Our Story
The Children’s Art Studio is founded on the belief that young people reap tremendous emotional, developmental and intellectual gains from making art and that this opportunity should be made available to all.
Small class size, thoughtful instruction and the inventive use of high-quality materials is what it is all about.
The administration of our programs is guided by the same values that guide our instructional activities: diligence, inclusion, integrity, and care. We are committed to the responsible stewardship of resources and aim to build an environment where every person feels safe and respected.
By creating the conditions for children to deeply engage in creating art, the Children’s Art Studio promotes development across a wide range of domains, producing positive advancement for children’s learning in the classroom and beyond.
In the studio, children make meaning. Their understanding of themselves—their intellectual and emotional worlds– deepens and expands.
The completion of complex, tactile-rich projects encourages healthy brain development, which in turn builds the neurological framework for the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and values.
We invite young children to work with a wide range of high-quality materials in a calm, structured environment. In any given program, we may work with paint, clay, wood, string, ink, dye, cloth, and more. Each child receives one-on-one attention and the instruction necessary to learn how to use the materials with acuity. The materials entice children to engage deeply—accessing early skills for mindfulness and focused attention.
In our instruction, we leverage the high-interest art supplies to develop children’s executive function and self-regulation skills further. We encourage children to slow down, think, and plan as they approach their artwork. A generous amount of time is devoted to each project so students can work past frustration and self-imposed limitations.
Students get better at working through discomfort as they enjoy the rewards of seeing their completed artwork and the pride that comes from the expression that “I did that.” As children, complete projects from the beginning to end, they develop skills for impulse control, persistence, and task completion—skills critical to the learning process.
Making art has tremendous value for cognitive development. We see this every day.
When children represent ideas through building, drawing, painting, and sculpture they show that they understand something about symbolic or abstract thinking: “I’m using this to stand in for that”. This is a cornerstone of cognitive growth with ramifications for learning.
At the Children’s Art Studio we saturate children with language by presenting a multitude of ideas to describe and explore their projects. We always encourage questions and structured dialogue. During our discussions, children learn new words and are challenged to express new ideas. We often pair our art instruction with children’s literature, creating more exposure to new vocabulary, concepts, and ways that language and visual symbols work together to represent our world.
We teach positive social behaviors for interacting in groups—taking turns, working together, and giving each other feedback. We exhibit artwork, fostering a sense of belonging and pride in achievement, thus celebrating the contribution of each child.
Students negotiate the busy, frenetic studio space, gaining control, and a better sense of physical boundaries. Also, as young children explore materials and create projects, they develop greater dexterity, tactile sensitivity, hand strength, and fine motor coordination, which are foundational skills for all activities requiring agility.
When children work with their hands and encounter multiple textures and sensory experiences they access greater concentration and focus. This deepens the overall benefits of creativity, reduces the harmful effects of stress, and brings a sense of calm, stability and joy.
Our History
The Children’s Art Studio began in 2007 when the founder was looking for art classes for her children and found that such classes didn’t exist. She knew, first hand, that kids love art, and that creating art makes them smarter, stronger and happier.
The Children’s Art Studio was born, and quickly earned a reputation for offering excellent after-school classes, no-school day workshops and summer camps. In 2017, the Children’s Art Studio created In-School Partnership Programs.
Inspired by an invitation to partner with the Promise Neighborhood Initiative, (an Obama program to bring wrap-around services to Ward 7), the Children’s Art Studio created art programs for the youngest residents of Kenilworth-Parkside. We were delighted to bring the excellence of our programs to Ward 7.
We built two new In-School Partnership programs for three to five year olds, serving 120 students a week, and an after-school program serving fifty, five to ten year old students a week. In addition to these programs, we provided nurturing, enriching, fun weekly art classes to twenty, three and four year old children in neighborhood public housing.
Our work with the Promise Neighborhood expanded to include a Professional Development program, working with twenty five teachers doing a series of Materials Workshops. The workshops included hands-on strategies for incorporating art materials into classroom teaching.
Our In-School Partnership programs grew to include work with the District of Columbia Public Schools. In 2019 the Children's Art Studio provided summer art camp to over one hundred students at Plummer and Beers Elementary Schools in Ward 7, with funding from the Out of School Time Learn 24 Office.
We have also worked with the District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation to create winter art camps and art workshops for children in Ward 7 on days when children are not in school.
We most recently completed an In-School Partnership program with Kipp DC Public Charter School. We worked with their Early Childhood Education department to provide high-quality, in person, art camp to one hundred four students, this July 2021. The program was a huge success.
Our staff of twenty conducted a rigorous art program to address the instruction time lost due to the pandemic. We created a calm, structured environment where these young learners were free to paint, sculpt, build, draw, plan, play, grow and thrive. We were delighted to bring all the developmental benefits that the arts engender to this community.
Parents were thrilled to see their children’s faces beaming with pride as they showed off their artwork. Large paintings, wood sculptures, flags, cloth bags, bead necklaces, drawings, comic books, sewn cases, watercolor paintings, clay bowls, journals and art boxes were proudly displayed.
The Children’s Art Studio current programs include after-school classes, in-school partnerships, workshops on no-school days, birthday art parties, OSSE certified professional development for early childhood educators, summer art camp and winter and spring art camp for students throughout the city.
We have a relationship with American University with whom we have created an internship program, and an informal partnership with the Maryland Institute College of Art from whom we recruit many of our most talented teachers.
At the start of the pandemic we shifted all of our programs to a virtual format. We pivoted and grew. We met the needs of our students. We honored our commitment to our partners, and created new partnerships including work with Appletree Public Charter School, Best Kids and the United Way Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Education.
