About Us

Arts Aloft is an arts studio for children from kindergarten to 12 years old in Seattle’s Madrona neighborhood. Our classes help students experience the pleasure of artistic self-expression while learning the techniques of the grand masters in multiple media, including tempera, acrylic, water color, charcoal, ink, plaster, and clay.

At Arts Aloft we believe what a vast body of scientific research has shown: that the process of creating art at a young age delivers an immense developmental payoff by increasing one’s ability to think critically, solve problems imaginatively, and experience an enhanced sense of well-being.

Classes are taught by Betsy Erving, an accomplished watercolorist who has shown her work in Seattle and who now paints children’s illustrations on commission. Before having children, Betsy traded foreign exchange in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco for a major investment bank. She longed for her creative side and consequently left investment banking and taught art in an after school program in Palo Alto, California, and privately from her home. Betsy opened Arts Aloft in 2006 after searching for art lessons for her daughter; there were few options and those she found seemed rigid and lacked room for the child to develop their creative skills.

Betsy wants the children’s art experience to be non-threatening and fun and creative. Some teachers are concerned with how things look and try to march the kids step-by-step to that end. The philosophy Betsy uses is just the opposite. She is more concerned about the process and in having the child connect to their work in a personal way. By the time the children are seven or eight years old they are familiar enough with the materials that they can begin to express themselves powerfully.