By Ashley Witzgall

For years, my art education programs lived wherever they could: classrooms, community halls, libraries, Girl Scout meetings, and yes – even on kitchen tables and living room floors covered in paper scraps and colored pencils. They thrived in sketchbooks, lesson plans, and the organized chaos that happens when kids are completely absorbed in creating something.

They also lived wildly in my brain: free, untamed, and occasionally scribbled into random notebooks and haphazardly typed into Word documents across various folders in my drive. But now?

Now they’re stepping into a brand-new space.

And honestly? I’m elated. Like, “dance-around-my-studio-space-in-a-happy-fog” elated. I get to bring my curriculum, to even more students… and not only that, I haven’t even marketed it yet and several of you have already bought parts of it!

This Didn’t Start as a Business

If you’ve been following along, you know this didn’t start as a money-making scheme. It started as pure passion.

I’ve been building these programs for years….long before I ever considered selling them, long before I knew anyone might even be interested. I created them while teaching Girl Scouts, working with private art schools, running community workshops, and homeschooling my daughter during Covid.

During those COVID lockdowns, art became a lifeline: structure for long days, a way to process emotions, and a creative escape when the world felt upside-down. That’s when the foundation for these programs really solidified.

Every lesson I’ve written grew out of real-life experiences. Real kids. Real classrooms. Real Google Meets. Real messy tables, picnic blankets, and bins overflowing with markers, scissors, glue, and imagination.

Science and Art Belong Together

Now, with this note – I am NOT saying all of my lesson plans are STEM based… but one of the things I love about teaching art is how naturally it connects to other subjects.

My curriculum intentionally blends art and science in ways that are exciting – not academic. Think:

• Learning bug anatomy while designing illustrated insects and 3d paper sculptures
• Exploring artists from around the world
• Experimenting with multiple art mediums
• Observing the natural world and transforming it into creative designs

This is where STEAM education truly shines. Science doesn’t compete with art – they actually make each other better.

If you ever watched me during those homeschooling years, you know what I mean: my daughter would dive so deep into STEM that my head spun (and my appliances probably feared for their lives). She taught me that ART belongs in STEM, and when STEAM programming took off, so did my creativity. It reignited my love for dinosaurs, bugs, plants, and the natural world as a whole.

Studying a beetle’s anatomy and then designing your own interpretation teaches observation, biology, problem-solving, and creativity… all at once. And let’s be honest… it’s just really fun.

Who Is This Curriculum For?

Much of my curriculum is aimed at K–12 students, but here’s the thing: it’s way more flexible than that.

It works beautifully for:

• Art teachers
• Parents and homeschool families
• STEAM educators
• After-school programs
• Community groups
• Camp Programs
• And yes… even adults!

Because here’s something I believe deeply: creativity shouldn’t stop at graduation. It’s a human superpower we should carry throughout life – think of how much good a little bit of creativity does for you!.

The Problem With Arts Education in America

Let’s be real. In the United States, arts education gets the short end of the stick far too often.

• Budgets shrinking = art programs cut
• Priorities shift = creative spaces vanish
• Art gets quieted

And that’s a problem. Because art is one of the most powerful ways humans, especially kids, learn to express themselves. Through art, students can:

• Explore emotions
• Process complex ideas
• Communicate perspectives
• Build confidence
• Tell stories that might otherwise go unheard

In a world dominated by screens and algorithms, creative expression matters more than ever.
Art shouldn’t just survive – it should be amplified.

Why Human-Made Curriculum Matters

Everything I’m releasing right now (and ever will) was written before AI tools existed.

Not because technology is evil, but because these lessons were built the old-fashioned way: experience, experimentation, teaching, iteration. Real humans. Real students. Real mess.

I still don’t use AI to create any of my curriculum. Why? Because these lessons are designed to ignite creativity, not automate it. I don’t want to show you something a computer generated, I want you to fall in love with feeling paintbrushes, pastels, and clay beneath your fingers.

Getting Back to the Essentials of Being Human

We live in a world that constantly pulls us toward screens and algorithms. Art does the opposite.

When students draw, paint, sculpt, or design, they reconnect with something deeply human: observation, curiosity, and self-expression. Programs like my bug anatomy art lessons encourage students to study the natural world, notice the tiniest details, and transform their observations into something uniquely their own.

It’s active creation over passive consumption – and honestly, it’s kind of magical.

What Comes Next

Launching my curriculum on Teachers Pay Teachers (and soon Etsy) is a huge step. It means that the lessons I’ve carefully developed over years can now reach classrooms, homes, and students far beyond what I could do in person.

And here’s a bonus: I’ll also be teaching at a local private art school on a regular schedule. Yep. Regular spot. Regular timeframe. (I literally just got the call and agreed to it yesterday). A proper little slice of “adulting meets dream job,” and I’m elated to add it to this announcement that I will also be touring public libraries, schools, and camps doing a bunch of fun programming!

So not only will you be able to find me amongst the books at your favorite library teaching how to make super cool dinosaur eyes this year (and other awesome things), but you’ll be able to know that new hands on curriculum is being written by someone who isn’t feeding a prompt into the chat bot.

The goal? More kids and adults creating, more curiosity, more fun, and more art. Because art education shouldn’t be a luxury – it’s a right.

If my programs can help make that happen, even a little, it’s absolutely worth sharing with the world.

So go check out some cool and creative programming – make art exciting, learn about new artists, get a little weird, and make a mess – and then share it with me. I want to see what you and your students have created!