What: An all-you-can-make art studio.
Where: 5305 N.E. 121st Circle in east Vancouver.
Cost: Ages 4 and younger, $9; age 5 and older, $11; bring in art supply donation, get $2 off; those who qualify for public assistance, $6; annual membership, $85.
Information: 360-635-4450 or info@artalacartepdx.com, www.artalacartevan.com, facebook.com/AACVancouver
2,000 googly eyes.
50 pounds of hot glue.
20 gallons of paint.
15 pounds of glitter.
3 gallons of Elmer’s glue.
Small toys.
Board game pieces.
Jewelry.
Baby food jars.
Shoe boxes.
“Mom, how do you like my lion?” asked 5-year-old Cailin Cubbin, holding up a toy lion with a key chain, dreidel and balloons hot-glued to it.
“I like your creation,” Colleen Cubbin said with a wry smile.
She uses the word “creation” a lot when the family visits Art Ala Carte, a new studio in east Vancouver offering a buffet-style approach to kids’ art.
What: An all-you-can-make art studio.
Where: 5305 N.E. 121st Circle in east Vancouver.
Cost: Ages 4 and younger, $9; age 5 and older, $11; bring in art supply donation, get $2 off; those who qualify for public assistance, $6; annual membership, $85.
Information: 360-635-4450 or info@artalacartepdx.com, www.artalacartevan.com, facebook.com/AACVancouver
There are pompoms and glitter, as well as not-so standard supplies such as toys, tubes and board game pieces. Kids pile the materials onto a tray and sit down to create whatever they can think up. With no time or supply limit, the possibilities are practically boundless.
“It frees me up. I don’t feel as controlling,” Colleen Cubbin said while making a fabric pouch to hold her daughter’s work.
Another bonus, she said, is that the staff cleans up after you’re done. So, when the kids are getting tired and fussy, they can just leave.
The Vancouver studio, which opened Nov. 15, is the second Art Ala Carte site. Founder Aria Leighty started the business three years ago in Portland, where she quickly learned that demand outpaced the space. On busy days, a line of families waiting for an open seat snakes out the door.
“We had lots of demand from lots of parents to open out here,” Leighty said.
After saving for several months, she opened the Vancouver studio with the help of her husband, Keno Leighty, co-owner at South Pacific Cafe in Battle Ground.
The 1,200-square-foot space is tucked into the back of an industrial park called Contractor’s Village. Although it’s not ideal, Leighty said when she started looking for a space, most landlords were worried about the noise and mess the business would create.
Although the Cubbin family lives in Southeast Portland, they visit the Vancouver location because it’s closer and less crowded than the other one.
In one month, Art Ala Carte uses:
2,000 googly eyes.
50 pounds of hot glue.
20 gallons of paint.
15 pounds of glitter.
3 gallons of Elmer's glue.
It’s an open-ended experience with no instruction unless the kids ask for it. Sometimes, a child will spend their first couple of visits just tinkering with the materials and not making anything to take home.
There’s a method to the madness. Process-oriented art supports kids enjoying the process of making art rather than a specific end product.
“Learning by doing and learning by experiencing is the best way to grasp it,” Aria Leighty said.
They’re learning to think for themselves and create something by themselves, although Leighty will occasionally tell kids how supplies work.
“You’ve got to get all that white glue off, or it’s going to be too slippery,” she said to Cailin Cubbin, as a toy slid off her lion.
Children are naturally curious, so the loose process allows them to experiment with different art mediums. If Leighty sees a child come into the studio and make the same thing several times, she’ll ask them if they want to try anything different.
She has a background in early childhood education and previously ran a children’s program at a YMCA in Portland, where she began using out-of-the-box supplies in art lessons.
Still, she said she didn’t like the way art was offered to youth and wanted to provide something greater than the YMCA’s small program.
“Our goal is to always make art accessible to all families,” she said.
The studio offers a variety of discounts and cuts costs by accepting art supply donations.
Besides the studio, there’s a mobile art unit that travels to libraries and schools. Leighty also puts on a variety of events, including Messy Madness, a chance for babies to crawl around in paint on a canvas with a professional photographer on hand to catch the process.
Once a month, there’s a night for adults to let loose and make art. But, the studio is a particular draw for children, budding artists and creative thinkers who feel free to make what they please.
