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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The art studio: white cloth and string lights draped across the ceiling over low tables, small chairs and shelves of materials.

How the studio works

A hallway wall covered in children's work: a rainbow of paper, painted paper plates and rows of red and green paintings.

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 shapes into dough, weaving yarn around a wreath.

Recycled and repurposed materials

Most of what children work with is recycled or repurposed. On this page alone, fabric scraps, twigs, yarn and fabric flowers all became something new.

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, and the studio at work. Select a picture to see it larger.

Children on colorful chairs working at a long table in the art studio with a teacher, under sheer draped cloth.
Hands tucking fabric flowers and yarn into a wreath frame on a wooden table.
A wooden table set with trays of art materials: tissue paper, stamps, ink pads, beads, sticks and scissors.
A child painting black lines on paper in a low wooden tray in the art studio, with red paint trays alongside.
A child's hand reaching into a bin of twig nests, moss, a magnifying glass and wooden pieces.
The art studio under draped cloth and string lights, with a painted wooden board in front and tables set with materials.
Two hands pressing purple dough beside a blue mold of flower and shape cutouts, on a yellow tray.
Small painted fabric banners hung from sticks on a classroom wall.
Children on colorful chairs working at a long table in the art studio with a teacher, under sheer draped cloth.

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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