Back to School with Creativity Explored

This back-to-school season, Sakura of America is continuing a philanthropic partnership with Creativity Explored in San Francisco, supplying over 130 neurodiverse and disabled artists with the best art supplies around.

Creativity Explored provides only the highest quality professional art supplies in their two community studios and in custom art kits for artists working from home. Sakura and Creativity Explored are proud to team up to ensure these artists have options and opportunities to explore any medium they want.

Sakura art supplies have been favorites in the Creativity Explored studios for decades. CE teaching staff – all professional working artists themselves – hand pick materials and supplies that are guaranteed to create beautiful and long-lasting art, while giving CE artists a lot of color and style choices. Of course, CE artists have their personal favorite items too (we’re looking at you, Pigma Micron Pens and Koi Watercolors).

In the Creativity Explored studios artists experiment and explore a variety of mediums to develop their own unique practice. With work stations stocked full of fresh supplies and new tools, the diverse artists and teachers working at the 40-year-old institution can focus on what they do best – creating fantastic art and building artistic careers.

Who better to tell us about all the reasons CE artists love Sakura art supplies, than the artists and teachers themselves!

In an art studio, with expansive wood floors and shelves of projects in the background, Creativity Explored artist Liam hunches forward over his easel and colors on his canvas with Koi Coloring Brushes. He is working on a brightly colored abstract piece with patchwork squares or color and texture.

Creativity Explored artist Benji, seen wearing a black mask and blue shirt, stands in the CE studio holding up his latest illustration of a traditional Japanese building done in bright, vibrant colors. Behind him, we see his work table with drawers of supplies and a wall hung with various pieces of art.

Artist Benji Saecho-Cheung just began his artistic career at Creativity Explored, but his talents are sure to take his art practice to new heights. He’s been working with Koi Watercolor and Sakura Permapaque markers, about which he shares, “I love how vibrant the colors are with the art supplies. Also, I love the quality of the art supplies”.

Artist Ada Chow loves to draw flowers. When asked by teaching artist Alexander Hernandez, “Do you like these Sakura markers, Ada?” she responded with a resounding, “YUP! I like it!” and quickly turned her attention back to her work.

From the upper right hand corner, Creativity Explored artist bends forward into frame and over her artwork laying flat on the table. She presses her face almost against the watercolor paper, her blue mask and wire-rimmed glasses almost the only thing we see of her features, and her right hand curves over from the top holding a black Pen-Touch pen. Her painting is of a tiger standing on green grass in front of a blue sky.

Alex, a Creativity Explored artist, sits to the right of a long table and bends over the top to color at his artwork. He is using Koi Coloring Brush pen to illustrate a vivid blue toned image of the Golden Gate bridge over the water and against the sky.

Artist Alex Yeap is also a big of Sakura Koi Watercolors, sharing, “I think they’re pretty AWESOME! I just love the colors – like the blues, the greens, and the browns, and the greens.”

Artist James Nielsen doesn’t always communicate with verbal language, but his enthusiasm for Sakura Expressionist Cray-Pas is apparent in his vibrant abstract work. Nielsen is a master of color and texture. He loves these materials so much, he’s committed to using every last bit of each stick to create his heavily layered compositions. Thanks to Sakura of America, James will never run out of his favorite colors.

Looking across a table, we see Creativity Explored artist James' hands as he colors his artwork. He holds an orange Cray-Pas oil pastel in his left hand, a silver set turquoise ring on his middle finger, and he carefully colors a large swath of orange pastel over elongated sections of stripes on white paper. There are several other warm-toned oil pastels laying in the foreground towards the camera's POV.

Sakura of America and Creativity Explored are thrilled to continue our partnership and fuel the practice and careers of neurodiverse and disabled artists with their favorite art supplies. We can’t see what the artists create next!

Sakura of America and CE share a common mission, believing in a world of possibility powered by human creativity. Sakura is proud to support Creativity Explored’s commitment to disabled artists, who are making their mark on their own terms. Together, we strongly believe art is for everyone.

Meet even more artists and shop for their work on the Creativity Explored website → creativityexplored.org

Learn more about Creativity Explored in this video:

Back to School with Creativity Explored

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