Friday, Sept. 4; 6-9 p.m.
Ages 18+
Help us say goodbye to the Impressionists Immersive Exhibition with a Nerd Nite-style celebration of art! Enjoy an evening of color theory, floating paint, live marbling, and a DJ set to get you dancing.
The evening includes:
- presentation and workshop on marbling from artist Keith Garubba (learn more below)
- presentation on Impressionism from artist David Sommers (learn more below)
- DJ & dancing with DJ Romeo G
- free caricatures from 7-9 p.m. (first come, first served)
- admission to Impressionists Immersive Exhibition
- cash bar and themed food
Nerd Nite Details:
- Ticket price: $30 ($25 for members)
- One beverage ticket included. Cash bar for additional drinks.
- Food is available for additional purchase.
- Marbling Art Experience Add-on: $20 per person
- For ages 18 and up
- Must be 21+ to drink
Presented by
Keith Garubba Experiences
Keith Garubba of Whistling Studios brings the night’s centerpiece: a talk that ties Impressionism to an ancient craft, and a workshop that lets you try it yourself.
Art & Science Talk/Demo
Step into a story that connects the exotic color obsessions sweeping pre-Impressionist Europe to a centuries-old Turkish art form called Ebru (marbled paper made by floating paint on water).
Garubba walks you through how this “fast and loose” technique arrived in Europe and the Americas and quietly primed the eye for everything Monet and his circle would later chase on canvas.
Then see it happen live! Garubba works at the marbling tray, swirling paint across water in real time, so you can watch the same color dynamics the Impressionists spent their careers trying to capture – unfolding right in front of you, in seconds instead of years.
Marbling Art Experience
Did the demo catch your eye? Grab a spot at the tray!
Join Garubba for a hands-on session in paper marbling. Pick your colors, swirl them across the water, and lift two sheets of marbled art to take home.
No experience needed. This is a guided introduction to the craft, start to finish.
Session length: 40 minutes
You make: 2 sheets, sized 12×19″
Price: $20 per person
Meet the Artist
Keith Garubba
Keith Garubba is a printmaker, educator, and the founder of Whistling Studios. Formally trained in printmaking with two degrees, including an MFA from The Ohio State University, he has taught art in every context, from five-year-olds’ camps to college classrooms, and has exhibited his work nationally. His own practice spans marbled paper, fused glass, printmaking, painting, and multimedia installation. His intense curiosity fuels his joyous approach to artmaking, while his deep daydreaming brings emotional and intellectual weight to his finished works. These days, you’ll usually find him at the marbling tray, surrounded by students, with paint stained hands and a song on his lips.
David Sommers Presentation
How do artists transform the way we see the landscape around us? David Sommers explores the enduring influence of Impressionism by pairing works by artists such as Monet and Van Gogh with his own landscape paintings, revealing how their approaches to color, contrast, and design have inspired his creative process and shaped his understanding of place, light, and perception.
Meet the Artist
David Sommers
David Sommers is a multidisciplinary fine artist and educator based in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, whose landscape paintings explore the relationship between perception, place, color, and meaning. With more than thirty years of experience as a professional artist and teacher, Sommers brings a thoughtful and reflective approach to landscape painting, combining direct observation with the influence of Impressionist ideas about light, atmosphere, and the expressive potential of color. Inspired by artists such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, he explores how the juxtaposition of complementary colors and carefully observed natural forms can transform a landscape into an emotional and perceptual experience.
Sommers’ paintings balance Impressionist sensitivity with a strong interest in structure and design. Working both en plein air and in the studio, he organizes landscapes through simplified forms, geometric relationships, and compositional systems that create depth and harmony. His work has been exhibited throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey and includes major public commissions for Penn State Health facilities in Hampden, Lancaster, and Hershey. A longtime arts educator, Sommers taught Spanish, Art History, and Comparative World Religions at Moravian Academy for three decades and continues to share his knowledge of painting, composition, and visual expression through workshops and art instruction. Across his work, he seeks to encourage deeper ways of seeing—inviting viewers to slow down, notice the beauty of the natural world, and experience how color, structure, and observation can reveal meaning within the landscape.
Presented by
