FAQs

Friday mornings 10 am to 11:30 am!

🎨 Messy Art Playgroup is a 1.5-hour long free-form art class where walking toddlers to 6-years-old can investigate and learn through art and sensory experiences. All of the fun, but none of the cleanup!

🎨 We are a process-based art studio, which simply means that we are more into the process involved in art-making than achieving a specific end product. We value learning through play and provide an awesome environment to do it in!

🎨 What you can expect! Open-ended art invitations and choice-based stations will be set up outside for the children to freely investigate. A typical class will involve a painting table for free paint, sensory bins full of cloud dough, water beads, or oobleck, a play dough table with loose parts, and handmade play dough featuring seasonal essential oils and colors. For example, rose-scented dough with flower cookie cutters and gems for February and sugar cookie dough with rolling pins and snowflake cookie cutters for December. The kids love it and so do the parents! We say we "paint all the things!" because we really do. We paint our oversized doll house, sometimes the windows (perfect canvas!), and our toy dinos too. We also have a blast putting them into a washing station and playing with scrubber brushes and shaving cream. We are ALL about the sensory experiences here.

🎨"Is it a free for all?" Nope. While we love to say yes, we also observe healthy boundaries. We respect our friend's right to play with everything in class too. We say yes to creativity and no thanks to destruction. "Is it chaotic?" Nope. Quite the opposite. Because children are able to explore at their own pace, they are usually engrossed in each activity. An hour and a half flies by!

🎨 What to do when you get to class: You can start playing as soon as you get there. If that's right at the start of class, awesome! If that's 15 minutes into class, awesome! Just join in. During the last 15 minutes of class, we all clean ourselves up and enjoy a book together before we go home.

🎨 This class is geared toward curious toddlers and preschoolers, but older siblings and babies are welcome to join. While babies are always welcome to explore, please be mindful that not everything out may be baby safe. For example, loose parts that they may put in their mouth. Use your own discretion when deciding what your little can play with.

🎨 Please dress for mess, this is a very hands-on class. We are busy learning through experimentation and we can't slow down for silly stains! Bring old play clothes or borrow one of our oversized T-Shirts. And don't forget to dress yourself for mess too parents! Kids often like to show you things, hug you or climb into your lap. Chances are they will have painted hands and cloud dough on their shirt.