by Megan Koch

Art is good for the soul.

With COVID counts on the rise in Bay County, we want to encourage everyone to be safe. Studio 23 is committed to being a safe environment for our patrons, students and community. Each morning we arrive the studio is completely sanitized and we get ready to open the doors for you. Our students enter the classrooms wearing their mask and sit at their own table spaced apart from each other. A class is complete and we wipe down the surfaces to prepare it for the next class. Our staff has some beautiful masks that we are happy to wear everyday. Thank you for letting us serve you!

ART is so good for your soul. With the stress and worry we face everyday, I’m inviting you to come into Studio 23 to create, view art and experience joy. Here are five reasons why art is good for you!

(Source: https://obxartstudio.com/5-reasons-art-good-soul-world/)

1. Art Generates A Love For Learning & Creativity: Art gives you a chance to explore parts of yourself maybe you did not know existed. It teaches risk taking, and being open to how things may turn out different from what you originally wanted them to. It helps you learn to be more passionate and curious.
2. Art Develops The Whole Brain: It is proven that art increases attention, strengthens focus, requires practice, develops hand-eye coordination, and interacting with the world using mediums and tools. I feel strongly that art is mentally a good thing for not just kids, but everyone to do.
3. Art Supports Your Emotional Intelligence: Art really supports the expression of feelings that maybe you can’t put into words. Art helps you discover joy in one’s self, and often you’ll be surprised. I personally know that in some cases situations and feelings are very hard to express in just words. There are usually such strong feelings behind a piece of artwork you may think is just something pretty.
4. Art Teaches Problem Solving: Art challenges our beliefs and encourages us to be open-minded. It helps us think, and realize that there is more than one answer to a problem. It forces us to really get creative and to use our crazy imagination.
5. Art Is Eternal: Self-expression and creativity has always been essential to our humanity. Going back to beginning of time, our earliest expressions were recorded in petroglyphs, cave paintings, and ancient sculptures. Imagination has always been apart of our world, and we should value it.

This Wednesday, November 18th we will be hosting our first virtual preview party for the upcoming auction. Traditionally in December we host a large fundraiser that auctions off artwork and items from local businesses. This year we are moving the auction online and having it stay open for three weeks. With this change we are hopefully that we will raise funds for our nonprofit to help us end 2020 on a high note.