This Sheboygan creativity center is making art classes and materials more accessible. Here's how.
SHEBOYGAN - Through traveling to teach art classes and owning several stores before opening Hello Happiness Creativity Center, 1504 New Jersey Ave., Kim Geiser said she consistently saw that creativity was expensive, with some art classes costing more than $100.
“You can't go to a lot of classes if you don't have money,” Geiser, founder and executive creative director of Hello Happiness, said. “... And the people who were going, some had disposable income, but they were having to save for a really long time.”
To help make "creativity for everyone," Hello Happiness offers lower prices for art supplies in its store and classes in its creative space.
Before opening at the New Jersey Avenue location in 2020, Hello Happiness was a pop-up shop in downtown Sheboygan from 2016 to 2017. Shortly after it closed, Geiser worked for three months in social services. She said it made her realize how lucky she is.
“How fortunate I am to have unlimited paper at my disposal, or you know, paint brushes or whatever I want all the time,” she said. “And it's just not the case for a very big percentage of people that live in our community.”
Useable art supplies, anything from fabric to paint to yarn, can be donated to Hello Happiness, and many cost between a few cents and a few dollars.
"Getting art supplies was certainly more expensive before Hello Happiness opened," Kari White, a long-time supporter and customer at Hello Happiness, said in a message. "As one example, they have purchased many high quality art pencils for just 25 cents there that would cost us over $2 each at other stores."
White has bought a variety of art supplies, like fabric, wire, charms, stamps, embroidery floss, vintage ornaments and tins from Hello Happiness's store since it opened.
“Having these supplies available at low prices have prompted my daughters to try new crafts and expand their artistic endeavors,” White said in a message.
For those who may not be able to afford Hello Happiness’s prices, there is also a free hall of art supplies.
“You will never leave empty handed here,” Geiser said.
Hello Happiness’s model of reselling a majority of donated materials not only makes supplies more accessible with lower prices, but it also creates less waste.
“We have about 5,000 transactions a year. ... You know, it's 1000s of pounds of stuff that we're not throwing into the landfill,” Geiser said.
Hello Happiness encourages teens, adults to be creative
To make art classes more accessible, Hello Happiness offers a free Teen Club on Thursdays and group classes on Saturdays, many ranging between $25 and $50. The Saturday classes are still being explored based on people’s interests and available teachers, Geiser said.
There has been gel printing, stamp making and upcycled fabric tree making classes in the past, and future plans could bring in-store demonstrations to model how to use certain materials or create different crafts.
Kids are welcome in the store and have opportunities for sensory experiences, but Geiser said the classes at Hello Happiness are for teens and adults.
“The connection that you feel when you sit at a table with someone and make art with them is something that we get when we're in school when we're kids, but then as adults we kind of lose that,” Geiser said about group classes.
"And as an adult who experienced that, it completely changed my life,” she continued. “To do those retreats and to sit and meet people and make art with them and get creative with them, it made me really realize the importance of creativity for adults.”
For Geiser, being creative is more than “just making something.”
“If you consistently have a creative outlet, it changes your brain,” she said. “It makes you think in different ways. You don't get stuck because you're able to problem solve more. You're able to do all these things more.”
Several studies have examined thediverse impacts that spending time exploring expression, whether through creating art or performing art, can have on improving mental health, cognitive abilities, self-esteem and levels of civic engagement for adults.
When people bring creativity back into their lives, it’s going to change them for the better, Geiser said.
She remembers one girl who came in to buy supplies for her wedding and ended up coming back the next day.
“I can't remember exactly what she said, but it was something to the effect of, ‘I went home, and everything was just so colorful, like I was dreaming in full color, and I had to come back,’” Geiser said.
Several people have started art journals and other projects because they came to Hello Happiness, Geiser said.
“It’s fun. That's how I get paid,” she said. “... Money doesn't make sense to me. I get paid by people getting pumped about making something.”
More information about upcoming events, like a volunteer and board of directors informational meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 15 and the Teen Club, can be found at https://www.hellohappinesscreativitycenter.com.
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Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @alexx_garner
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Hello Happiness in Sheboygan offers affordable art supplies, classes
