Marin Mommies by pamela | October 23, 2011
- Novato's Studio4Art Celebrates Four Years with the Opening of the Annex
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- Novato's Studio4Art celebrates not only its four-year anniversary,
but also the opening of its new Annex, located directly behind the main studio!
This new space will be used for parties, summer and holiday camps, workshops,
and classes for children two years and up. The Annex will also serve as a gallery
for student-created artwork and student art shows. The main studio will continue
to be the place for drop-in art sessions as well as the retail area where customers
can continue to find quality art supplies and unique art gifts.
Studio4Art has been serving Novato and surrounding communities in Marin and Sonoma
County since it was opening in September of 2008 by owner Kebby McInroy.
Studio4Art has maintained a specialized niche within the community, serving schools,
families, and civic groups such as scout troops and dens. Studio4Art continues to
advocate for children of all ages and their creative needs by offering affordable
and quality hands-on classes, summer and holiday camps and workshops, and drop-in
art sessions covering a variety of media from acrylic, watercolor, and oil painting,
to sewing, wheel-throwing, clay hand-building, silk screening, block printing and mosaic-making.
The opening of The Annex means that Studio4Art will be able to offer more of its
programs concurrently and further serve the needs of the community. Prior to the
opening of The Annex, the main studio would often be bustling with classes, camps
and birthday parties, sometimes leaving out the families who may want to occasionally
drop in to create an art project. The new space will allow for everyone to explore
their creativity at the same time. The Annex at Studio4Art also aims to give teens
a space to create. The Annex will offer a more studious environment where teens can
take subject-specific art classes, such as oil painting. The main studio will continue
to offer drop-ins with the addition of new Saturday hours.
We've taken a number of classes and attended a few birthday parties at Studio4Art,
and always had a great time, not to mention the fact that we came home with some
amazing artistic creations. The staff is very helpful and good with kids, so it's
definitely worth a visit if you're in the mood to get creative. We're really excited
about the opening of the Annex and the possibility for even more classes and resources.
Studio4Art is located at 1133 Grant Avenue in Novato, with The Annex directly behind
at 972 2nd Street. Hours are 10 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday, and a new time of
10 am to 2 pm on Saturdays. Parties may be booked in the Annex on Friday evenings as
well as three different times on Saturdays and Sundays.
For more details on Studio4Art programs and class offerings, drop-in sessions,
upcoming camps and holiday workshops, or to book a party, check the studio website
at www.studio4art.net, call (415) 596-5546
or email studio4artmarin@gmail.com.
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[SOURCE] Marin Mommies, Article by pamela | October 23, 2011
[PERMALINK]
Novato Patch by Beth Huizenga | December 22, 2010
- How's the Housing Market? Flourishing if You're Talking Clay Gingerbread Houses.
Kids and families flock to Studio 4 Art to create long-lasting crafts for the holidays.
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- When Kebby McInroy of Mill Valley picked Novato as the home for a new art studio more than two years ago,
she had an idea of what she was in for. "I was working in Novato teaching privately and doing summer camps, and it was great timing," she says.
"I knew I wanted to open a studio and saw the perfect place available (on Grant Street). I love the families of Novato, it's a wonderful community."
The mother of three with a Sonoma State degree in painting looks like a funky urban art student. She opened Studio 4 Art in September 2008.
With mellow, alt-rock on the stereo at just the right level to make it fun but not overpowering, McInroy gently encourages the three youngsters
seated at her four potters wheels as they shape their spinning bowls. The children happily focus on the slippery, slick slopes beneath their fingers.
Classes are available for children as young as 18 months.
"We start them at the age of 2 (on the wheel) because we're about the process, not necessarily the product," McInroy says.
"They get to strengthen their hands and improve their fine motor skills, so when they go to hold a pencil or a paint brush they're much better at it
and they feel better about it. And if they produce a bowl, that's great, too."
Who doesn't love working with clay? Or watching Patrick Swayze interrupt Demi Moore doing it? But I digress. This is not a scene out of "Ghost,"
but instead a place of discovery and creativity in Old Town Novato. Studio 4 Art is comprised of several work stations and on this day they are occupied
by children glazing clay plates that they made themselves, throwing clay on the potter wheels and making gingerbread houses with slabs of clay using a tile
for a guide. The nine children have the attention of three teachers. "Our ratio is (at least) four children to one teacher during camps," McInroy says.
"Everything we do here we try to make it educational," she continues, "so math, the sciences ... we're constantly relating what we're doing in art to other fields.
We tell kids what's in the clay, what's in the glazes, how the kiln works, what temperature it has to be and why. Kids also learn how to not just mold clay, but how to build with it, too."
Indeed, clay gingerbread house construction has been going on here this holiday season despite the sluggish real estate market.
In fact, the gingerbread workshops at Studio 4 Art increased to two weekends due to high demand.
"They were fantastic, full to capacity," McInroy says. "What's really beautiful about the gingerbread project is that it's a group effort in a very creative environment.
So you get children working with their parent or grandparent and they're making these tactile memories together."
This was the third year the studio offered the clay gingerbread workshops, and there are some families who have gone in each year and are well on their way to creating little villages.
Studio 4 Art has a dynamite new website detailing the creative opportunities there. If you're interested in camp for next week, the studio is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. for art camp, and from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. for drop-in art work, including a chance to make a gingerbread house if you just can't wait until next year. The gingerbread houses take about 2 1/2 hours of drop-in time.
"I love my work," says McInroy, who clearly puts in a ton of hours, "and I think the community senses that love. I believe every child has an amazing story and amazing creativity."
And off she goes.
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[SOURCE] Novato Patch, Article by Beth Huizenga | December 22, 2010
[PERMALINK]
Press Release by Studio 4 Art | September 15, 2009
Soup: The Bowl That Keeps Feeding, November 15, 2009
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Studio4Art and What's Cooking are proud to present Soup - The Bowl That Keeps Feeding, November 15, 2009 11am-2pm
at the Fresh Starts Cooking School, 1385 N. Hamilton Parkway, Novato, CA 94949.(directions)
Soup - The Bowl That Keeps Feeding is a fundraiser to feed local children in need of a warm meal.
It is an event that allows children to become involved in their community through food and art.
The children make the food, create the art, and share them both with our guests.
How does it work? You contribute a small donation, choose a hand-thrown bowl, and we fill it with savory soup.
You leave with a full belly, a piece of art and a warm heart knowing that your donation helped to feed a child.
All proceeds from the event go to Homeward Bound of Marin to feed other children.
For more information, please contact Michelle Stern, What's Cooking, 415-342-4353,
www.whatscooking.info or Kebby McInroy, Studio 4 Art, 415-596-5546, www.studio4art.net
Novato Advance Lifestyles by Leslie Harlib | January 21-27, 2009
- Art classes flourish on Grant Avenue. Novato School teaches arts and crafts.
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Kebby McInroy, 42, was the fine arts equivalent of a wandering troubadour for nine years.
Through her business call Studio4Art, the Corte Madera resident travelled around Marin
teaching arts such as painting, drawing, and sculpture in people's homes as well as schools.
Now she's gone the bricks and mortar route. In Spetember 2008, McInroy founded Studio4Art at 1133 Grant Ave. in Novato.
There, she teaches everyone from two-year-olds on up a wide range of arts that encompasses all she's known for,
plus sewing, pottery, mosaics and more.
"Though I worked in different recreation centers and through different school districts, I felt I wasn't reaching as many kids
as I actually wanted to do," explained McInroy. "I felt the next step should be opening a studio."
The space feels like the ultimate arts and crafts camp coupled with retail. It's filled with light from two big windows in the front.
There are four potters' wheels and four sewing machines. Canvas-covered tables are smeared with so much color from a multitude of projects,
they look like abstract paintings in the works.
Folded easels wait for canvases in another part of the room. A large mirror, one student's creation,
is ringed by a pretty mosaic made of broken blue and white teacups.
Wooden display hutches hold products for sale: drawing sets, greeting cards, pottery bowls, books about art,
and fabric wine-bottle holders crafted by Sausalito designer and seamstress Carla Pollard.
McInroy found that since she's opened her doors, the community has come calling. Whether it's the down-turned economy and people need something to do to cheer themselves up,
or whether people want more out of their free time than computer or television experiences, she's been surprised by the positive response.
"People have been very helpful and welcoming," she said. "This community has a vey small-town feel. People really seem to enjoy the arts.
Everyone who's seen us and heard about us has said they were waiting for something like this."
According to McInroy, while classes aren't full, at the same time "they're definitely growing. With a new business, I figure that's the next step. Drop-ins are very popular, too."
Hands-on art is enjoying a renaissance in this high-tech age because, as McInroy puts it, "They teach creative thinking:going outside the box in today's world.
The arts help kids come to a conclusion about things that maybe somebody else hasn't thought of before. Art also gives them a voice, which I think, right now, is really important to a child."
Blake Carlile, age 8, agrees. With his twin brother Miles, the Novato resident and student at the Novato Charter School takes a number of classes at Studio4Art.
"It's pretty fun," he said. "You get to make some pretty cool sculptures. You can make bowls and frogs. You get to do anything with art. You can even paint, getting textures with a palette knife.
At school, we just do knitting, not that much art classes. This place gives me a chance to try a lot of things.
Carlile's mom, Sally, also takes classes at Studio4Art. The family tries to go every other week, she said; the down-turned economy makes affording extras challenging,
but the arts are worth it.
"As a parent, I feel good about spending money here with Kebby, because of how she is with art," Sally Carlile said. "She doesn't tell people what to do. She asks a lot of questions.
So what comes out in the kids' art work is their own, not what the teacher tells them what to do."
Classes at Studio4Art can last anywhere from one to three hours. Sunday drop-ins between noon and 4 p.m. are generally $18 for the first hour (which includes supplies); $10 for each additional hour.
McInroy is also launching pajama parties on the third Friday of every month, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. They cost $30 and are aimed at kids ages 5 through 11. The next one is Friday, Jan. 23.
"I'm trying to do things to promote business," she said. "I'm hoping the pajama parties will give parents the opportunity to leave their kids here and go out to restaurants on the strip.
It's one way for me to promote different things in Novato."
Studio 4 Art also offers adult-only classes on Thursday nights from 6 to 8 p.m. with wine and cheese.
"These definitely attract both men and women," said McInroy. "It's a chance for us to create together."
For more information about Studio4Art, call 596-5546 or go to www.studio4art.net
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[Originally printed in the Novato Advance, January 21, 2009]
