CREATE Arts Center

CREATE Arts Center offers art activities including painting, drawing, cartooning, pottery, printmaking, art and mindfulness, and art therapy. The program also hosts birthday parties, including unicorn birthday parties, as well as art exhibitions, receptions, artist talks, summer camp, No School Day Camp, corporate events, and workplace team building.

• Ages: 5–18 years old
• Schedule: Office generally open Monday–Friday from 8 AM–4 PM; open hours may change based on class and camp schedules

CREATE Arts Center has provided art classes, art therapy, and community outreach across the metro region since 1986. Its mission is to spark creativity, foster learning, empower individuals, and facilitate community connections through the visual arts. CREATE’s licensed art therapists provide confidential and compassionate support to children, teens, and adults. The Tamar Hendel Gallery at CREATE hosts art exhibitions, receptions, and artist talks featuring unique artwork from diverse local artists, and these exhibitions are held throughout the year and are free to the public. CREATE offers youth and teen art classes for ages 5 through teen, with beginner through advanced programs, as well as adult art classes that include short workshops or 8-week classes.

CREATE offers camps on days throughout the year when school is closed, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Veterans Day, teacher conference days, spring break, winter break, and February break, with calendars that align with MCPS and DCPS schedules and also include local private schools. Camp CREATE! is a summer camp for youth ages 8–12 years with minor to moderate behavioral, emotional, and functioning differences who benefit from extra attention and support, and it is designed to teach campers mindfulness techniques, flexible thinking habits, healthy expression of emotions, improved social interactions, and positive self-image through artistic expression. The smARTkids program is a free afterschool program for young students from low-income schools and English learners with emotional or developmental challenges, and since 2009 it has benefitted over 1,200 young students.

CREATE works with diverse and non-traditional partners across its mental health services and art education programs, including Community Bridges, Shepherd’s Table, A Wider Circle, Montgomery County Public Schools, Linkages to Learning, YMCA, and other nonprofits and businesses. CREATE provides free and reduced fee services to traditionally marginalized constituencies, including people living on low-and-fixed-incomes. CREATE is committed to serving all members of the community through innovative, inclusive, equitable, and meaningful programs that positively impact individual lives, families, and communities, and it does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, physical or mental health, sexual orientation, or any characteristic protected by law.

Last updated July 20, 2026.