Meet Jessica Blankenship
I am an art teacher, a preacher's wife, a mom, an artist and a total nerd. Since 2009, I have been teaching art full time and directing summer art camps for kids.
My goal is to inspire, to speak LIFE.
The Artful Gathering, in all its various facets, is a place for quality time. A place for gathering. Inspiration through art, conversation and being together. Meaningfulness. Togetherness in a beautiful space.
I’m talking about quality of life: life that is enriched while being real and honest.
Intentional memory-making.
Intentional design.
Intentional moments amid the fast-paced world in which we live.
I believe quality of life means searching out old-time wisdom and applying it to life in the current day, even when it is hard to know how to do that.
I want to see you experiencing life beyond modern hustle and full-speed survival mode.
Sprinkled in all that, you'll find that I value simplicity, kids, art and creativity, living naturally, spirituality, and... calm. Calm is my superpower. Well, maybe my superpower is actually management of kids and messy art supplies!
Sprinkled in all that, you'll find that I value simplicity, kids, art and creativity, living naturally, spirituality, and... calm. Calm is my superpower. Well, maybe my superpower is actually management of kids and messy art supplies!
My Bachelor of Arts in Art Education is from the College of Mt. Saint Joseph, 2009. I have been teaching art and summer art camps ever since! My art camps were originally modeled after an internship at the Taft Museum of Art during college. From there, I built a successful continuous summer art camp that has repeated every summer. It now has a waitlist and is very popular! I used to have to rent a venue each summer to teach the camps but now I have a beautiful space called The Artful Gathering!
My Master's degree is in Gifted Education from Northern Kentucky University, 2014.
I have a love of learning that I generously pass on to my students in every project. You will see lots of cross-curricular lessons from me as well as mixed media! I believe art is incredibly therapeutic as well as educational and playful! My newest training is art therapy! I am excited to implement all the wonderful facets of art for the community and beyond.
Overall, I believe that education is a gift. Learning ought to be a joyful endeavor and all lessons should be play-infused for maximum effects. Yes, I have my research to back up the FUN! I wrote extensively about this "invitation to joy" through play and art in a book collaboration called "On Earth As In Heaven", available on Amazon.
I can't wait to share my love of all these things at The Artful Gathering, LLC at 200 W. Plane ST. Bethel, OH 45106!
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