New year, new space!

And I can't wait to make some art in it.

Sharing some very exciting news today. There is a new home for The Painting School.

It is a corner space in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. A bit of a work in progress. But we have plans! The final space will be stunning and sunny, with an excess of white wall space, an art book library, reading nooks, and plenty of easels and work space and I hope it will be a place where people will want to spend time making art.

(It used to be a Jiu Jitsu place and my friend Tom suggested I also offer an artist fight club as part of the programming. The first rule of the artist fight club is you don’t talk about the artist fight club…)

There is amazing light coming into the space because no tall buildings stand in that particular corner of Brooklyn. My husband is doing the renovation so things are moving quickly. Custom-made chairs and a long work table are in the works. There will be a little kitchen with a wine fridge.

This is the mood board for the space.

That is my visual inspiration. My experiential inspiration comes from a few places.

I want it to feel like you are working in an artist’s studio. It will be a space full of inspiration and supplies, where serious art is made and art-centric friendships are born. Think Miro’s studio in Sert.

or maybe Matisse’s.

And I am inspired by what happens at a little place near my house called The Brooklyn Strategist, where people gather over a love of chess, D&D, and board games. They drink beer and juiceboxes They spend hours hanging out and doing the thing they love to do with other people who also love to do those things.

I’m also inspired by the senior center where I spent four glorious months teaching the seniors of Crown Heights how to paint flowers. People arrive on foot, are dropped off by adult children, or pull up in para transportation in order to spend the day with other people instead of staying home alone. It is the kind of space that can only happen in a place like New York City with people from all walks of life coming together for a one-dollar warm meal and a day of Zumba, Bingo and painting. (I will be hosting a free senior painting morning once a month as soon as I am set up for it. We’ll have donuts…)

I’m still trying to figure out how to program the space in a way that people will be able to just show up and make art and make friends. I think we will get there.

We spent our 18th anniversary painting and vacuuming and as Rob builds it out I’m trying to describe what people can expect in a class. My teaching has always been very word of mouth, the only marketing I’ve ever done is an initial email I sent to a school email listserv six years ago and an underused Instagram account. Now I’m having the interesting challenge of talking about how I teach and why it is a little different.

But I have faith that it will all come together and we will have classes, workshops, woodworking for kids, collaging, free painting for seniors, birthday parties, open houses, pay-what-you-can painting afternoons, date nights and art shows. We will rent it to people who need space for whatever reason and offer memberships for anybody who wants access to a sunny place to go and drink coffee, make art, and escape either the solitude of their home or the chaos of it.

More options and opportunities and classes will be added over the next few weeks so check out The Painting School website to keep up to date. And if you have any ideas for ways to use the space or just want to stop by and check it out, please get in touch - sarawoster@gmail.com

Stay tuned!

Thank you!