Who's on the cover? Catalog features professional artist Vanessa Merry

Our Adult Learning catalog for Winter/Spring 2026 features professional artist Vanessa Merry on the cover. She has taken her passion for teaching and turned it into a full-time experience.

Merry teaches a steady line-up of classes with Anoka-Hennepin Community Education and has for almost 20 years. Her small business, Merry Time Arts, started with simple paint parties and now has her teaching five to six times a week at community centers and school districts across the Twin Cities.

Merry studied art in Italy and even lived in an artist colony in France before moving back the United States to finish her art degree at the University of Minnesota. She has been involved with numerous art organizations in Minnesota, even serving as the president of a local nonprofit gallery.

“I love teaching Community Ed classes and introducing others to different mediums of art,” said Merry. “People need outlets, and this gives them a way to express themselves creatively.”

Most recently, Merry acquainted a sold-out class of Anoka-Hennepin adult learners with palette knife painting.

“I enjoy encouraging people to try something new,” she said. “Community Ed classes aren’t intimidating, and they offer a place for people to learn in a relaxed setting. I just love how Community Ed brings people together.”