Art has made its journey back into a building that once housed numerous motion films.
Young at Art Studio now occupies one third of Newark's former Blockbuster building – bringing art programs to both youth and adults of the community.
Newark’s studio is the company’s second art school. Its first location has been serving the community of Cupertino since 1976.
“I’ve always been trying to expand over towards the East Bay; Fremont, Newark or Union City or something and it just so happens that we found the right place at the right time and expanded to Newark,” said manager Paul Wood.
Young at Art’s objective is to provide art programs for artists of all ages. The youngest are 4-year-olds and the studio offers youth after school programs.
The main focus is on fine arts classes about oil painting, water coloring painting and drawing are all available. Advanced portfolio classes are also offered for youth aspiring to find ways to showcase their art for college.
Some classes integrate children and adults, while others require participants be within a certain age range, Wood emphasized. But its focus is on children in elementary and junior high schools.
The level of quality offered by Young at Art is what Wood said makes the studio stand out .
“A lot of art studios don’t use oil paints a lot of the time, for various different reasons, but we use high quality oil [paints] that are not toxic,” explained Wood. “We also use the more natural turpentine as opposed to the chemical version of the turpentine. So we’re able to offer a lot of different stuff.”
Wood also said while other art schools tend to be more cultural-oriented, Young at Art intends to expand by offering high quality materials to use for an affordable price.
Since its August opening, Wood said the art studio has gotten a good response from the community so far.
The timing of Young at Art’s arrival in Newark at a time is one in which Wood said art programs and education are being cut from schools, and he explained that Young at Art programs offer more than what school programs would.
“Every time there’s a vote on the ballot or anything like that for more schools to get art and music back into them, I’m always voting yes on stuff like that,” he explained, “but, at the same time, it does benefit a company like mine where parents can come and do art classes that they don’t have in schools.”
Looking into the future, Wood said he hopes to expand the studio into the space adjacent to its current location if it remains vacant. In addition, he also hopes to offer mixed media classes in the future.
For more information on Young at Art studio, visit them at their website: http://www.yaainc.net/.
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