McKinney Art House

We had my daughter's 7th birthday party with Ms. Wendolin and had the best time! She really went all out in making sure each activity went with the theme and that the girls were having fun the entire time! Lots of crafting kept the kids happy and busy! Couldn't be happier to have chosen this place for her party!

We wanted our 9 year old autistic grandson to experience using a pottery wheel. Our grandson is very creative and enjoys molding clay, even though he is non-verbal. Jennifer Hale was wonderful with him and he truly loved the experience!. She was patient, kind and he did almost all of the work himself, with easy to follow guidance from Jennifer. He actually made 4 bowls for ice cream and candy and a vase that was interesting, AND his own creation. We can't thank Jennifer enough for allowing him to experience something new in a calm, safe environment. I highly recommend Jennifer and the McKinney Art House and we will be back again.

We're so glad to have found this class! My daughter looks forward to her art class every week. She's learned so much, but also has made great friends. Ms Wendolin is extremely kind, encouraging, and a safe space for all!

My Mother’s Day gift from my daughters! It was so fun! Teachers, Wedalynn (sp?) and Joselyn were fantastic. I will definitely be back! Can’t wait to see my bowls

My husband and I just finished our first private pottery class with Wendolin! It was so much fun and we learned so much! Wendolin is a great teacher and keeps the mood so upbeat! 2 hours went by in a flash! We will be doing it again and highly recommended her!

Incredible experience with Wendolin in our first pottery throwing class. My daughter and I learned so much and had a blast! Wendolin was a great instructor and so patient. I want to change careers now after 1 class!!! Highly recommend!!

It is a very quaint studio.I have taken pottery class here as well as Drawing and painting classes along with my son. Location is also very convenient in the heart of historic downtown McKinney. The teachers here are very down to earth , I believe because they are all independent.Highly recommend it and you have a lot of art class options to choose from.

Love Wendolin! We booked a private pottery class for the first time for my sisters birthday and Ms. Wendolin had the best energy and is the most incredible teacher! Easy booking, great communication. We had so much fun!

We took Wendolin's pottery class and it was so much fun! I definitely recommend signing up for a throwing class, she was very patient and helpful while we were learning. Thank you!!

Emily was AMAZING! She took the time to not only explain but help correct through demonstration. This was an awesome date night experience. Had such a fun time in this class and can't wait to do it again.

My son is a very quiet and well-behaved young man with high functioning autism. He loves to draw. We went by to see if he could join their group drawing class but the instructor, I believe her name was Cate, wouldn't even let him try. She simply said she does not work with special needs young people, which is her right, just wanted to make others aware. My partner sent both his daughters here and he gave a wonderful referral for the program, so I am not going to give them a bad review, I just wanted to inform others to save them a trip.

Place is adorable and has so much to offer. It was fairly easy to set up a bday party pottery class. The kids (10-16) had a blast. It was a little harder for some, but everyone gets to take something home! Staff was great and patient. You have to wait about 4 weeks for the final project....so excited to see them!

Wow, awesome, great great time. Jennifer spent two hours with four of us teaching how to make pottery on a wheel. We all had an amazing time. She is a spectacular instructor. Cannot wait to do it again. Please please check this place put and if doing pottery, ask for Jennifer

My daughter has been attending classes and camps at McKinney Art House for six years now. She has developed a very special attachment to both the environment and her teacher, Wendolin. Wendolin is endlessly patient, open to experimentation and new ideas, and fun to be around. I think Wendolin is such an amazing teacher because she sets boundaries and establishes rules for safety but she also really trusts that kids are capable of accomplishing hard things. My daughter has learned how to solder, create beautiful jewelry, build fairy houses, copper enamel, work with resin, and create leatherworks. My daughter has attended three camps this summer with Wendolin (in fact we planned our vacation this year so it would not interfere with Mermaid Camp) has has loved each one of them. Wendolin has really watched my daughter grow up and has been an important part of teaching her to work outside of her comfort zone and expand her boundaries. We will be students at the McKinney Art House and Wendolin for as long as they offer classes.

My daughter LOVES Miss Ivona, and so do I! She is a warm, kind, inspiring, patient, supportive, fun art teacher. She always provides a great environment for kids to feel happy and safe to explore their inner artist, allowing them to blossom their creative impulses into powerful works of art. There's lots of variety in projects, subjects, materials within a context of really teaching the kids how to illustrate (drawing and painting mainly). I highly recommend trying out a class with Miss Ivona if your child is wanting to do more art.

This review is specifically for Wendolin at this studio. I have nothing but good things to say about the owner of the studio as he's always been a great communicator. However, we've had a bad experience with Wendolin and find that she lacks customer service and basic understanding that not every child is going to like her class. My 10 year old daughter got excited at the very basic description of her Craftsman, Metal Smithing, Casting and Forging class. I should have listened to my own gut intuition when after texting her before signing up, I did not get a warm vibe from her. Gave her the benefit of the doubt and my daughter attended a very long and boring first day making some basic earrings (never did the description say that they'd be making jewelry which my daughter dislikes). On top of that my daughter recalled taking another class from her last summer and endured her class, even though she never connected with the teacher. As background, my daughter is one of the most easy going people you'll meet. If you read other reviews of teachers being kind, inspiring, patient and fun...this would not be the description of Wendolin. At least not from what we experienced. Being that I paid a hefty price of $335 for 4 days of instructions, I decided to message Wendolin in hopes that she would understand that my daughter was really miserable in the class and being that we had just signed up the night before class starting, I figured she's lend an ear to understanding and meet me somewhere part way with a refund as my daughter did not feel comfortable going back to her class. I was met with nothing but defensiveness on her texts. She refused to refund any portion of the class (I understand there was a no refund policy, but there are always exceptions given that we only attended one day). For $335, we got zero out of a one day class we attended. She kept the entire amount. After reaching out to the owner, he was kind enough to refund a small percentage that he receives for rent from the artist; but still nothing from the teacher. You can do the numbers...10 kids paying $335, you would think she could have thought of this as the price of doing business and a need to provide customer service. She chose to remain extremely short sited, defensive and lacked customer service. She has bad energy and would not recommend her classes to anyone!

BIASED POTTERY CLASSES! Stephanie Kaminer agreed that my 5-year-old son, Henry could join her Saturday morning pottery class. Then suddenly she emails us, telling us there is a waiting list. Ok. My husband emailed her weeks later to see what was going on and there was still a waiting list. From the beginning of the correspondence between Stephanie and my husband, I got the feeling that she was apprehensive about having my son in class. Then out of the blue, Stephanie emailed and said there was a spot open. My son had a few classes, then Stephanie sent an email saying she would be cutting his class to an hour, or we could take private lessons. So Henry went for an hour pottery class each Saturday for several classes. Now we get another email from Stephanie saying: "I have been thinking a lot about this and I just don't think I can give enough time to Henry to be happy with the experience I am giving y'all. Also, there are only so many hand building things we can make. I am about to have a couple more students in that class and I feel like with Henry's age private lessons would be more suited and unfortunately I do not do private lessons during the school year." The thing is Stephanie has no idea what experience my son would be happy with. My son is a High Functioning Autistic child, and he LOVED going to pottery class. His dad took the class with him. Creating with his hands calmed and focused him. He was so proud of all the items he made. I think it's STEPHANIE who was not happy with the experience of having him there. By the way, my son is very polite, and personable. And here we come to the REAL reason Stephanie no longer wants my son in class: new students! Older students too, I'm sure. Why does Stephanie feel that THOSE students are more deserving of her time than my son? Because they are older? That's ridiculous! My son, Henry is taking up her precious studio space isn't he? His spot could be given to a more "mature" student, one worthy of her time. I think it's really sad, no pathetic, that an art teacher would deny a child, no matter the age, the love of learning and enjoying art. When I told my son that he would no longer be able to take pottery class, he had a tearful meltdown. Through tears he kept saying, "She'll never be my teacher again? Never again?" Stephanie sugar-coated her email when basically she is kicking my child out of her class! Then she has the nerve to through him a bone with her private SUMMER pottery classes. How dare her. First she cuts his class to an hour, then kicks him out. Nice teacher. Nice so-called "Art House." By the way, it's not like Stephanie didn't know Henry's age when she FINALLY decided he could join the class!

My kids have been taking art classes at McKinney Art House since 2015 and its been a wonderful place. They have taken different art medium classes over this time and given it has option for drawing, painting , colored pencil, pottery etc., it has always kept them creatively entertained. The quaint old house has a different feel to it and given its close to Historic downtown gives us parents some time to relax and stroll around when the kids are taking art lessons. They also have various art camps when the kids have break from school, but we have been only to one summer camp. I highly recommend this place if art is what yours kids are interested in.