Whoa! We’ve Made It!

Feb 1998 – Feb 2023…
…and counting…

We’ve made it to our
25th consecutive year
in Highland Park, and around the world,

serving as a classical studio and unique learning space for creatives
of all ages and walks of life.

To celebrate, we won’t show photos of any of the thousands and thousands of remarkable works conceived and created here, or share any of our countless archival photos of studio action, or share any record of our presence throughout communities near and far, or tell stories of how our studio has helped shape so many lives.

Instead, we’ll just show you a shot of our Chief Instructor Ana, on our 25th anniversary date, working just another day in the studio, hanging paint rags out to dry in our sunny workspace! 

Why?

Because our rags have always been our riches. And we’ve been buried in rags for a quarter century!

For 25 years, we’ve had no better indicator of our relevance as that offered by these tatters.

The more rags we must wash and hang to dry, the more that each of our practitioners has been learning to pursue the artist’s craft, transforming one’s self into an authoring force.

The more rags we must wash and hang to dry, the more that our community of creatives has kept growing rich with individual genius, and as expressed in community.

Thank you Highland Park, and our neighbors from 40 zip codes in the region, and out of state, for all our rags!

Thank you past and present volunteers and employees for washing so many telling rags!

A Few of the Many Highlights Marking
Our 25 Years

• Over 1,000 students pursuing classical studio training across longer spans of time.

• Countless local, regional, state and national awards won by our practitioners of all ages.

• A decades-old leadership training program for teens, through studio employment and volunteering.

• Dozens upon dozens of teens sent to their preferred colleges, thanks to their honors art & design portfolios, made in our studio, and to their strong co-curricular learning histories as serious creative thinkers and makers.

• A totally free program for special needs artists (after some 20 years, it was destroyed by the pandemic).

• A field school that sent us near and far, with our students learning to pursue fieldwork across the USA, Puerto Rico, and several African nations.

• A show space for artists presenting their first-ever exhibitions to the public.

• Ongoing collaborations with many other educational and public service service organizations in town, and beyond.

• And there’s much more…

Let us also honor the memory of those amazing friends, younger and older, who we’ve lost along the way. We will never forget how you burned with creative fire.