I've never had to give a "negative" review about any business in my lifetime. Sorry that it has to start here. But this needs to be told so no other parent of a special needs child or an adult with special needs looking for an art class would endure the likes of what transpired here. My heart is saddened by the treatment received. If you have or are a person with an intellectual disability stay far away from Ve Art Studio
My original run in with the owner (Lana) was over the phone. In fact I'd never met her in person. As soon as i mentioned that my son was autistic, that he was non verbal & that he would have an aid (his sister)attend with him during the class, it was apparent that she wasn't interested in him. I even tried to convince her that i was willing to try out the possibility of her meeting my son to see if he would be a good fit. First conversation was a phone call 2 weeks prior. It started out pleasant with me understanding that they had all kinds of art classes from beginner, intermediate etc but when Lana asked how advanced i was, i told her it wasnt for me, it was for my autistic adult son. Almost immediately after that i started to hear a negative sales pitch attitude with statements she made that reflected it. Thats when I basically had to try and sell myself to this woman, especially after starting to feel her rejection. By letting her know that my adult children were very well behaved i assured her that my son would not be a distraction in her class. Comments like "These classes are just for friends" and "This is only for a special group of people." and "I dont think this is what your looking for." Are some of the comments that came from her.
Before the phone conversation ended she did tell me to text her photos of my son and daughter's work. I felt it as her way of getting me off the phone. My son draws mostly cartoon type Disney & Pokemon art but has been known to draw complex building structures & detailed lifelike animals that he did in highschool with some verbal & visual promps. Unfortunately he likes to keep those things packed away. So all i could text to her at that time was a photo of him standing in front of a wall full of his cartoon drawings, i sent this to her almost immediately after i hung up as, i wanted to show her that i was very interested in getting him in her art classes as soon as i could. I had also texted Lana art from my daughter too but never heard back on any texts i sent her. Moving forward today. I decided to try another approach to try and get my son into Ve Art. I tried to email her on her website thinking "Maybe she wont know its me & that i have an autistic son." "Maybe i just dont mention the autism, just sign him up, let her see that this young man is worthy to be treated just like the average person." So i decided to go on Ve Art Studio website, email from there & ask her about classes for adults. She certainly didn't know it was me as she was sending me advertisements, links etc from her website for days. And when I responded and asked for adult classes, she even sent me an application to fill out and give my payment. I was elated that i was going to finally get my son in a local class. Being that my daughter is a paid provider to my son & also the fact that she was interested in trying to sign up for the class also, I had her fill out the application & put her phone number in the contact information, as i had a hunch if this lady recognized my number she would put 2 and 2 together & would not accept my son. So Ve Art ended up sending a text to my daughter's phone asking her to verify a class that she signed up for. We called back with speaker on so my daughter could hear the conversation as i had intended to do the talking on her behalf. Again Lana had a great sales pitch about the classes followed by her asking lots of questions on her end, but eventually a question arose where the statement i made was. "Its for myself and my brother." , Curiousity began to eminate from her voice, "Your brother.?" "Didnt i have a conversation with you before?" thats when i told her "This is the mom" and " " i really want to get my kids in your program, because there isnt much around close to our home." she finally did admit she got the art work but that i called her real late. I honestly called intending to leave a message for more info but she picked up the phone. I called her around 8. If that was late i apologize. Then the negative sales pitch was given again....This is only for special friends and a few new ones like, "We really only have classes for kids, the only adults here are the parents of the kids." What turned the whole conversation on its head was when she made this statement. "i spoke with the other art teacher as he said we have no room for THAT person here." I really sensed this as a very discriminatory statement and let her know. Her response after? i was very threatening and abusive. Just because i felt discrimination? read more