Saturday was the opening of the second campus for the Metal Museum in the perfectly named Rust Hall of the old Memphis College of Art. If we had to lose MCA, the second best possible outcome was the Metal Museum bringing back community art making in that space at the center of the park. I've taken and loved some classes at the old Metal Museum campus.

They'll keep that for apprentice housing and, I'm sure, wedding rentals by the river. But their space was limited – kilns came into the library space on trolleys for an enameling workshops. The new space has a dedicated enameling studio. I'm excited to take more classes four blocks from home, though I definitely miss the breadth of MCA being a part of this community.

The opening was on a first Saturday, so it felt right to have Memphis Urban Sketchers mark that moment with them. We meet earlier than the opening, so we could all get settled to sketch before things got crazy. It was hot, and I've been trying (and failing) to conserve energy before a trip next week, so I didn't linger to tour the new space, but I'll definitely go check out the galleries and museum store soon. I had a ball drawing the facade in my biggest sketchbook with my dip pen (my favorite thing lately) and paint on top. It was a good day.