The Tarble Arts Center is offering a variety of classes and workshops open to both students and the community, but the registration deadlines are soon approaching.

The classes and workshops will begin Tuesday Sept. 28, and the first deadline for registration is Saturday.

“The deadlines vary with the different starting dates of the classes,” said Kathryn Morice, curator of education and exhibits at Tarble. “The first deadline is Sept. 25, and the other deadlines will be within a week of the start of the classes or workshops.”

Classes available are exploratory and painting classes for children aged 4-8 and a ceramics class for children aged 9-14.

Workshops are open to persons 15 years old and older, and offer teachings in papermaking, Raku, bead making, mask making and bead weaving.

The workshops being offered are noncredit to students, however, professors may take the classes for continuing education credits, which are needed for recertification.

“If teachers can justify that the class enhances their area of teaching, they can use these workshops as continuing education credits,” Morice said.

These classes and workshops do have fees, but Tarble is a not-for-profit organization and all surplus funds are put back into the organization by purchasing paint brushes or extra equipment for Tarble, Morice said.

“Fees are set depending on how much we have to pay the instructor and how much materials cost,” Morice said. “The class fees range between $20 and $50, and the workshop fees range from $60 to $90.”

Meeting times for the classes are once a week over a five to eight week period, and the workshops are either a single-day workshop or a two-hour session that meets twice in one weekend.

Instructors for the classes and workshops include a variety of practicing artists in the area, including Eastern professors, teachers in the Charleston school district and some Eastern art majors, Morice said.

Classes and workshops have a minimum of five attendees and rarely more than 12.

Morice said she wants to keep them small to make sure there is time for individual instruction.

“I think Tarble classes are unique to the community because we offer a pretty wide variety of art forms and media that people can work in,” Morice said.