{"id":194874,"date":"2026-02-26T14:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/194874\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T14:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:47:08","slug":"new-childrens-museum-expands-art-class-offerings-for-grown-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/194874\/","title":{"rendered":"New Children’s Museum expands art class offerings \u2014 for grown-ups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since converting its staff offices into art studios and classrooms<\/a> \u2014 named Artopia \u2014 last year, the New Children\u2019s Museum has expanded its programming. <\/p>\n

In its latest iteration, adults can step into the state-of-the-art ceramics studio, even without children of their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To ceramics teacher Jazmyne Sempsrott, the adults in intro to ceramics workshops are more playful and experimental at the museum, compared to other adults-only classes she has taught in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one really eased up,\u201d Sempsrott said. \u201cAdults are a lot more relaxed here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ceramics teacher Jazmyne Sempsrott, left, believes adults in New Children\u2019s Museum art classes put less pressure on themselves. (Photo courtesy New Children\u2019s Museum)<\/p>\n

In past classes she taught, she said adults took themselves seriously in a way that made trying something new \u2014 especially an art process where much can go wrong \u2014 more difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Weeks into new weekend programming, more adults are seeking out the museum workshops as an activity for friends and family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like there\u2019s a lot of communities that are looking for something to do that\u2019s outside of the normal socializing \u2014 a bar, a restaurant,\u201d said Dawn Vitale, who manages Artopia. \u201cThis gives it a little bit more of that play activity, because once you hit a certain age<\/a>, you forget all of that curiosity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At a pottery wheel inside Artopia. (Photo courtesy New Children\u2019s Musem)<\/p>\n

At\u00a0 a ceramics workshop on Saturday, three women who had never tried pottery spun the wheel for the first time. Only one brought a child, her 15-year-old daughter, with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

None of the women were instant pottery savants, but for the friend group, it was a bonding experience with each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t do amazing at it, but I did enjoy it,\u201d Shawna McCarthy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McCarthy\u2019s favorite part was finding an activity she could share with her teenage daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to savor those times that you actually get to get out and spend time doing something,\u201d McCarthy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For all the women, the focus was less on gaining artistic mastery, than pushing themselves to try new things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m never too old to learn,\u201d said Teresa Heath from the College Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Britney Hall, the third friend, it fulfilled a New Year\u2019s resolution of going to more art classes and other activities outside her comfort zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there\u2019s opportunities, I\u2019m just saying yes now,\u201d Hall said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The class included more typical participants for a children\u2019s museum as well \u2014 parents and elementary school-aged children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Miew Longbottom and her 9-year-old daughter, it was the first time they\u2019d ever created something alongside each other, both learning at the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey get to make together,\u201d said Rae Nester, the museum\u2019s other ceramics teacher. \u201cIt\u2019s like a really shared experience, which is awesome.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kids learn to hand build pottery on the Artopia patio. (Photo courtesy Rae Nester\/New Children\u2019s Museum)<\/p>\n

Nester joined the museum last summer excited to develop a ceramics program from its infancy. As they try out new programs from multi-week after school classes to one-off Saturday workshops, she has come to treasure teaching whole families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to the permanent ceramics studio, Artopia contains 8,600 square feet of indoor and outdoor spaces<\/a> suitable for many art forms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cArtopia is kind of where, when you\u2019re hit a certain age and you still want to be creative, you come up here,\u201d Vitale said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since converting its staff offices into art studios and classrooms \u2014 named Artopia \u2014 last year, the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[91042,91043,91044,91045,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-194874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-art-class","tag-ceramics","tag-new-childrens-museum","tag-pottery","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}