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PROTÉGÉ

ART STUDIO

Here, we share monthly reflections from the studio; thoughts on art education, classroom observations, student explorations, and the ideas shaping our practice.

We invite you to explore the studio through the navigation above , or continue below to read this month’s editorial.

April 2026

On Storytelling, Art History, and Why Children Return to the Same Ideas

Written by Elle Costanzo
15 May 2026

Children often return to familiar ideas; homes, animals, imagined worlds, versions of themselves. Through storytelling, these ideas slowly evolve.

When children build characters or imagined environments, they often begin with something recognizable: a pet, a family member, a memory, or a wish. Story-based artwork can become a quiet space for exploration. Allowing children to revisit emotions, curiosities, and desires through distance and imagination.

Rather than approaching difficult feelings directly, children often explore them symbolically. Research in symbolic play and narrative development suggests that storytelling helps children construct meaning, test ideas, and better understand themselves through imaginative worlds.
Research Study Here

From the Studios

This month in Jeong-ja, students worked on large-scale expressive painting.
We explored how different tools create different kinds of marks—paint rollers, large brushes, stippling brushes, detail brushes, and even hands. Each tool offered its own language of texture and movement.

Rather than focusing on outcomes, the class encouraged experimentation, spontaneity, and a willingness to let go.

This month in Gwanggyo, students explored four major art movements and artists.

For returning students, familiar visual languages began to reappear; particularly the work of Keith Haring and the movement of Orphism.

Each session began with discussion and observation, followed by sketching, before moving into refined fine-line drawings placed within miniature “rooms.”

As students revisit artists over time, they begin to notice patterns, relationships, and differences. Art slowly becomes something they recognize, connect with, and reinterpret through their own ideas.

artwork by bella kim

About the Class