Books and Art Supplies You’ll Find at Our Store

This past week, as one of our After School kids was heading home, he stopped at my desk and looked me in the eye, pointing to our shelf of art supplies for sale. He said very seriously, “Does anyone even know we have a store??!”

Good point, Matthew. Hey, everybody, Philly Art Center has a store!! And not just any store. Our director and staff have lovingly chosen both foundational art supplies for a range of ages, as well as a few of those special materials used in classes with great success.

It’s no secret that kids love glue. We spend time in our classes working on the skill of using glue sticks and the big task of squeeeeezing glue out of big bottles. Along with those two basics, we’ve also got an even more challenging, and rewarding, method of toddler art adhesion– a screw-top bottle of brush glue (it may bring a bit of a flashback for some of us to the old bottles of paste from elementary school). Opening the lid, brushing on the glue, going back for more, it’s all a valuable lesson in fine motor skills and patience for little artists.

Beading is another amazing fine motor builder and a much-loved activity for artists of all ages in our studios. Alongside beads of various sizes, shapes and colors in the store, we stock the fabulous beading wire Twisteez. Using wire instead of floppy yarn or string sets up youngest beaders for success, allowing them to easily “pinch it at the top and let it drop!”

In addition to art supplies, we carry a few of our most beloved kids books including the board book, “Beautiful Oops” by Barney Saltzberg. This book expresses the heart of the Art Center’s vision to nurture out-of-the-box thinkers and creative problem solvers!

Each page of the book shows a “mistake” — a ripped paper, a spilled paint cup — then shows us the beautiful transformation of each of these “oops.” The Art Center seeks to teach artists to pause and withhold judgment at that moment when one realizes that what was imagined is not what was created.

Just like this simple children’s book, we love each time an artist approaches an “oops” with an open mind and as an opportunity for something different and maybe even better! We hope some of the materials and books in our store will inspire more of this discovery outside of our studios.