Arts Umbrella
2 reviews 1400 Johnston St, Vancouver, BC +1 604-681-5268 www.artsumbrella.com suggest an edit
02 April 2023 2:53
My boy really enjoyed the architecture and photography classes. Highly recommended.
02 March 2023 20:06
My kids had a terrible experience with Goldmar, a supposed "beloved, long time" arts umbrella teacher. I pulled them out after two days because it was destroying my son's confidence and my daughter just wasn't having fun.
Before signing them up I called the front desk to ask if kids are required to follow art projects exactly or if they're given any opportunity for creative expression. I was assured it was absolutely okay for them to put their own creative spin on things, there's never anything they have to do, etc.
That was not the case at all. Everyone in their drawing/painting class had to follow the project exactly as the teacher did it, with no allowances for creativity, to a militant degree. This class was not appropriate at all for the age range (6-8). She was apparently getting annoyed with kids who didn't follow instructions precisely, saying things like "don't put orange just anywhere, put it where I tell you to". Another child apparently drew the head too small and she erased it and redrew it for them. There were quite a few other comments they repeated to me that were said by the teacher along these lines.
My daughter wanted to paint a different colour for the jacket, she was told no. She didn't like that the head was supposed to be floating and wanted to paint it lower so that it was on the man's shoulders, also no.
The worst is that because everything had to be so precise, my son was afraid of doing things wrong and getting in trouble, that she wound up spending quite a lot of time telling him exactly how to draw things line by line, and she admitted doing some for him. It was no surprise that the end painting looked like it was painted by a professional artist, not by a 6-year-old, as did the piece from every other kid in the class. By the time I came to pick him up both days he could barely talk because he was trying so hard to stop himself from crying. After two days of this I pulled them out of the class because it was destroying his confidence with art.
Arts Umbrella does not stand behind the quality of their classes - I did ask for a full or partial credit or refund but was told no, even though what I was told before signing up did not match with the experience of my children. I was told if they stayed in the class the teacher would allow them more flexibility but I still felt it was a super negative environment for them to be in, and even if her comments weren't directed specifically at them they still would have known the objective was to create duplicates of the selected art and be trying to do as she wanted.
The woman at the front desk is lovely, however if we had been told that with some teachers it would be okay to use creativity but with others not, I never would have signed them up (or I would have found out whether they were going with a teacher who allowed that).
On the flip side, their architecture teacher was fabulous (with the summer camps they take two classes back to back, so they stayed the full week in this one). According to my kids, she said things like "If you want, you can do this. " etc, and gave suggestions for things they could do, but nothing was mandatory. They were both thrilled with her class.
I was going to give 3 stars to balance the 1 of the drawing/painting teacher with the 5 of the architecture teacher, but I took it down to 2 because of my dealings with the coordinator who didn't return either of my calls and who I had to chase down, while trying to reach out about our experience.
Before signing them up I called the front desk to ask if kids are required to follow art projects exactly or if they're given any opportunity for creative expression. I was assured it was absolutely okay for them to put their own creative spin on things, there's never anything they have to do, etc.
That was not the case at all. Everyone in their drawing/painting class had to follow the project exactly as the teacher did it, with no allowances for creativity, to a militant degree. This class was not appropriate at all for the age range (6-8). She was apparently getting annoyed with kids who didn't follow instructions precisely, saying things like "don't put orange just anywhere, put it where I tell you to". Another child apparently drew the head too small and she erased it and redrew it for them. There were quite a few other comments they repeated to me that were said by the teacher along these lines.
My daughter wanted to paint a different colour for the jacket, she was told no. She didn't like that the head was supposed to be floating and wanted to paint it lower so that it was on the man's shoulders, also no.
The worst is that because everything had to be so precise, my son was afraid of doing things wrong and getting in trouble, that she wound up spending quite a lot of time telling him exactly how to draw things line by line, and she admitted doing some for him. It was no surprise that the end painting looked like it was painted by a professional artist, not by a 6-year-old, as did the piece from every other kid in the class. By the time I came to pick him up both days he could barely talk because he was trying so hard to stop himself from crying. After two days of this I pulled them out of the class because it was destroying his confidence with art.
Arts Umbrella does not stand behind the quality of their classes - I did ask for a full or partial credit or refund but was told no, even though what I was told before signing up did not match with the experience of my children. I was told if they stayed in the class the teacher would allow them more flexibility but I still felt it was a super negative environment for them to be in, and even if her comments weren't directed specifically at them they still would have known the objective was to create duplicates of the selected art and be trying to do as she wanted.
The woman at the front desk is lovely, however if we had been told that with some teachers it would be okay to use creativity but with others not, I never would have signed them up (or I would have found out whether they were going with a teacher who allowed that).
On the flip side, their architecture teacher was fabulous (with the summer camps they take two classes back to back, so they stayed the full week in this one). According to my kids, she said things like "If you want, you can do this. " etc, and gave suggestions for things they could do, but nothing was mandatory. They were both thrilled with her class.
I was going to give 3 stars to balance the 1 of the drawing/painting teacher with the 5 of the architecture teacher, but I took it down to 2 because of my dealings with the coordinator who didn't return either of my calls and who I had to chase down, while trying to reach out about our experience.