Foundations of Studio Practice Online

Our Foundations of Studio Practice Online classes are for youngsters ages 8-12, and who lost classes when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down our Winter/Spring Session IV 2020 on March 13.

Session IV, an 8-week Session, had been slated to run across nine weeks, from Monday, March 2, to and including May 3rd 2020, and featuring a one-week scheduled closing for Spring Break (not billed for). Much of this never got to happen.

Since your youngster was already matriculated for Session IV, pay no tuition this summer!

Our fulfilment classes run from Tuesday, July 28, 2020 through and including August 13, 2020

We are now accepting sign-ups!

To sign up in writing, please contact Aaron via art14@artacademynj.com, or by text message to 732-359-4450

During our fulfillment classes online, your youngster will rejoin Senior Instructor Aaron S. Balavram, his support team of Coaches, and Tech Extraordinaire Michael Gorbunov, with surprise appearances by Chief Instructor Ana Soto-Canino!

P3.O for Teens Entering High School

Teens wishing to rejoin our unique and highly successful college-track Portfolio Prep Program (P3), or who wish to join for the first time, can now find us at P3.O, the “O” for online.

P3.O has been operating remotely since May 2020. The program is designed and delivered by Chief Instructor Ana E. Soto-Canino, teaching alongside Senior Instructor Aaron S. Balavram, and with support from our Tech Extraordinaire Mitch Gorbunov.

For Further Information

For booking a class slot for your previously matriculated youngster, and for Foundations of Studio Practice Online (for ages 8-12, running for three weeks, from July 28 to August 13, 2020, please click here.

To have your 13- or 14-year-old teen join P3.O, or to have your older teen re-join our college-track program in creative problem-solving, construction and project delivery, please click here.

For information on studio materials while operating from home under either program, please click here.

For technical guidance on setting-up at home for all our remote classes, please click here.

For information on our school year 2020/2021 online studio programs starting in September, please click here.

Aaron and Ana can be reached at

732-777-2085, or at art14@artacademynj.com

Thank you for bearing with us during such difficult times!

Now let’s rock this!

Check out our new Student Gallery here!

Student Gallery

Join our challenge

Enter Gallery

Director’s Greeting

Congratulations Anna! And Thanks for Rocking our World!

Here’s a wonderful example of what happens when we tap the hidden opportunities for creative life that hide inside our constraints. That is art.

This video animation was recently created by AAHP alumna Anna Boffice, one of our first students when the AAHP was still the Creative Genius Workshop, on my kitchen table, here in Highland Park. Anna was an amazing member of our community throughout her childhood and teens years, in her roles as studio practitioner, volunteer and employee. Her sister, Andrea, and mother Stephanie—our longest running studio practitioner to this day—have also played very large and important roles in building our community of creatives.

The piece is titled Stay-at-Home Commute. Ana presented it as her final project for the class, “Mapping Philadelphia”, a graduate-level course in Urban Studies, University of Pennsylvania. Her teacher was Paul Farber.

The project centered on “a close study” of any region of the city of Philadelphia, at any scale. “I decided to use the assignment,” said Anna, “to explore a facet of my personal relationship with the city in the time of COVID-19. The pandemic,” she added, “eliminated my routine interaction with the larger part of the city through my daily commute to work. I used to travel from one end of the city to the other every day, and now I rarely journey more than a few blocks. My goal was to re-create and re-imagine my commute as I remember it, within the confines of my new stay-at-home “commute”, using materials within reach.”

Check out Philadelphia Magazine’s article on Anna’s project https://www.phillymag.com/news/2020/05/16/best-thing-stop-motion-video-commute/

Gift Certificates available at the AAHP!

Do you have a child or teen, or an adult friend who would love to attend a professional teaching art studio? Are you or your partner confused about what meaningful gift to offer anyone? Are your co-workers or staff restless for creative life?

At the AAHP, we’ve got you covered! Gift that special person an AAHP Gift Certificate to attend our premier teaching studio!

Spotlight on the Studio Artist at the

Academy of Art of Highland Park

First Name: Prannit
Age: 12
Favorite Food: Spaghetti
Fav Place in the Whole World: Paris, France
Fav animal: Dragon
Current Course/s at the AAHP: Drawing
Current Studio Challenge: Sandwiched Monster (lightest gray scale)
Support: Drawing Paper
Medium or Media: Graphite and wax color pencils
Key Techniques: Scumbling and blending
What is the most interesting or most fun thing about your challenge right now? “It’s cool that I get to invent my monster, and that it looks like it’s hiding behind the paper.”
Anything else you wish to add? “I love playing football, it’s a really fun hobby of mine!”

First Name: Nithin
Age: 12
Favorite Food: Chicken and rice
Fav Place in the Whole World: California
Fav animal: Fox
Current Course/s at the AAHP: Watercolors
Current Studio Challenge: Triptych
Support: Watercolor paper
Medium or Media: Transparent watercolors
Key Techniques: Wash
What is the most interesting or most fun thing about your challenge right now? “I love all the different tools and materials, and using them for all the different parts of my painting.”
Anything else you wish to add? “I’ve been playing on baseball teams since I was seven, and I hope to go pro!.”

First Name: Olivia
Age: 9
Favorite Food: Alfredo Chicken Pasta
Fav Place in the Whole World: Disney World
Fav animal: Shítzu
Current Course/s at the AAHP: Watercolor
Current Studio Challenge: Watercolor Techniques
Support: Watercolor paper
Medium or Media: Transparent Watercolors
Key Techniques: 10 different watercolor application techniques
What is the most interesting or most fun thing about your challenge right now? “I love learning so many different things I can do with watercolors.”
Anything else you wish to add? “When I grow up, I want to be a baker. I love experimenting and tasting different things.”