This blog post was written in 2014, just five days after our Open House at 249 W Mill Street.
January 2012A friend mentioned in passing that Allison Jensen, a Liberty stay-at-home-mom, should teach art lessons. As an former corporate trainer, current preschool teacher, childcare provider, lifetime artist, and natural risk-taker that idea seemed perfectly reasonable. March 2012As a test, Allison sent an email to friends offering up some art classes over Liberty Spring Break. Classes were taught in the dining room and living room of the Jensen home. Which meant the house had to be cleaned of family clutter BEFORE class and then cleaned of art clutter AFTER class. The classes were well-received; so when the school year was over, she expanded the line-up and offered classes throughout the summer. The LLC, website, and blog followed shortly. August 2012Tired of cleaning the family clutter, Allison built out her previously, half-finished basement into an art studio with it's own entrance. Miss Allison's Art, LLC held it's first classes in the new [clean] studio on September 9th. September 2013After testing out a number of different scheduling systems and class formats, Miss Allison's Art settled on the current layout of grade level classes with monthly media focuses. February 2014Miss Allison's Art gained another teacher [and Allison finally had the other half of her brain]. Sara Woolfolk joined the teaching team. May 2014Miss Allison's Art announced that there would be an EXPANSION to 249 W Mill St in Liberty. Later in May 2014The Orange Easel brand was born. Many inquire how the name came to be. Allison and Sara gathered a group of super creative friends over on Friday night, covered the tables with butcher paper, provided sharpies and wine. The rest is history. July 2014Miss Allison's Art, LLC dba Orange Easel took possession of the leased property on Mill St and began an 4-week whirlwind transformation of the space. It included a shopping trip to the West Bottoms antique stores, late nights doing construction projects, and lots of orange glossy paint. July 1, 2014Orange Easel launched its website with registration for the fall line-up---completely on the faith that construction would be done in time. Allison was [mostly] confident she would be able to find the perfect teaching staff for a schedule of classes that was THREE times the number of classes previously offered in the basement. July 31, 2014The very last class was held at Miss Allison's Art basement studio. At 4:00pm, the trucks, vans, and cars were loaded with supplies and equipment and driven one mile down the road to the new Orange Easel. August 1, 2014Our brand new Orange Easel space made is debut at a lively, casual Open House. It smelled like new paint and everything sparkled. (It will never be that shiny again and that's exciting). On August 4, Orange Easel held it's first class. Since this post was written, here are some benchmarks: August 27, 2018 We opened our second location at 7617 NW Prairie View Road to better serve the Parkville, Platte Woods, and North Kansas City communities. March 16, 2020 We CLOSED our doors to help flatten the curve. We worried, we stressed, and we mourned. Then, we took a deep breath and we resolved to do anything we needed to do to serve our people and come out of this "unprecendented event" stronger. We started filming lessons for our current students, packed up supply kits, and had all the April curriculum online in time for April 1st. May 2020 We taught 96 live online classes IN ADDITION to our regular weekly classes. August 2020 We launch our Creation Nation Art Club and gained over 400 members 2021 and beyond Small business is still recovering from 2020 and 2021. It will take us a few more years to recover financial loss, pay back the loans, and feel "safe" taking risks again. But we're committed to growth and still hope to expand to more studio locations around the Kansas City metro. Stay TUNED...WITNESS our story as it unfolds. This is still just the beginning...
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Orange EaselContent inspired by the artists and art created in our studio. Orange Easel began as a small art studio in my basement and continues to grow and serve our community. Read more about our story here.
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