I love this place! I did the paint a long class here, and it was just awesome! I've never taken a painting class before. So, I'm going in totally blind. The first one I did was a tree. It looked VERY daunting. Two hours later, my piece surprisingly came out pretty nice! And, I liked it so much that I did it again! I went back to do a lighthouse. I believe the instructor's name on this one was Karen for the lighthouse. That was a tough piece. Karen took a lot of time with us. It was a two hour class, and I had no idea that it had already been three hours! She was so nice. In the end, I was also pretty satisfied with my lighthouse. :) Participants made an evening out of the class, too. Groups went together, and on the lighthouse class, I went on a Saturday night, several people brought wine and snacks. Lots of fun! The two pieces I did made for very nice Christmas presents I gave them to a good friend with whom I did a fall trip with that had the trees with the red autumn leaves and lighthouses. She loved them! I can honestly say that I am hooked! I am definitely planning to go back. There is another lighthouse piece that I'm wanting to do when they feature it. read more

I've enjoyed some of the art projects my family and I have made here. I've also enrolled my child in art camp--but I was very disappointed at what was advertised in the pamphlet, and what my child actually was able to make at camp. She did not get to make as many projects as advertised. I feel like most of her time was spent on coloring sheets--instead of on paintings and on crafts. It's too expensive to pay for my child to go to "art camp" and produce items she could have done at home. It felt like it was a bait and switch. I like the instructors we've had, but I don't like the direction the owner(s) is/are taking this company to make money. I will not do business with them again. read more

I thought this place would be a wonderful experience to paint pottery with friends and family but both times I went it was uncomfortably sour. The first time I went it was with my little sister and some friends. We were told to use a special utensil to draw on the pottery to help guide our painting. Unfortunately, when I went to pick up the glazed pottery 3 weeks later (they never called me when the pottery was ready, so I had to call myself since it had been so long) the type of pencil showed trough the paint and glaze. The owner claimed there was no way any employee would have told me to use that-even though they did- and was very rude and reluctant to let me re-do just my little sister's piece. The second time I went I was with other family and we each painted our own pieces. Once again I never got a call from them letting me know when the pottery was ready to be picked up. Finally a month later I called and went to pick it up (each time this happened they claimed someone was supposed to call me, but who? And why didn't they?) When I arrived the owner said she was sorry but they had broken the antlers on my mother's reindeer. She told me not to worry because I could take it home since they had glued then back on. The repair job was awful and you could tell they didn't put effort into fixing it. How could I take this to my mother when she had originally planned to gift it to someone else? The owner saw the sadness in my face and said she'd give me a coupon for our next visit. I realized the woman does not have admirable character because she then put all the pottery in a bag plus the broken one and proceeded to do other things around her store (as I awkwardly waited on the coupon she had promised), suddenly from across the store she yelled to me, "thanks for coming sweetie, we hope to see you soon! Bye!!" I never saw the promised coupon and was basically kicked out with a broken pottery piece. To top it all of, her condescending way of saying "sweetie" to a 25 year old was plain rude. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I'm positive I will never go back to this place, but if you choose to go there, know you will not be treated like a respectable customer and you will not receive the attention and care you and your pottery deserve. read more

Love it here! So many different things to grow in artistic knowledge! Come in for a structured class or open studio.

Love the classes and enjoyed this so much bought more classes. Came back with kids. I bought the kids a few pieces of pottery and we painted them there, they fired them and had them ready in less than a week. The kids are now hooked and love making art. Need a date night or even a ladies night out? Try this place! Great Sunday afternoon family activity. read more

Poor supervision at camps and after school program. My daughter took 5 private lessons at the studio in March and after seeing the chaos and speaking to a few preteens and a staff in the after school program, I thought about canceling summer Camp but gave it a try anyway. On day one, my 4 year old sat in an overcrowded room only being babysat by a TV, no adult. One employee even brought her infant and toddler you work that day. I only left her after staying an hour past start time when they were moved to the art studio and I felt at least that she wasn't completely unsupervised. When I picked her up, she was in a room with no adult staff again, children eating lunch which I didn't send her with because was told half day didn't need lunch, the TV on again, and others running everywhere. An adult shadow for a boy with special needs was there and said that the entire day was chaos and she was going to suggest to the mother of the boy that this was not a suitable program for little ones. Katherine the director does NOT take feedback well so be prepared for excuses for everything and to be belittled. I even told her we'd be back to paint pottery in the studio, but after her nasty email the night after my daughter attended her camp, I would never step foot into her studio again. read more

Called ahead to check what time they closed and the person told me 9. Walked in the door ready to paint and the girl said "well, we are actually closing in 45 minutes". Didn't ask if we still wanted to paint. Don't plan on going back after being turned away. read more

I went to a painting class here in January 2015, shortly after they moved into this new space. Me and my friend were explained that we could only use certain colors and only 2 brushes or we would be charged extra. The owner was rushing around like a madwoman and there were only 4 or 5 of us in there for this paint class. We heard her being rude to someone who walked in off the street and she told another lady in the paint class that she "should keep her day job" instead of going into painting! The owner (Cathy? catherine?) kept interrupting the class to take care of other people and stuff and so we were not through with our paintings when the class time was up but were told we had to take them with us anyway. All in all, not a good experience. read more

I recently visited ArtSmart Academy with my Girl Scout Troop. I had heard many wonderful things about ArtSmart and was looking forward to the activity that was planned as our Christmas party. The two young ladies that were "in charge" of our group were very dis-organized from the start . It took them awhile to get themselves together before they started the party. Once the party started they were very slow at getting the girls going on their projects. Several times we (the leaders of the troop and parents) had to request they speak louder so the girls could hear them. On quite a few occasions during the party, I saw one of our parents working with our girls and answering their questions. When I looked for the ArtSmart employees, they were either on the computer, talking in a corner, or nowhere to be found. This is completely unacceptable. Each of our leaders, and several of our parents, are more than capable doing painting crafts with our troop, however in this instance, we paid for this establishment to host a party. At other like businesses, this means that our hostesses are to work with the girls, be there to answer questions and help them with their projects. I was highly disappointed with the service that we received and as a result, I will not return as a patron and will not recommend ArtSmart Academy to friends and family in the area, including the other troops that are a part of Girls Scouts Mountains to Midlands. read more

Nice concept, but very disorganized with rude staff. The owner (or manager, not sure) called a child at another table a "retard" during some kind of supervised event or party at least twice. It was not our group, but I would never leave one of my kids there after witnessing that. We left shortly thereafter. read more

Buyer beware! Apparently their no refunds policy applies even when the Academy cancels the session. On a recent visit with my daughter, who lives in the Columbia area, I booked a class for us to do together, a mother-daughter outing. Unfortunately, two hours before the Friday night class (and 2 hours after I spoke to Katherine by phone) I received a call from the studio saying that because we were the only two people scheduled the class would be canceled. I explained to Katherine ( on at least 3 occasions since then) that I would be returning to NJ in a few days and so could not "make-up" the class on a later date. Apparently holding a class for "just" 2 people is not cost-effective, but really! If you are comfortable with taking the class when it's convenient for the studio regardless of the date you choose, then go forth and enjoy your art experience. Unfortunately I have to give the studio no stars, since I got no such experience for my money. The yelp page requires the stars field not be left empty, hence the one star rating. read more

A friend and I came here to pain several months ago and had the best time! The owner Katherine was our instructor, and we learned a LOT and had a blast too. We each bought our mothers a spot in the class for mothers day and scheduled another class. Once again Katherine was our instructor. She snapped at anyone who asked her a question. We overheard her hissing at her employees to "Move it. We WILL get out of here early tonight." She made faces and rolled her eyes at people when she thought that we weren't looking. At the beginning of the class there were people laughing and giggling, but by the end the atmosphere was toxic, and everyone was dead quiet. What a horrible experience! We took our mothers over an hour away because we thought they would love it. Instead we left with a painting that we weren't very proud of because we were too scared to ask questions, we didn't learn anything, we had spend $220, and our feelings were hurt. Instructors should NEVER make students feel incompetent or bothersome when learning a skill. I cannot express enough what a HORRIBLE experience we had. read more