Art Workshops

Awaken the artist within you!

At Instituto Allende, we guide you on a journey of creative discovery. Learn to express yourself through your artistic creations and experience new sensations and emotions. We have expert instructors and a wide variety of techniques and materials to take your creativity to the next level. Join our art community today!

Season Programs

Our Teachers

611383731_1296168749197825_3082933155156293293_n.jpg__nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=13d280&_n

Gerardo Bervera

Stone sculpture

I completed my professional studies at the La Esmeralda National School of Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving. I then trained at the La Iguana de Oriente Stone Sculpture and Furniture Workshop in Tepoztlán, Morelos, as well as at Mosaicos Venecianos de México, a Byzantine mosaic workshop in Cuernavaca, Morelos.

My discipline is stone sculpture; initially, I also taught the Byzantine mosaic workshop. In my personal work, I develop abstract expressionism.

I have participated in several solo and group exhibitions in Mexico, the United States, Cuba, Spain, and Canada, among other countries. In 1992, I was part of the official selection for the National Youth Art Encounter at the Carrillo Gil Museum. From 1993 to 1996, I received a painting scholarship from Roger von Gunten. For five years, I collaborated with designer Miguel Arregui, from Galería Estudio Tao, on various utilitarian stone art projects.

I have been teaching classes and workshops for 15 years, almost 14 of them at the Instituto Allende. My only philosophy has been to always offer the best of myself and my craft, and to be a good example for young people, based on discipline, love, and respect for work.

I am currently working on projects related to interior design, as well as the creation of fountains and tables. The workshop offers the experience of learning about the processes of direct stone carving, from the selection of the material to its finishing.

617999100_1307553751392658_1536511391226547618_n.jpg__nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=13d280&_n

Yumiko Murai

Traditional/Off-loom Weaving

I studied history and anthropology at university in Japan. My interest in these fields led me to travel to different parts of the world and, finally, to Mexico. It was here that I discovered pedal loom weaving and learned how to make rugs with master weaver Agapito at the Instituto Allende. After that encounter, I decided to stay in Mexico, where I have been weaving rugs since 2007.

Like the traditional rugs I learned to make, I work with wool, pedal looms, and traditional techniques, always incorporating original designs. Since 2007, holding solo exhibitions every year in Japan has become a constant motivation for my weaving work and a practice I cannot stop doing.

The richness of the natural dyes offered by Mexico's vegetation has also become an important subject of research in my work. This exploration has broadened my relationship with weaving and the materials that make it up.

For the past two years, I have been teaching weaving classes at the Allende Institute. My main interest is for students to learn the basic techniques and enjoy the process. I believe that by understanding how weaving works, new ideas about colors and shapes begin to emerge naturally.

I would like to share the teachings and experiences I received from Master Agapito and the pioneers of weaving. Although I continue to weave my own rugs, I am also interested in continuing to learn about the history of weaving in San Miguel de Allende and reflecting on how the weavings of this city can be preserved and transformed into more practical forms of use.

Above all, I want students to learn about and enjoy weaving, and I hope this experience will spark their interest in the next steps, such as dyeing and warping.

Jesús Villaverde

Jewelry

I studied an introductory year in jewelry at the INBA School of Crafts, Fine Arts, and then completed a three-year degree in Jewelry and Goldsmithing at the same institution.

In my practical work, I first learn basic techniques such as soldering, fretwork, and re-filing. After this initial contact with the basics, we begin to work with techniques such as modeling in soft and hard wax, the drip technique, and direct modeling in wax with a motor. From there, we move on to learning about casting pieces, dewaxing, and metal injection using a centrifuge. Later on, we focus on bezel settings, prongs, and flush and grain settings, as well as techniques such as cartoning, domes, hinges, box clasps, sand casting, mokume gane, churumbelas, kumboo, embossing, and filigree. It is worth mentioning that there is not enough time to cover all these techniques.

This knowledge has allowed me to support my family, and it is something I deeply value.

I have been sharing my knowledge and jewelry techniques for five years. My vision is for students to understand the correct process of making a piece of jewelry, so that as artists they can then undo or redo it according to their own artistic vision. My philosophy is clear: the more you ask, the more you learn.

The projects I work on constantly seek to impress the buyer, so that they don't hesitate to purchase a piece made by me and thus enable me to continue putting food on the table for my family. In the workshop, the goal is for students to develop the skills necessary to complete a piece of jewelry from start to finish, without the help of the teacher.

Alejandro Palomares

Jewelry

Visual artist with 26 years of professional experience. I studied graphic design and spent 17 years working professionally as a comic book artist, creating illustrations for magazines and newspapers and collaborating with brands such as Reader’s Digest Mexico, Coca-Cola, and Bubble Gummers, as well as theme parks and other companies.

Throughout my career, I have been a lecturer, exhibitor, and gallery owner, with over 15 years of experience in art education, 10 of which have been spent collaborating with the Instituto Allende.

I specialize in traditional painting and illustration techniques such as watercolor, oil, acrylic, pencil, ink, and mixed media, exploring various visual languages ranging from the figurative to the abstract.

Currently, I am fully dedicated to creating artwork for clients and for sale, as well as to teaching. I also give presentations at live events and develop private artistic experiences.