Our art studio

Austin Play Garden has its own art studio, the Atelier, with a full-time art teacher. Children make process art there, mostly from recycled and repurposed materials.

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Two children's hands with brushes spread orange and yellow paint across a large cardboard circle.

How the studio works

A studio and a full-time art teacher

In schools inspired by Reggio Emilia, the atelier is the studio and the atelierista is the teacher who runs it. Ours is a dedicated art room with a full-time art teacher. Children start visiting in the Toddler room.

Process art, not templates

Children lead the work. There's no model to copy and no finished look to match, so the doing is the point: mixing colors, pressing gems into dough, rolling a lump of clay.

Recycled and repurposed materials

Most of what children work with is recycled or repurposed. On this page alone, a cardboard circle, a toy car and a toy dinosaur all became something to paint or decorate.

Projects and studio time

Preschoolers learn through long-term projects built on their own interests. They also spend regular time in the art studio with our full-time atelierista. Children's work goes up on the walls, hangs from the ceilings and fills the windows, so the learning is visible to everyone who walks in.

Read about our approach

On the wall

Children's work from around the school. Select a piece to see it larger.

A toy dinosaur coated in purple dough and studded with sequins and plastic gems, in a red tray scattered with more gems.
Two children's hands with brushes swirl red, orange and yellow paint in the star-shaped cups of a metal tray.
A child's hand holds a pinecone over a glowing light table set with a twig nest, feathered toy birds and two wood slices.
Looping purple crayon lines and one long black arc on white paper.
A child's hand brushes pink paint onto a blue toy car in a pink tray, beside a palette of purple, pink, green, black and blue paint.
A child's fingers press glass gems into a slab of blue-grey dough with a toy dinosaur on top, in a red tray.
Brown marker loops circling a small mark, crossed by a blue line and a pink line, with a marker at the paper's edge.
A child's hands roll a small piece of reddish-brown clay above a metal tray.
A toy dinosaur coated in purple dough and studded with sequins and plastic gems, in a red tray scattered with more gems.

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Follow the studio

Our art teacher shares the studio's work on Instagram.

Follow @austinplaygarden on Instagram

Come see the classrooms and the art studio.

Pick a morning or afternoon tour (9:15 – 11:15 am or 2:45 – 4:15 pm). After your visit, joining the waitlist takes three short steps.

Schedule a TourJoin the Waitlist