About Children's Fine Art Programs
Children's Fine Arts (CFA), a program of the Palo Alto Art Center, has been providing quality art experiences to the children of Palo Alto and surrounding communities since 1940. We serve over 2,000 children annually, from the ages of 18 months to 18 years. Classes are held at the Junior Museum and Zoo, the Palo Alto Art Center, and Mitchell Park Teen Center. We offer after-school classes, special workshops, and week-long summer studios. We provide a solid education in art basics, including ceramics, drawing, painting, and fine crafts. We also provide diverse specialized classes and workshops including Art that Flies, Digital Photography, Inventions, Puppet Making, Chinese Brush Painting, and many others. Most of our teachers are working artists; all of them are wonderful art educators. We teach the skills children need to bring creativity into their adult lives. For information and to register for upcoming classes see the Enjoy! Catalog found at any City of Palo Alto facility and online. If you'd like to get advance notice of planned classes and events, please join CFA's email list. To join or to contact Children's Fine Arts call 650-329-2122, or email Program Director Larnie Fox.
CFA Classes at the Junior Museum and Zoo
A compact but well-stocked art room and a large, state-of-the-art ceramics studio houses the dynamic art program at the Junior Museum. Weekly classes for elementary-aged children are held after-school Tuesday through Friday, and all day on Saturdays. Preschool classes meet mornings and early afternoons. After-school and Saturday clay classes are available for teenagers. Our ceramics program is known for its excellence and history. We have been offering high quality clay classes at the Junior Museum for over sixty years. During the summer, we offer week-long "Studio Camps" in both rooms for elementary-aged kids and kindergarteners. Studios meet for two and a half hours morning and afternoon, with free lunchtime care. We are able to attract some of the finest artists of the Bay Area and beyond to teach our Studios. The Studio format allows for a complete art experience for your child. After a week of work with an accomplished artist your child will have acquired a deep understanding of the medium used, whether it's acrylic painting, figure sculpture or balsa airplane making.
CFA Classes at the Mitchell Park Teen Center
CFA offers weekly classes at Mitchell Park throughout the year. We provide after-school classes for teens, elementary-aged children and morning preschool "Active Arts" classes. Teen classes run Monday through Friday afternoon. Classes designed for home-schooling families meet during school hours. This location is where we offer most of our classes in watercolor, fashion design and comics, as well as drawing and painting classes. At Mitchell Park our focus is on teens in the late afternoons.
CFA Classes at the Palo Alto Art Center
CFA is based at the Art Center. Throughout the school year, we offer after-school and weekend Digital and Electronic Arts classes in our Art/Tech Studio and Saturday classes in the Project Look! Room. During the summer, our focus at the Art Center is on teens and older elementary children. This is when we present Summer Studios, which are in-depth, week-long, morning and afternoon workshops. The Studio Camps provide college-level art experiences for motivated teens and pre-teens. We are proud to be able to attract some of the Bay Area's most interesting artists to teach our Studios. Past Studios have included "Moku Hanga: Japanese Woodblock Printing" with Tomoko Murakami, "Mural Painting" with Greg Brown, and "Foundation Drawing" with Mark Brest van Kempen. Digital Studios have included "Digital Audio Workshop" with Cheryl Leonard, "Flash Animation" with Matt Gray, and "Narrative Digital Photography" with Justin Winokur.
