
Neby also spoke on the accessibility of the class for them.
“This is the only art class I take. It’s incredibly accessible. It’s just drop in, so you don’t have to sign up and be committed,” they said.
Neby started by using Biondo’s provided materials and has since begun bringing their own materials, such as pigmented charcoal and oil pastels.
The sounds of pages flipping and scribbling are all that is heard during the five thirty-second, one-minute, five-minute, and three 20-minute intervals of drawing a live model.
Intermittently breaking the silence is the sound of Olivia Biondo encouraging the class and keeping the participants updated on how much time they have before the model switches positions. Her calming music plays in the background of the drawing intervals.
“Usually what I do is I find a song I really like, and then I go to that song on the radio. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” Biondo said after “Low Sun” by Hermanos Gutiérrez played in the studio.
The Vermont Figure Drawing Collective is encouraged for those who want to practice drawing the figure or reignite the artist inside themselves.
With all skill levels welcomed, and no prior reservations or prepaid class packages, The Vermont Figure Drawing Collective welcomes anyone with a spare $20 to become a member of the community.
Olivia Biondo believes everyone has an artist within them. And oftentimes, it’s inaccessibility that keeps people away.
“Art in its way has for a long time felt very coveted; you either are, or you aren’t. I really, truly believe that everyone has a creative inside of them, even if they don’t know it,” she said. “It’s vital for humanity that every single person finds the creative within themselves. It’s not just one thing; it bleeds into all aspects of life. I truly believe that. To have a space to welcome all types of skill level, all types of people, feels very special to me, and I’m really honored that I got to be the one to further this.”