The Need for Artists in the Future
Up until the last decade, the world (including us in Houston, Texas) has been divided into two types of thinkers: the right-brained thinkers who tend toward creativity and operating outside the box, and the left-brained thinkers who tend toward rules and structure. These two types of thinkers find themselves at odds as the world moves toward a more open-minded community that combines the two hemispheres of the brain and uses visualization, innovation, and creativity to enhance our lives. The key challenge ahead of all of us is to teach our children to not only be creative, but to be able to put all their incredible ideas on paper in clear, concise, and structured drawings.
Monart School of Art, Houston and Pearland
The Monart method is the most effective way to instill in your children the artistic skills they need to communicate their ideas more effectively and confidently, both on traditional and digital platforms. Since we opened our doors in 2008, our youngest students have boasted increases in confidence and improvements in their fine motor skills. Our older students have developed a foundation for accelerated advancement through their academic and professional careers as they draw and visualize their ideas and school projects more easily than their peers.
Our teaching method was developed by Ms. Mona Brookes and leverages students’ familiarity with basic shapes to help them deconstruct complex images into simpler parts. By connecting concrete shapes and nature, children lay a foundation that serves as a stepping stone toward the more sophisticated world of art lessons often taught in middle school, high school, and college art courses and computer animation/digital illustration courses.
We offer a wide variety of class types including:
– Traditional art classes (broken into age-appropriate levels)
– Animation/manga drawing
– Specialized courses specific to certain media such as oil painting, watercolor, and sketching
– Digital illustration and graphic design
– Computer animation
– Game design and coding
– 3D printing
Please view our schedule for a complete list of courses and times.
Why Monart?
We are conveniently located in Houston, Texas (specifically in the West University and Bellaire area) and Pearland, Texas (specifically in Shadow Creek Ranch), and take our art and computer programs off-site to schools in Houston, Katy, Sugarland, and Stafford.
We are the only school in Houston that teaches using the Monart method. We have expanded on traditional art and have incorporated the use of computers to implement and offer classes in advanced graphic design, digital illustration, computer animation, game design, and coding. We provide Apple laptops and Wacom tablets and styluses to teach our students on software platforms including GIMP, Game Maker, and Sculptris.
Our goal with our computer classes is to teach students on modern, virtual platforms that professional graphic designers, product designers, engineers, and architects use today.
The Individualized Learning Process at Monart
Our primary goal with all our classes and camps at Monart is to give our students a skill set they can use throughout their lives and the confidence to use it without hesitation. We offer a variety of art classes, camps, workshops, off-site after-school programs, and private parties to ensure that our students receive the best art training we have to offer.
All of our sessions, whether in a class, camp, workshop, or private party, guide students step-by-step through a path of evolutionary growth in visualization that starts with the five elements of shapes (i.e., straight lines, angle lines, curve lines, circles, and dots) and leads new artists toward curated combinations of shapes that express their unique artistry as their portfolios grow over time. Students find the means toward true, unbound artistic development in our art classes and art camps, which is truly our main goal at Monart.
Our students learn so much more from our age-appropriate and progressive curriculum of art lessons. While there are plenty of books available that teach children how to draw or complete various art projects, our program makes sure to teach students about the subject of their drawing or project at the beginning of the lesson. The benefits of this process are twofold – students become more interested in the subject of their artwork and retain information at nearly eight times the normal rate when they combine learning about a subject and drawing that same subject.
We push our students and campers to toward their potential in the most non-judgmental and encouraging way possible. Art students in our program learn to overcome their limitations little by little with each art lesson and project. Each student’s progress over a 12-week class term (or even just a week-long camp) is easy to see in the bound portfolios of artwork that students take home at the end of each term.
We have seen consistent improvement in all our students and, as our students’ parents and school teachers constantly tell us, the added benefits of:
– Increased confidence
– Better communication skills
– Better hand-eye coordination
– Increased focus and better work ethic
– Better computer and graphic design skills
If you’d like to see Monart at your school, please email us at info@houstonmonart.com.
Where are Monart Students Now?
We have a long list of success stories of accomplished alumni from the Houston Monart program. A considerable number of graduates from our art classes and art camps have been accepted into top art programs including the prestigious High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) and various college programs. Many of our students have also won art competitions in their own schools and been featured in other competitive exhibitions like the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo School Art Program.
The Visualization Challenge that Lies Ahead for Children in Today’s World
Up until the last decade, the world (including our little community in Houston, Texas) has been divided into two versions of thinkers. We have always labeled those who think more outside of the box as right-brained, while those who stay within the comfortable conformity of rules have been categorized as left-brained thinkers. Where this division of thinking creates conflict is when the world moves towards a more open minded, test driven community using visualization to enhance our lives. The problem is that too many kids are growing up only knowing how to text message and copy/paste clipart. From early-on, we are sending messages to our children that if they are not able to naturally paint masterful impressionistic paintings, they will not be useful in their careers as visual storytellers. The key challenge is figuring out how to give children the ability to more easily put on paper all of the incredible visual elements and pictures that they are creating in their minds.
Monart of Houston, Texas is the Solution
The Monart method that we teach in Houston, Texas is the most effective way to encourage your child(ren) to gain confidence and communicate his or her ideas more effectively while laying the foundation for accelerated advancement throughout the remainder of his or her academic and professional aspirations. Our version of Monart is such a game changer for children, because the method leverages the universal familiarity of shapes while also valuing the basic people skills necessary in bringing out the best in your child. By connecting the relationships between concrete shapes and nature, children gain a foundation that serves as a stepping stone towards the larger and more sophisticated world of art lessons for children that is often taught to middle school and high school students with very little introduction or preparation for such topics.
What is the Process for Learning the Monart Method?
If you like, you could train your child using the book written by Mona Brookes here and bypass the need to send your child to art camps. Unfortunately, most children are not as engaged by just reading a book, especially when it comes to teaching art to kids… So our process involves on-campus experiences that take place via art lessons and art camps. All of our sessions lead students through a path of evolutionary growth in visualization that starts with basic shapes and leads the young artists towards curated combinations that express unique artistry as their personal artistry and portfolios grow over time. Our art camp and art lessons students often find the necessary means towards true unbound artistic development as a result of learning the fundamentals through Houston Monart, which is truly the main goal of our art camp programs.
Why Houston Monart?
First of all, we are conveniently located in Houston, Texas, and are the only school who teach this method. Considering the fact that we are in Houston, we also expand on traditional Monart method by further combining the use of computers to implement advanced graphic production and art-related skill sets – graphic design, digital illustration, computer animation, game design, coding.. We teach our students the basics and beyond for software platforms including: GIMP, Flash, Game Maker, and Sculptris. Very few education centers offering art activities for kids teach on the same modern platforms for virtual design building as are used today by professional graphic designers, product designers, and engineers. Our computer software integration offers more than just typical art activities for minors provided elsewhere.
Another key difference that Houston Monart provides through its art lessons for kids is a gentler form of encouragement versus the original Monart method on which it is based.tThe best part about the Houston Monart adaptation of the original Monart method is that the results speak for themselves. Our Elementary art lessons have shown increased commitment from our students over time. Instead of abrasively challenging our students, we express constant encouragement and provide inspiration to our students. We embrace errors, because we believe that people need to fail in order to move forward as the leading artists, architects, graphic designers, engineers, and creative pioneers of tomorrow.
Some Additional Benefits of Houston Monart Art Lessons and Art Camps
Of course, we fully understand that it takes a little bit more than teaching a method to breed success. The books are out there that focus on kids’ art projects, and there are plenty of other options out there for getting your children on the right path towards expressing themselves as strong visual artists. With increasing noise in the news about the benefits realized through arts education, we understand that you would like to see more than just a piece of paper with drawings at the end of the day. We do a lot more than provide basic drawing lessons for kids.
Our Monart students learn so much more than they would from other art lessons and courses available and reasonably located near the Houston area. Our approach is based on the Monart method, but the benefits are a result of success, achievement, and drive through every single art course completed. We push our campers and students towards their personal limits in the most non-invasive, encouraging, and compassionate way possible. As a simple example, our teachers never touch or alter students’ artwork.
Art students in our program learn to overcome their personal limitations, step outside of their comfort zone, and work on subjects with which they may not be familiarity through each project. The average student completes 6-12 projects in a 12-week term, and we can show case studies of incredible milestones of improvement surpassed with each completed artistic project. We see consistent positive results with all students and here is just a short list of what you can expect of your child(ren) from completing and art lessons:
-Improved confidence
-Improved communication skills
-Increased hand eye coordination
-Increased appreciation of nature and the world (gratefulness)
-Hard work ethic
-Competent computer graphics skills
… And more!
Help to Build Your Child’s Portfolio With Us!
Another important reason to send your children to Houston Monart is the portfolio that is built throughout the sessions. Portfolio building is a very crucial part along the young artist’s journey of development, and will play an even larger role later on in life if the student plans on developing even further. Building the portfolio is standard to our process and we are experts in putting together the portfolio that portrays our students as the best artists they can be. So, at the very end of each course, they actually have a time capsule that provides a stepping stone to the next chapter of their careers as visual storytellers.
Who are Graduates From the Monart School of Houston, Texas?
We have a long list of success stories of accomplished grads from the Houston Monart program. A considerable number of graduates from the Houston Monart art camps and art classes are accepted into some top local arts high schools and college programs including the prestigious High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) of Houston. Many of our students have also been prominently featured in competitions that include those sponsored by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo School Art Contests and the Wildlife Art Competition with little art training beyond our elementary art lessons.
And Don’t Forget about our classes for adults/private parties
We also offer courses and art workshops for adults. We understand that adults like to visualize and take part in visual art just as much as younger children participating in our art lessons for kids. Why would we want to count them out of ourart lessons just because they are older?
And we are very flexible with our programs as well. We can host custom art workshops and courses based on a minimum number of participants and hold the art lessons at our studio. This works well for schools and businesses that want to offer art courses that are privately held for their particular group.
Our Off-Site Programs
We would love to bring our art and computer classes to your school as a co-curricular or after-school activity. We are happy to work with schools to design an individualized curriculum specific to your school’s needs and events. Currently, we offer programs to the schools listed below:
– Beth Yeshurun Day School
– DAV Montessori
– Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School (MCLIMS)
– Montessori School of Downtown
– River Oaks Elementary
– The Shlenker School
– Sugarcreek Montessori
If you’d like to see Monart at your school, please email us at info@houstonmonart.com.
You face a lot of choices in deciding how your children should divide their time between academic, creative, and fun activities. Monart provides the perfect balance of all three with a progressive and dynamic curriculum.
Take advantage of our fully-secured online enrollment and payment processing system. By establishing an account with us, you will be able to select and enroll in any of our classes and pay online. By setting up your account once, you will be able to return each term to enroll and pay online in a snap!
COMIC BOOK/ CREATIVE WRITING CLASSES
