Children's Art Classes

Children’s Art Classes has been selected as a 2026 Industry Icon in Consumer Culture by The 2026 List, brought to you by Industry & Influence. The recognition celebrates a business built around a lasting relationship with creativity: giving children the instruction, practice, and encouragement to keep developing as artists.

For a parent, the first drawing a child brings home can be a milestone. The more consequential question is what happens next. Children’s Art Classes has built its program around that next step, offering students a place to return as their abilities develop and their interests become more specific. Art becomes a continuing part of their lives, with room for both the enthusiastic beginner and the student ready for advanced work.

A Family Vision That Grew Beyond the Garage

The company’s story began in 1997, when founder Barbara Gay developed an art curriculum and taught from her family’s garage in New Mexico. A public school art teacher raising two daughters, she created the business to supplement her income. The program eventually moved into a retail space, demonstrating that families wanted opportunities to pursue art beyond the school day.

After relocating to Florida, Gay and her daughter, Stephanie Larsen, opened a Jacksonville studio together in 2009. Additional family locations followed, and the company launched its franchise opportunity in 2020. That growth has carried forward the founder’s original focus on teaching. Gay remains involved in curriculum refinement, instructor training, and mentoring, while Stephanie Larsen and the CAC franchise leadership team supports the people bringing the program to new communities.

A Curriculum That Grows With the Student

Children’s Art Classes offers nine-month art programs spanning more than 40 areas of art, including drawing, painting, design, printmaking, sculpture, and ceramics. Classes meet weekly during the school year, with a progression designed to let students return without repeating the same projects.

The pathway starts with Tiny Hands for ages three and four, where guided small-group activities introduce children to materials and making. Subsequent age-based classes build familiarity with tools and artistic vocabulary. In Art 1, available to beginning students ages nine and older, the work becomes more deliberate: students study line, value, and texture through monochromatic projects before moving into color theory and other media.

This sequence gives creative ambition a practical foundation. A child who enjoys drawing can keep learning how to observe, make choices, and work through a project. As students advance, their growing portfolios offer a visible record of that effort. The program leaves space for art to become a lifelong interest, an area of further study, or a future professional pursuit.

Making Room for Art in Family Life

The studio experience also extends beyond traditional after-school enrollment. CAC’s homeschool art curriculum offers families another route into structured instruction, with custom scheduling inquiries available for homeschool co-ops. It gives families educating at home a way to connect their children with a dedicated art classroom and other students.

Summer workshops create opportunities to explore art outside the school-year curriculum. Art birthday parties and private events bring painting or clay into celebrations, with projects shaped around a child’s interests. Together, these offerings give families several ways to make art part of their routines, from a weekly commitment to a first visit with friends.

Families can explore the student art gallery and find a local studio to learn about available classes, workshops, and schedules. The emphasis remains on participating: giving children time, materials, and a setting in which their creative interests can be taken seriously.

Growing Through Local Ownership

CAC’s franchise opportunity pairs community-based ownership with a shared curriculum. Franchisees receive hands-on training, instructional videos, written teaching resources, and ongoing support. The model gives local operators an established educational program to bring into their own neighborhoods, with training intended to support consistency in the classroom.

That business has earned national recognition. In its 2026 rankings, Entrepreneur placed Children’s Art Classes No. 380 in the Franchise 500 and No. 1 in Children’s Enrichment Programs: Art. CAC also shares its Franchise 500 recognition and Education Insider’s Art Classes Provider of the Year feature, which explores the depth and continuity of its approach to art education.