Welcome!

I am Genie Arnot, founder and director of Social Studio. Social Studio opened in September 2019, however, the seed of the idea was planted 18 years prior after a volunteer experience at The Children‘s Museum of the Arts in lower Manhattan. This was a place anybody could come to create, to have a creative experience, and to be part of a creative community. I majored in art in undergrad and at that time I committed to a teaching career – I taught first grade, second grade, science, and math at two start-up schools based in progressive pedagogy and earned a Masters in Education at Bank Street College.

I was fascinated by the various processes involved in each discipline and how it manifested at different ages. I observed not just how things were taught but how individuals learned. In 2008, I moved back to Baltimore to teach art at Bryn Mawr School. I developed my version of art excellence where both the classroom and curriculum were devoted to expression, creative problem solving, communication, reflection, and self and social awareness. This is where it clicked: The creative process is the same as the learning process! It is relevant and essential everywhere in school and out.

My great aha was discovering that empathy (the better understanding of self and others) and connection are the outcomes of commitment to one’s creative process. What I witnessed was that as much as the creative process was personal, it was also social and the incumbent to positive social change. People act more compassionately, have stronger convictions, care with greater passion when they are confident in their process. When you know where you are, you know what to do.

This idea of learning and growing as a social project is not new, but the culture at Social Studio is unique. In 2019, I opened the studio for classes, workshops and events in the Baltimore neighborhood of Roland Park. This is the first; I see one in every neighborhood in the city connecting people and ideas – a place where community creates, in turn creating community. In 2020, I opened Social Studio to an even wider audience with classes online and social media art activities. From seed to seedling, the idea is growing. Welcome to Social Studio!