FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #55 From Closet to Studio: The Art Cart Kids Journey
Ever wondered what happens when children are given true creative freedom? In this enlightening conversation with Stephanie Cox, founder of Art Cart Kids Enrichment Studio, we discover the transformative power of open-ended art education where children choose their own artistic path.
Stephanie shares her remarkable journey from keeping art as a background passion to creating a thriving studio that began as a mobile business operating in parks and borrowed spaces—including nine months in a closet at Curves—before establishing her brick-and-mortar location in Stafford during summer 2023. Her story exemplifies entrepreneurial determination and the importance of creating opportunities rather than waiting for them.
What makes Art Cart Kids truly special is its innovative approach to artistic development. Through their "Dazzle's Color Quest" program, children progress through colored pins by mastering twelve different artistic mediums, with techniques varying by level. This creates a unique multi-age learning environment where younger experienced students often guide older newcomers, fostering collaboration, communication, and friendship across age groups. Drawing from her Montessori background, Stephanie has cultivated a space where independence, self-esteem, and acceptance flourish.
The studio has become more than just an art class—it's a community where families connect, children from opposite sides of the county become best friends, and everyone feels safe to express themselves authentically. With flexible membership options accommodating busy family schedules and Stafford County's varied school dismissal times, Art Cart Kids demonstrates how businesses can provide both exceptional education and practical convenience.
Ready to see your child's creativity and confidence soar? Visit artcartkids.com or their social media pages to learn more about this unique creative haven that's changing how children experience art—and themselves.
Stephanie Cox
Art Cart Kids
artcartkids.com
Hello@artcartkids.com
+1 540-809-9121
77 Bells Hill Road, Stafford, VA, United States, Virginia
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today. We have Stephanie Cox joining us with Art Cart Kids Enrichment Studio. Stephanie, welcome to the podcast. Good morning Thank you for having me Well, I'm excited to learn all about you and about your business. So let's start there. Share with the listeners a little bit about Art Cart Kids.
Speaker 3:All right. Art Cart Kids is a open-ended child choice art studio which is a little different from everything else that's around here and very different from what the kids get in school. Very different from what the kids get in school. Here they get to come learn about different mediums and then choose what medium they want to use and what they want to make with that medium.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that they have the freedom to kind of choose which path they wanna go. That's really cool. I love that. So tell me a little bit about your background. How did you get into this and how did Art Cart Kids come to be?
Speaker 3:I've always loved art, but it was like in the background in my life, just something I did for fun.
Speaker 3:When I graduated from college, I did get a supplementary credential in art, but in California they didn't have elementary art teachers and I really wanted to stay in the elementary level, so I never used it. Then I moved out here to Virginia and they do have art teachers in class in schools, but of course it's a very desired job. So I didn't find any openings in the area and eventually I just decided that maybe I should create my own. So, um, I started out as a mobile business. We would have classes at the park during the summer and then I kind of bounced around. I went to several different restaurants in the area and got to use their space when they weren't using it, to use their space when they weren't using it and spent almost a year about nine months in the closet at Curves, which it was a big closet, it was kind of like a room and then I bought the brick and mortar studio here in Stafford during the summer of 2023.
Speaker 3:Here in Stafford during the summer of 2023.
Speaker 2:So I love your story so much. I love that you created your own destiny and I feel like so many great businesses are born from that same desire. So congratulations on your success. And from closet to brick and mortar location, you've come a long way. I love your story so much. That's awesome. That's awesome. So are you? Do you find that there are any misconceptions that people have about your business?
Speaker 3:Yes, because I think open ended art gives a lot of people the impression that the kids are just going to come and scribble and you know, that's what are they going to do. They don't know what to do. But that's not true at all. Actually, Our kids have great imaginations. Actually, Our kids have great imaginations. By just having a short mini lesson on how to use a material, they use problem solving skills, critical thinking, they figure out how to make what they want to make and it's really amazing to see.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. So what are the ages that you cater to?
Speaker 3:Right now we're open from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, nice A big range there, so kids can really grow, grow with you. I love that.
Speaker 3:And they all get to come to class at the same time. They pick whatever session that they want to come to and it's really neat because the kids help each other out and we run a program it's called Dazzle's Color Quest and they earn pins. They start with white and they have 12 different mediums that they get introduced to for each of the pins. They're the same 12 mediums but the technique that they're taught is different depending on the color. So we have some kids that are like second graders that are already on orange and middle schoolers that come in on white.
Speaker 3:The younger kids, who've been here longer and have used more of the materials and know how to use things and know how to find things, actually guide the older kids as well as the older kids guiding the younger kids. They do a lot of communicating and sharing ideas and they help each other, and just the multi-age range is something that I was used to working with when I taught Montessori. My oldest daughter went through a Montessori program when she was younger and I just loved it, so I got certified in. Was it six to nine, when my daughter was in school? And then I had my youngest daughter nine years after my first daughter and I did three to six so that I could do Montessori with her at home.
Speaker 2:That's really cool. I love that. I love the badges and how fun to show up with all of your different badges and what a confidence boost and you're really building independence in the kids. That's so cool.
Speaker 3:Independent self-esteem, acceptance. We are fully inclusive. We have all kinds of students that come to us here and we accept and know that we all have our own differences, but we also all have a love of art and a love of creating and so it gives them, you know, a place to be themselves and be comfortable in their own skin. There's no competition. There's no you know, oh, who's making the best elephant today? And they don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. They just come and they have fun and they make friends. I've had kids from other, you know, opposite sides of the county become best friends and spend time together outside of the art studio because they found they had so much in common just, you know, being here and creating together. It's really amazing.
Speaker 2:What a wonderful environment you have created for them to come to. I love that. Congratulations on that.
Speaker 3:That's really cool that was top on my list. I wanted a place where people can come or kids can come and be comfortable and be happy and have fun and just be creative.
Speaker 2:And typically, how often are they coming to you? Is it? Are they coming weekly? Talk to me a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:We do have a membership program which is 40 classes a year over the 10 months. Usually they come once a week, so that's about four a month, um. But we also are open on no school days for Stafford County schools, um, so we have earlier hours on those days where the kids can come during the day, so they may come twice in one week, that week, or, you know, they can kind of pick and choose when they want to come. We have classes scheduled Monday through Friday. They're at different times because Stafford County elementary schools are now on a two-tier schedule. Some of the kids get out at 2.45, some get out at 3.15. So, depending on the day, we have classes right after school, you know, for the kids that get out at 2.45, and then we have some on different days for the kids that get out at 3. 3, 30 or three, whatever it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, gotcha, gotcha, um, and they, they don't have to come. If they sign up for the membership, they don't have to come every monday, it could come anytime they want. So if it's. I had a big problem with this in the past where there would be a Christmas pageant and the kids would end up with, you know, choir rehearsal on Thursday night, and that was the night they signed up for art. Well, now they just changed their day to a different day during the week, a different time during the week, and they don't miss any classes. I don't like it when people have to spend money and not get what you know, not get their value.
Speaker 2:That bothers me. Yeah Well, that's so nice for parents because, especially when you have multiple kids with different interests and you know you're, you're taking kids all over the place to this and that and times change. So I imagine that the parents really appreciate your flexibility with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I started doing it this summer just to see how it would work. And they loved it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely loved it Nice, nice. So I imagine there were many challenges when you started your business.
Speaker 3:What advice would you give a new entrepreneur who is thinking about?
Speaker 2:starting a company.
Speaker 3:Probably the most important thing is, unless you are buying into a franchise where everything is already given to you and you're told exactly how to do things, your business should reflect who you are. When I first started, I wasn't sure who I was and what it was I was doing, and so I did a lot of what everybody else does. I had been an art teacher in a private school for five years, so I tried to run my studio as if it was in a classroom and it wasn't who I was, and it's taken me a few years to really find my niche, and I'm really happy with what has been created here, and I think that your place of business should be uniquely you and not like everybody else.
Speaker 2:That's really really great advice. You don't have to follow what others are doing. You can create your own path and create something completely unique in you. I love that. Thank you for that. You're welcome. What is something that you wish the listeners knew about Art Cart Kids?
Speaker 3:That we're here, just really that we are a community. When the kids start coming to Art Cart Kids, they become part of a family and the parents start chatting with each other and the kids start chatting with each other and I, of course, I'm one of those people where every child who looks at me sideways has, you know, become my child. And it's just, it's a very caring, very open. They help each other out, they pick up each other's kids and people that didn't even know each other before that find out. They all go to the same school or starting carpools and things like that, and it's just that that's important to me. I'm a big community person, so I wanted this to feel like a safe place for everyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amazing. If the listeners want to connect with you or learn more from you, where can they find you?
Speaker 3:They can go to our website, art cart kids. com. We're also on Facebook and Instagram and if they're interested in just checking out the studio, they're welcome to call and make an appointment, and I love showing off the studio, so I'll give them a tour and they can check it out before they decide if they want to join the membership or not. Nice.
Speaker 2:Well, Stephanie, you have created something really special for our community. Thank you so much for joining me on the episode and sharing Art Cart Kids with us.
Speaker 1:You're very welcome. Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg neighbors podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to fxbgneighborspodcast. com.