It’s not every day that a neighborhood art center offers one-on-one instruction with a rising star. Rodrigo Lara won Mexico’s National Prize of Visual Arts for sculpture in 2010 with a work depicting a tree sprouting ceramic hands in place of leaves. Fittingly, the first assignment in his 10-week class ($305) is to make—what else—a hand. Anatomy is his specialty: “He was very helpful in showing how to make eyes, lips, and the geometry of the face,” says Ali Aschman, an artist who will show some of her pieces from the course in an upcoming exhibit at the center.