Art for Children

Art for Children is a studio-based program where children take part in drawing, painting, painting and sketching, costume design, fabric details and outlay, paper machè, collage, building, and mark making. Summer Art Camp sessions include optional daily art prompts, and children are encouraged to bring their own ideas.

• Ages: 5–12 years old
• Schedule: Weekly 60-minute studio art classes during Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, plus Summer Art Camp sessions that run Tuesday through Friday, 9:00am to noon, for each listed week
• Price: Classes with 4–10 children cost $140 per month for a weekly 60-minute class, with a $25 drop-in rate; Summer Art Camp 2026 costs $225 per week with a non-refundable $25 deposit, and payments can be made with cash, checks, Venmo, and Charter School Funds from Harvest Ridge School

The program takes place in a studio space described as an art studio, atelier, and work space within a community where human beings come to create, with supplies easily accessed by the hand of the child and a wide variety of natural and man-made materials for artistic expression. The studio leader has studied the Reggio Emilia pedagogy in Early Childhood Education options, works at the Crocker Art Museum, and has been creating this studio-space for a decade. The teaching practice is described as a gentle teaching practice that is mostly about seeing and seeing well, with attention to giving dignity to each person's creative process and to the ways that others make their art, and with an aim to light the torches of every single human that comes to the studio space. The studio is described as an atelier and as “the third teacher” in Reggio Emilia practice, with a focus on learning to see details, taking longer spaces of time to look, and discussing how artists who are dead might be able to teach as children look closely at their work. April is designated as the month of Dummy Design, when each young artist creates a character with an art dummy, and private sessions can be created with a specific but gentle theme for children experiencing emotional anxiety or grief. Summer Art Camp is described as offering a wider, slower, steady-sort of playtime important for children and creative rhythms, and attending Art Camp assures a reserved spot in weekly studio sessions during the school year. Enrollment includes 42 available studio-art slots for Fall 2025, the waiting list is described as quite long with encouragement to check in frequently, and make-up sessions are allowed by joining Tuesday or Wednesday classes if a Monday holiday occurs. All supplies in studio art classes are included in the prices for beginner and intermediate students, and tools and materials mentioned include paint pigment and brushes, Sharpie pens and Microns, graphite drawing pencils, and sometimes pastels, with a purchase order from the charter school required before the first art class when using Charter School Funds from Harvest Ridge School. Art for Children was filmed in a documentary in June 2022 as a place that might be called the atelier, which the leader describes as an enormous complement, and there is enthusiasm in the community for Summer Art Camp.

Last updated May 12, 2026.