School works in the footsteps of the great master. It is the dream of every person who hopes to…read moreget real information to build high skills in the art .

I want to be fair in saying that REAL Academy of Art Colorado was very clear that this is a…read moretraditional master-style art school. That was explained before I enrolled, and I take responsibility for not fully understanding what that style of instruction would actually mean in practice. I paid for a full semester of 12 sessions, and because of their schedule I had to complete them over four weeks, attending three days a week. I was driving a significant distance each time, so I was investing a lot of time, money, and energy into the program. What I found was that a large portion of the experience consisted of standing at an easel and drawing for very long periods with relatively little hands on instruction. I understand that sustained drawing is part of traditional atelier training, but personally, I could do that at home. I was paying for instruction, critique, demonstrations, and clear guidance, and I did not feel that I received enough of that to justify the cost. One thing that especially bothers me in hindsight is the lack of guidance around basic studio tools. They had mahl sticks available, but I was never instructed to use one. I was struggling significantly with fatigue in my arm and hand from holding my arm up and trying to draw straight lines for 3 hours at a time. I had also specifically explained that I had health issues that made prolonged arm positioning difficult. As I have continued studying art, I have learned how useful a mahl stick can be for exactly this kind of problem. Knowing now that such a simple tool could have reduced a substantial amount of the fatigue I was experiencing makes me very frustrated that nobody thought to suggest it, especially when the tools were right there. My experience with the instructors also varied. Ali was very disappointing for me. When I tried to express that I was unhappy with the amount of instruction I was receiving, I often felt that the conversation turned into long explanations rather than practical help or a concrete change in what I was being given. James was different. When I told him I was frustrated, he did listen and would try to give me something specific to work on. I appreciated that effort and want to acknowledge it. To be more specific about what I actually did during my time there, much of the work consisted of straight line blocking. They would draw simple shapes, star like forms, and I would the break them down into straight lines, working from the largest lines to progressively smaller ones. I later learned that this exercise had a name, but that was never really explained to me at the time; I was essentially just told what to copy and how to proceed. We also copied Bargue plates, again using straight line blocking. In my experience, there was very little actual instruction or critique during this process. Ali specifically told me that he did not believe in giving traditional feedback and instead preferred to tell students that they had done better than they had the day before. That may work for some people, but for me it made it extremely difficult to understand what I was doing incorrectly, why it was incorrect, or what specifically I needed to change in order to improve. I also found it frustrating that even while I was attending three days a week and clearly expressing dissatisfaction with the experience I was already having, I was pressure to purchase additional classes and and told i needed to spend even more time there. That did not sit well with me. Another thing prospective students should know is that many of the additional activities, painting workshops, and other offerings are not included in the regular tuition. They are separate and can be quite expensive, so the total cost of participating in everything the school offers can add up quickly. I also heard other students express similar frustrations about wanting more instruction, so I do not think I was alone in feeling this way. I do not think REAL Academy is necessarily a bad fit for everyone. If you specifically want a very traditional atelier environment where you spend long stretches of time independently drawing and observing, with relatively limited hands-on teaching, you may enjoy it. But if you are looking for an instructor who is actively teaching throughout class, demonstrating techniques, introducing tools and methods that make the work easier or more effective, giving frequent practical feedback, and helping you progress through varied exercises, I would strongly recommend asking very detailed questions before enrolling. I wish I had understood all of this before paying for a semester and making the drive several times a week. I hope this review saves someone else some time and money if this is not the type of art education they are looking for.

My oldest daughter auditioned at DSA last winter and after several weeks of waiting for that letter…read moreto arrive it finally did and after screaming so loud she scared the tar out of our mailman the celebration began. Samantha had been accepted at DSA and her middle school career was about to begin! She has been at the school as a theater major for almost 8 months now and I must say, I am most impressed. Actually impressed doesn't quite cover it. I am completely and utterly floored, flabbergasted and blown away.... The talent here is ridiculous and like Colin mentioned in his review, DSA offers some of the most wonderful plays, musicals, concerts and dance productions in the entire Metro area. Last night's performance was a Broadway review which the kids will actually perform downtown tonight for a big fund-raising gala for The Kempe Foundation. There are simple not enough ways to describe just how talented these kids are and how spectacular the show was. As the first act began and the young lady opened her mouth, my God the sound that came out was quite literally unreal. To be so young and so gifted it was enough to bring a person to tears. Things got better from there, which is hard to believe considering it started out at FANTASTIC! There were dancers and singers and actors which easily rival anything on Broadway. Numbers from Annie, and Hair, Joesph and the Technicolor Dream coat, Hair spay, and several others, for 10 bucks. It was a night for the record books, and as a mama so full of pride and awe I must say... my baby kicked some series Broadway booty last night. Way to go kiddo! So if you are looking for some raw and insane talent for a very reasonable price and feel like contributing to a great, local and PUBLIC school in Denver, get yourself on their newsletter list and ENJOY!!! You'll be toe tapping and singing along I guarantee it!

Here are Denver's talented children. Brilliant and talented…read more Theater, song, dance, artists, cinema production, writing,stage techs. It covers all bases. If you have a child who has any interest in the arts, the academic program boasts a high college acceptance, and the talent is boundless. If you get an opportunity to see a show, it is likely you are going to get the glimpse of a future world talent. Great environment! The only issue I have with the school is the parking lot... Dear God, please give these people a piece of land so that they don't have to park on the grass and in intersections. If you build it, they will come.

I attended a Yelp elite painting class here and it was so much fun…read more They offer a huge schedule of art classes in all different mediums. I am planning to do some drawing and possibly more painting over the Summer. They offer kids classes too. We used water colors as the base today and she started by teaching several techniques, which was incredibly helpful once we started our abstract pieces. We also used pastels on top, which I thought added a really cool texture to my work. The teacher made each part seem so simple, everyone in the class was able to make something really beautiful. So much fun! Go check it out.

I was really excited to get in to the Yelp Elite event as I only just started to embroider January…read moreof this year. Being that the event was on a Saturday the parking lot was relatively empty so I didn't have to find street parking, but I did notice many of my classmates found street parking. No one complained do it must have been easy. The class was small and intimate with 8 of us present. The instructor Karin introduced us to the Art Students League of Denver, the offerings, and some history. We went around the room and discussed everyone's level of experience and interests. She really listened and worked to tailor our experience based on our responses. Each seat was set up with the materials we needed and we started off with introductory stitches. After an hour we focused on our Art piece and near the end of class picked up remaining supplies to finish our work at home. 10 mins before leaving we all did stretching exercises and cleaned up the room. I'd recommend attending if others are interested in learning something new or expanding their skill set.

I'm an online senior at this school. Going into it I didn't expect much from this school because it…read morehas a 100% acceptance rate, but when you actually look close at the materials and curriculums and how they're designed, it's just like any other high quality art and design schools. They're rigorous enough to let you stick to a certain regiment, yet flexible enough to let you be nurtured and to explore your own creativity and your own unique way of doing things. Just like any other college, you actually have to try and to make the most of your time here, so if you're looking to go to this school not really sure what you want, this isn't the place for you. People here are dedicated and know their shit, so your job is to match that and share your own knowledge and bring your own unique experiences to the table. Some professors will push you hard, most are pretty flexible. Talk to them. Ask valuable questions, make sure you put 100% into every class, in the end you'll thank yourself for it. I know I did. Graduating this summer! Best of luck to you all!

Where to begin? RMCAD has the potential to be a great post-secondary art education institution -…read morethey have a beautiful intimate campus, and a great student-to-teacher ratio for in-person classes, and yet, they still fall short in so many ways. Post-COVID, on-campus enrollment plummeted--over 80% of students didn't return to in-person classes, leaving roughly 150 students now on campus each term. This caused major issues, including a lack of available in-person classes required for your major, and frequent professor reassignments. Instructors often don't know what they're teaching until one or two weeks before a term starts, leading to severe underpreparedness and a poor learning experience. Faculty professionalism is another major issue. While a few professors genuinely care about their students and try to do a good job, most fall short. So far, I would say only 30% of the professors I've had have been average / good, while the other 70% have been underprepared, unqualified to teach, and quite frankly don't seem like they even want to be here. The education quality is often worse than public high school and incomparable to my previous college experience. One professor didn't bother to grade assignments for the last four weeks of class, ignored feedback requests from her students, and openly talked about her desire to leave RMCAD. Instead of teaching, she spent most of our class time shopping online and watching TV shows--yet she remains employed despite official documented student complaints. What does that tell you about the quality of education here and the school's priorities? Some of the course curriculum being taught raises eyebrows too; there are many mistakes, out-of-order learning units, and outdated information in the LMS (learning management system), which each class is supposed to follow, whether you are an on-ground or online student. If you take classes online, not having direct access to your professor necessitates a lot of back-and-forth communication and easily creates confusion, whenever there are blatant mistakes in the learning module you are supposed to be following, since online classes do not have professors that lecture. RMCAD also struggles with student retention due to institutional ineffectiveness and poor communication. A major frustration is the inability to schedule your own classes, an unusual policy for higher education. While students can submit scheduling preferences, these are ignored 90% of the time. The registrar's office frequently assigns students to classes that don't fit their availability, even when better options exist. This makes maintaining a job or arranging childcare extremely difficult. Every term, I've had to fight for schedule corrections, despite clear solutions being available from the start - they just always get overlooked by the people in charge of making your schedule. If you try to be proactive, efforts to resolve issues are met with endless runarounds and finger-pointing between departments. Promised follow-ups rarely happen, requiring students to chase answers repeatedly. Younger, first-time college students would likely find this process even more frustrating. Despite being paying customers, students must constantly advocate for themselves to receive basic services. Despite being a student at RMCAD for less than a year, these are not the only alarming issues I've encountered here - I could go on but am limited by Google's review character count maximum. The root issue is that students are not RMCAD's priority. Instead, financial interests seem to dominate decision-making, which makes sense given it's a for-profit institution. Unfortunately, leadership seems unaware that taking care of students would, in turn, improve the school's financial health. The campus's main owners and the college's president all lack backgrounds in education, and this disconnect reverberates throughout the institution. As a result, students receive a poor experience and low-quality education, making RMCAD an unworthy investment.

This studio, and these classes, are the best around. She,…read moreJudy, is a truly gifted teacher, and the atmosphere is perfect for learning. Judy can teach almost any style of painting, and she is a gifted teacher and artist. In addition they have presentations by famous artists from all over the country. A wonderful atmosphere and experience.

The Arvada Center is a spectacular venue, if you're not too far away. For us, the 25 minute drive…read moreis well worth it. Plan to arrive early if you're seeing a live performance as there are multiple galleries to spend some time with, along with light bites and beverages. There are so many seating areas sprinkled throughout the space, if ya wanna just lounge while you wait. Speaking of light bites and beverages, they have some decent offering and aren't too over the top for what'd you'd expect to pay at a live performance. I also don't mind supporting such a great venue and organization. We've seen a few performances at a couple of their theatres. My favorite is likely the most intimate space, The Black Box Theatre. The other larger space is well laid out, just bigger. I love the creativity and variety of their offerings. We've seen so many great shows. Def will return. And, the last time we were there, we learned about their spring plant sale that took place in their parking lot. Who knew? We went and really appreciated the local community collaboration. Check them out. It'll be a great experience.

Still one of my favorite theaters. Parking is easy, everything is always clean, staff is friendly…read moreand helpful, great variety of shows and ticket prices are reasonable. What's not to love!

I don't post reviews often, but when something is really good I do. Wife and I did the beginners…read moreWheel Throwing Workshop and then followed it up with the Glazing Workshop. It was a wonderful experience! Fun, non-rushing, non-judgmental, constant encouragement and full of laughter. Highly encourage to go with family and friends! Pro tip...park at the library.

From the owner: Denver Ceramic Studio offers pottery classes, memberships, and original wheel-thrown pottery.read more

For $1200 I have an unfinished ring, a few tools I'll never use again, and more than a little…read moreregret. The teacher clearly favored a couple of students, always helping them first, while the rest of us fell further behind each week. I emailed the teacher to ask if I could come back for a couple of hours to finish, and she never responded. We clearly didn't click, it wasn't much fun, and I will not be taking more classes.

I have called and sent emails multiple times regarding classes and private instruction and no…read moreresponse. Unfortunate.

Came here for a kids class and had an absolute blast. It was $64 for Halloween cookie class with…read moreyou and your child. They have a bar open that you can order drinks. One thing I didn't expect was its long 2.5 hrs. I wish they offered charcuterie or something that you can order to Nosh on. We made chocolate chip cookies first that we made spiders on. Next we made Royal Icing that was a bit tough to make and stiff. After we made cookie cut outs and baked. My only gripe is I wish they maybe did more of a soft icing and some toppings like sprinkles because the royal icing was hard to do any type of nice decoration on. Overall we left with a ton of cookies made and 2 big rolls of sugar cookie dough and chocolate chip cookie dough to Take home. I wish they offered more kids classes. I checked Nov and Dec and nothing showed.

Noting that this review is strictly for the "Bar" aspect of Create (though we have every intention…read moreof partaking in the "Kitchen" piece once we find a reliable babysitter!). My husband and I came here on a Saturday afternoon to grab some old fashioneds at the bar - we were the only patrons there so service was very quick. Chatted a bunch with the bartender who was very personable. Our drinks were perfectly made and overall, we had a really lovely time. The space was well designed, open and had a nice feel. The water was fruit infused which was a nice touch. As mentioned, we'll absolutely be coming back for a cooking class, but probably for another drink, too!