Returning Spring 2027

Spring Semester: February 1 – May 7 | Thursdays, 1:00 – 2:30 PM | 12 weekly sessions

Registration opens in November. Join the interest list below and you'll get first notice — spots are capped at ten per class.

Spring theme: Movies & Storytelling

Four disciplines, one semester, built around the films and stories kids this age already love.

A real studio class for homeschool middle schoolers — a genuine survey of art-making, not a single-medium craft hour. Every semester covers four disciplines (drawing, painting, printmaking, and mixed media), so families always know the shape of what they're signing up for. This fall's theme is movies and visual storytelling: students design an original character and carry it across the whole semester — from character sheets to a painted poster to prints to a finished mixed-media piece. Projects are pitched for this age — more ambitious, more independent — and every student is met at their own level.

What they'll learn

• Character design — silhouette, shape language, and expression, developing a character to use all semester
• Color and atmosphere — palette, value, and mood, applied to a movie poster and a cinematic scene
• Printmaking for illustration — carving a relief block and pulling a small edition, plus one-of-a-kind monotypes
• Storyboarding and mixed media — planning a short film and combining drawing, paint, and print into a finished piece

What they'll make: A designed character and development sheet, a painted movie poster, a carved relief print with a small edition, a monotype, a storyboard, and a mixed-media final piece — plus a working sketchbook, with a selected piece matted and framed for the gallery show.

Where it leads: One turn in a four-theme rotation over two years — Movies & Storytelling, Around the World, Wild World, and Heroes & Mythology — the same themes as our Grades 2–4 band, taught at a more developed level. The four disciplines return every semester; the content changes completely, so returning students never repeat themselves. They just go deeper.

The semester ends in a real gallery show

At the end of the semester, each student's strongest piece is matted, framed in our shop, and hung in our gallery for a Friday-evening exhibition with refreshments. Families are invited, and the work is shown the way real art is shown. Your child's effort is treated as what it is — art, not a craft to stick on the fridge. It's the part families remember most, and it's something no other art program in the area offers.

What's included & good to know

• 12 weekly sessions, 1.5 hours each (Spring semester, February 1–May 7) (no class during Spring Break, April 5-9)
• Small classes by design, so every student gets real individual attention
• A real curriculum with genuine skills across four disciplines — not open studio time
• All materials included, including printmaking and mixed-media supplies
• Each student's exhibition piece is matted and framed in our shop, included in the tuition price
• One step in a multi-year path that grows with your child

A note for homeschool families with more than one child: Our Grades 2–4 and Grades 5–8 homeschool classes both meet on Thursdays — younger in the morning, older in the early afternoon — so you only make one trip to the studio. Drop the younger one for the morning class, spend time nearby, break for lunch together, then swap for the afternoon session.

*Photo example credit Tanha Tamanna Syed