Simply Jane/ ArtAble

My daughter just completed a summer art camp here and absolutely loved it! She made a ton of creative projects! I am excited to go back with her and try the painting!

I truly wanted to LOVE this place. But I did not. I thought Jane and the staff was completely rude. We were guests a birthday party. The host of the party rented 2 rooms. Both rooms were very small. The host encouraged parents to leave once the party started. *So that's what we did. But the host was running late. There were at first 4 of us waiting. 2 children, 2 moms (including myself). Jane and one other staff member kept trying to keep the kids in 1 of the back rooms. The girls and the moms of course wanted to look around to see what else was available, especially since we said it might be fun to come back. Jane and the staff member kept saying, " let's go back to this room and surprise the birthday girl when she arrives" -They kept pronouncing the birthday girl's name incorrectly and this was their passive aggressive way to keep the kids from their "open paint area" (where the public can come in and pay $20 to paint-as they kept stressing every time they pushed our girls towards the back). -There was no need to keep herding the 2 girls to the back room. It wasn't a surprise party. There was not a single person from the public coming into paint at that time. 1 more little girl came in (still waiting for the host, they arrived about 10 minutes late). We had our girls start coloring in the back room, the moms (still waiting for the host) moved to the empty "public" paint area. Again, we were told that those tables were for people who wanted to pay $20 to paint. -There was no one there waiting to pay $20 to paint. We heard you the first 5 times! If someone came in to paint, we'd happily move. One of the mothers asked about the summer camp, or options for her daughter to come in and paint. Jane's answer and reply was incredibly pretentious, basically taking the creativity, whimsy and free-thought out of painting with her answer. It was horrible to listen. Especially right after she "answered" the summer program question, she again, explained to the now 3 parents they can't sit at the public tables because someone may want to come in and pay $20 to paint (there still was no one coming in). Keep in mind, there literally was no other place for the parents to wait for the host to arrive. You would think that the owner would want the parents and kids to explore what was available so they'd want to come back at a later time. But if you weren't sitting in the small room, you were getting a passive aggressive attitude. Please note, the kids and parents were not moving anything, running around, taking things off the shelf or anything. We were simply looking and or sitting (but apparently not in the right areas). The other parents arrived and so do did the host. As they were getting organized, and before the parents had a chance to get their kids situated with the host, we were told yet again, that we couldn't even stand in the area now because some one from the public may want to come in and pay $20 to paint. -Keep in mind we were desperately trying to leave at this time. We left, went across to the street to a wonderful place called Wise Acre (of which I highly recommend) and discussed how each of us had an unpleasant interaction with Jane and her staff. There were 6 of us total who were blown away with the level of service and pushiness of Jane and her staff. What floors me is that they host parties for kids and events for people with challenges, I can't see them being patient enough to handle that. They couldn't keep their frustration /annoyance in check when the parents were waiting patiently and respectfully for the host of the party to arrive. Please note that in the 2 hours the party went on, not 1 single person from the public came in to paint. How about treating your current guest with respect and decent service before you worry about people who may or may not come in (in this case the people who DID NOT come in)? What a shame, I really wanted to like this place. Good news is, these paint places are all over the metro, we'll just choose another one.

My daughter loved art camp!

Great, my daughter loved it, and the manager was very considerate of pricing options that fit my budget. Very nice place to go.

Great place to unwind and just relax