| THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE…U3A Casey By Damien Ryan So you are retired, reasonably active and interested in what’s going on. Then what about enrolling in a “university “course. Sounds too daunting? Not if it’s a course with the Casey branch of the “University” of the Third Age…U3A. (Read third stage of your life – education, work, retirement) For an annual fee of $35 you can take courses ranging from the academic to the practical, from the physical to the sedentary, board games, books, computers, walking, golf and everything in between. But above all U3A Casey is about keeping in touch, keeping interested and keeping aware. At the same time U3A Casey courses provide lots of social opportunities, lots of conversation and lots of laughs. For instance have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like”? Maybe you’ve even said it yourself. But would you like to know a bit more about art? Not high-flown arty smarty stuff but hands on painting and drawing as well as a basic understanding of the various schools of art from the Renaissance to the contemporary. Well, U3A Casey is into art in all its forms. If you like to doodle a bit, you could expand your talent by joining the Drawing – Self Help weekly gathering at the Old Cheese Factory. You need only to provide drawing materials. You’ll get lots of help from your fellow members and they have visiting artists who run workshops over the year. And there’s a local artist in residence. If you’re more into paint than pencil, U3A Casey offers a course in other media. That’s run weekly at Fiddlers Green Retirement Village. There you’ll get help developing your own style in whatever means you choose, watercolour, pastels, acrylics or mixed media. You can start from the very basics. The course caters both for beginners and more advanced students, and you can do it under the guidance of local artists. There’s also a self-help course in oil painting, again with assistance from experienced local artists. There are plenty of opportunities to find subjects to sketch with a course called “Sketch Your Story”. Meetings are on Zoom and the idea is to record places you’ve visited and things you’ve done. It might be a trip to the beach or a meal in a local café. Anything goes and classes cover a myriad of sketch topics. There are informal face-to-face “sketchmeets” in the Berwick area including with past class members. It’s basically about using sketches to keep a journal of your everyday life. Again you just need to bring the basic sketching materials. Of course, you don’t wind up with a degree or a PhD with U3A Casey. But if these topics have touched your artistic nerve and you want to have fun developing it with likeminded folk, check out the U3A Casey website. It’s https://u3acasey.org.au/memberships Please pass on to your friends, colleagues, relatives etc who have retired or approaching retirement & looking for interesting & fun activities. Damien wrote the above for Star Group News who advised they would publish – they have not published to date. |
