About two years ago, Liz Jordan hosted an art club in her Brentwood backyard, mostly as a way to connect with her oldest daughter and do more art projects with her kids.
As anyone who has ever done an art project with kids knows, they typically end up involving way more set-up and clean-up than creation. Jordan says she realized that adding more kids was the solution to making each art project worth the time and energy. By forming a club atmosphere, the reward of the whole experience matched the effort.
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That first workshop was outdoors, which Jordan explains came with a few challenges: bugs, allergies, paint on patio furniture. Despite the natural pitfalls of the backyard class, Jordan became enamored with the intimate art workshop setting, so she and her family decided to build a dedicated (indoor) studio space in her basement. This fall, I Wonder Studio launched its first sessions with two different age groups: kindergarten—second grade and third—fifth grade.
The drop-off sessions run for six weeks and are an hour long per week. The next sessions will begin the first week of January and run through mid-February, on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Each six-week session is $195 per child, and space is limited, as Jordan says it’s important to her to keep it small for now. Eventually, her hope is to add one-class sessions for holiday crafts and the like.
Jordan believes art is an essential tool for kids’ development. “Art gives kids the freedom of expression,” she says. “It lets them be in control and creatively problem solve. I love it when they come up with a problem [in their projects] because then I can say, ‘Hmm, how can we solve this?’… I think it’s really fun to see the storytelling that they can do through art—just giving them that agency to explore the world around them and their thoughts and their feelings—I think that’s really important.”
Jordan describes the types of projects in her sessions so far as a bit of a hodgepodge. Because the class sizes are small, she can tailor the projects towards what the individual groups are interested in, as well as educate them on art elements that are age-appropriate, from color theory to design principles. Featured projects so far have included watercolor, collage, upcycled materials, fiber art, and more.
Jordan’s passion stems from her own experience of motherhood. As a stay-at-home mom, she dived deep into the learning all she could about early childhood. “I really fell in love with learning how little kids learn and how they see the world,” she says. “I’ve always done art with my kids and I just love seeing the way that little kids interact with art materials.”
Jordan says her two daughters—ages 6 and 10—have been her biggest advocates for opening I Wonder—which is perhaps no surprise, as she’s been their biggest fan for years. “I just went through all of my girls’ preschool art to make a book,” Jordan says. “It’s so hard to throw away things because they work so hard on it and there’s always something fun to see, like the texture of the brush or an interesting little shape, and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s so neat. Let’s keep that forever.’”
Eventually, Jordan adds, the ultimate dream is a brick-and-mortar studio space where she could expand and amplify her offerings. For now, however, she’s completely thrilled with the personalized nature of I Wonder—and the fact that she can pivot as needed based on what’s inspiring her students that day. “I have several kids who have said, ‘I’m gonna be an artist when I grow up.’ And I’m like, ‘Yes! I love that for you.’”
