50. Tallia Feltis with 'The Neighborhood Art Center' and Providing an Engaging Space for Kids to Create Art

Tallia Feltis was raising her young kids in Provo, Utah when she realized they needed an accessible and affordable place they could go to create, explore, learn and try new things. She decided to be the one to create that community space, and the Neighborhood Art Center was born. 

Tallia’s taken her passions from visiting other Children’s Museums around the country and seeing what her own kids enjoyed doing, and she’s put all of those ideas together into one engaging space for children and families. In this episode she walks us through their different stations at the center, and also some of the different classes and community activities they provide.

One thing I was so impressed with is how hard Tallia has worked to make the Neighborhood Art Center an accessible place for all by doing things like keeping their prices low, having a pass families can check out at the local library, and even providing scholarships for their art classes.

This podcast will make want to go and create something fun with the kids in your life! But it will also inspire you to see how anyone can truly see a need in their community and work hard to fulfill it.

Links mentioned in the episode:
The Neighborhood Art Center Website
The Neighborhood Art Center Instagram
The Neighborhood Art Center Facebook

Utah Nonprofits Association PDF file of steps to form non-profit
Children's Museum of Pittsburgh
Children's Museum of Manhattan

Follow the podcast on social media:
Do Something More Instagram
Do Something More Facebook
Do Something More YouTube

Transcript

Melissa: You're listening to the do something more podcast, and this is episode 50 with Talia Feltis from the Neighborhood Art center, providing an engaging space for kids to create art. Welcome to the do something more podcast, a service oriented show where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more. I'm your host, Melissa Draper. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. And today we're focusing on services for kids again by learning more about this awesome nonprofit called the Neighborhood Arts center. And today I have on the show with me Talia Feltis. She's the founder and executive director of the Neighborhood Arts center, and I'm excited to learn more about it from her. So, Talia, welcome to the podcast.

Tallia: Thanks. Thanks so much.

Melissa: Let's just start off by having you give a little introduction of yourself and then tell us a little bit about the neighborhood arts center.

Tallia: Okay, so my name is Talia Feltis. I live in Provo, Utah. I'm originally from Seattle area. I started the neighborhood art center seven years ago because when I realized that we were going to live in Provo for a long time and raise our kids here, I knew that I wanted to have a space that was creative and welcoming and fun for kids to go to and for parents to bring their kids to or for families to come to. We spent a lot of time growing up in Seattle, and then when me and my kids and my husband lived in Pittsburgh for a few years and just have traveled around a lot, and we spent a lot of time at children's museums and art museums and so many different spaces that were made for families and kids that were fun and interesting and creative. And I really wanted to have. I really missed that when I moved back to Provo, there's so many kids here, and it felt like there were not as many programs and community spaces for me to take them to, which was surprising. And so once my kids got a little older, when they were in full day school, I just decided that I'd been thinking about it so much, and I just decided that I was going to do it and I was going to start a space for kids. And at first, I hadn't chosen art as the exact thing I wanted to do, but from different children's museums. There's one in Pittsburgh that's really cool, that has a really cool art studio. And I just saw how much my kids connected with that and how much time they would spend and how much focus they would have in spaces like that, that had lots of supplies and things that they could do or open. I decided to focus on that because I knew that it was a thing that all kids could connect to. Like, kids are just so inherently creative. I mean, I think all people are, but sometimes as we grow older, we get more nervous about being creative or think it has to be perfect. But kids haven't got into that point yet, and so they just want to make things. And so making a space like that for kids to just come in and make things and create, really, like, I knew it worked with my kids, and so I knew that it was going to resonate with a lot of kids and families. In 2017, we opened the neighborhood art center, and we chose the Provo mall because it had so many open spaces, and they were just excited for us to use a space in the mall. And I think that that really made it so that we could reach a lot more of more people in the community. And it also just, like, our rent was low, we weren't risking a lot, and so we could start and just kind of follow our dreams and do what we wanted to do without worrying about funding and stuff like that.

Melissa: I love hearing all those intricate details.

Tallia: Yeah, we started doing open studio, which is like drop in time where families can come, and we just have a whole bunch of different activities set up, and they can do them. We have a room where you can paint on the walls. We do screen printing every week, and we'll have just different other activities like clay and painting and making. We have a workshop room that's full of recycled materials so that kids can just create whatever they want. That's like a really popular. Lots of kids are always in there making things. And then as we've grown, we've added more. We do more classes and art courses. We have classes for adults now. We do kid classes. We do home school kids classes, and we do community events. We do free events in our studio space. And we also do art in the park, which is like, out in the community. We go to a different park every month in the summer and do a big free event with tons of art activities and tons of people can come to it. And that is really fun. And, yeah, we partner with other organizations and just do a whole bunch of fun art stuff.

Melissa: Well, that is a great sum up of the awesome things that you're doing in the community. And I just want to go back. I think that's so impressive that you saw that need as a mother yourself and then wanted to bring that alive, not just for your own children, but for other children in the community.

Tallia: Yeah. It's funny because now my kids, my youngest still takes classes at the art center, but now my kids are old, they're teenagers. And so it's like, just like the next generation of kids that I'm working with, but it's still really fun. And I still pull so much from inspiration from when my kids were little. Like, would they like this and stuff like that?

Melissa: Right.

Tallia: So they really helped me start it. Right. Just by watching them and seeing what they connected with.

Melissa: Right. And I do agree with you, I have some children that are really interested in artistic things, but I do agree that at those younger ages, just being able to express themselves in any way is something that they all will get into and identify with. And it's really cool to see that with young children especially.

Tallia: Yeah, I love. Kids are like, geniuses. Sometimes they will make things or do some kind of type of art that I was just like, I could never. They're so creative and just so in the zone. They just do such amazing things. When I first opened the art center, I feel like every week we would just be, like, dumbfounded, like, can you believe that this kid made this thing? And now it's been, like, so many years. So I'm like, of course they made this amazing thing. But, yeah, kids are so. They're so good at art, and I just really want them to have that confidence in their art that it doesn't have to be a certain way, it doesn't have to be perfect, but just their creativity is enough, and they should just follow what they think.

Melissa: Yeah. They're so uninhibited. They just go at it without worrying about if it's good enough.

Tallia: Yeah, I love it.

Melissa: And I think there is, we all have those creative parts of us. My family just went to a little studio where we painted plates and mugs and stuff. And like I said, some of us are more artistic than others. But it was fun. It was a good experience, and I think it's good to encourage that with kids and families.

Tallia: Yeah, I think adults get out of practice with it, and lots of times people will come to the art center and they'll be like, oh, I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to watch my kids. But then they will. They'll try screen printing, or they'll just even just, like, playing with playdoh or something. And they also have a really good time. So it's good that we can provide that. Right? It's, like, for their kids, but it's really for everybody. Everybody enjoys creating, definitely.

Melissa: Well, one thing I'm impressed with seeing about your center, too, is I've taken my kids to a few places here, maybe more in Salt Lake or other places, but sometimes the prices can keep you from being able to do it often, or, I know it can be a limiting factor for a lot of families, but you have, I know, worked really hard to keep your prices reasonable so that really any family can feel like they can come in and take part in that center.

Tallia: Yeah. That is one of our number one mission goals is to make sure that art is accessible to everybody in our community. There's been a lot of people that are like, well, if you write, like, funding with nonprofits is always complicated, and you're just kind of always looking for funding and applying for grants and doing stuff like that. And people will say, like, oh, we'll just raise your prices. But that, I feel like, goes against. I don't know, it goes against so much of what we believe in. We want everybody. Our studio is located in a low income neighborhood, and we just want everybody to feel like they can always come, and it's not going to be like, there's no barrier to entry. And if anything, I wish that someday that we could get enough funding that our prices would be even lower or free. We've partnered with the library to have two passes every week, like, two free passes that people can check out so they can come to the art center. And we just really want to do more stuff like that so that people can. We can just keep finding ways to be able to allow people to come to the art center. And that's also why we try to do lots of free events. It's just really important to us. Also, like, all our class prices, we try to keep very low. We don't have any supply fees, and we'll try to keep them just as low as possible so that people who want to participate can participate.

Melissa: Right.

Tallia: And that's also why we're excited about a scholarship program that we're starting thanks to some funding that we just got.

Melissa: Oh, yeah, explain that a little bit more.

Tallia: We got a grant, a donation from 100 women who care from Utah county, and we're going to use that to start a scholarship program for all of our classes and camps and things like that, so that people who maybe can't afford our class fees will be able to apply to get free, like a scholarship for their kids or for themselves. And we'll have a couple spaces open in every single class or camp that we do. And we're excited to roll that out. I think that people, it will be really beneficial and really help people, more people participate in our classes.

Melissa: Yeah. And I love that idea of the hard work you're doing to keep it accessible for all, because I think, too, sometimes kids just need that exposure to things to discover what they're excited about or what they're good at or what they're interested in. And to have more opportunities for that in their childhood is just, I think, really beneficial. So that's great.

Tallia: Yeah, definitely.

Melissa: So I want to go back a little bit, because you talked in the beginning about some of the things you have at your studio. So I would just love to have you walk us through a little bit. If somebody decides to come and drop in, and we talked about prices, so if anyone's wondering, you can see their website, but it's $5 for kids, $3 for adults, right?

Tallia: Yes.

Melissa: If someone brings and comes in, what are the things that they might see or expect to see as they visit the art center with their family?

Tallia: Okay. So right when you come in, we have our sewing room in the front, which is very popular, especially with older kids, because we have a sewing machine. We have a whole bunch of fabric and ribbons and things like that. Kids really like to spend lots of time there sewing. They usually sew bags or pillows, so we go through a lot of stuffing. Kids love to make pillows, which is the other thing I would have guessed. And then a little farther on, we have our block table. We have our self portrait studio, which is a little desk with a mirror that kids can draw themselves. Like they look in the mirror and draw their self portrait, which is very cute. And a couple of years ago, kids started putting their portraits up on the wall. So now we have, like, a whole gallery of self portraits that people have drawn from adults to tiny kids. So it's a really cute little gallery there. Then we have our gallery room, which is a room. When we were smaller, we used to use it to do little art shows or just switch things out all the time. We'll have a projector, like an overhead projector in there for kids to play with. Or right now, we have a little installation about geese bend. We had it up for black History Month last month. Then in the back of the art center, we have screen printing. We have a couple of tables with different activities that we're always switching up, depending on the time of day or just what kind of stuff we want to have out. So we'll have watercolors, or we'll have a sensory bin. We'll have different artists of the week that you can learn about an artist and do a little project that's like them. And we also have our painting room, which is just completely covered in paint. A little room off to the side that kids can just paint on the walls. They can paint on paper. It's just really fun. Lots of good painting on the walls.

Melissa: Is any kid's dream.

Tallia: Yeah, there's so many good pictures from that room because kids are really getting into it. It's really fun. So that used to be the whole art center. And then in 2021, the space next to us in the mall they moved to, it was the lens crafters. They moved to another mall. So we took over that space. We cut a hole in the wall. So we have a door now to this really big open space. And on that side, we have our workshop room, which I talked a little bit about before. It has cardboard. We have markers, hot glue, just old, like, containers. Just tons of things that kids can make stuff out of. We have fabric scraps, ribbon, so many things. Anything, like weird donations we get, we'll put in there and just see what kids come up with. And so they can just create whatever they want. Over there, we have a playdoh table. It's like playdoh or clay. We have a little sewing table. We have blocks. We have a space where we'll have a big, kind of, like, pretend play area, which will sometimes be a grocery store, sometimes the kitchen or a pizza parlor. Or we'll have mannequins up for kids to put, like, a fashion design kind of thing, which kids really love. They like that a lot. And then in the very back, we have our little art library full of art books that people have donated to the art center. Lots of them are very cute. It's a really good place to get good ideas for books that you might want to have in your house. So just lots of kid books about artists and making art and stuff. And then we also have our classroom on that side, where we do art classes and drawing club and things like that. Yeah, we have a lot of space, lots of fun things to do. I always say there's something for all ages at any time, because there's just so many different spaces, so there's so many things to explore, and everybody can always find something that they really like to do.

Melissa: Yeah, that sounds amazing. I have a daughter that is very artistic, and she's tried almost everything, and she's a teenager now, but I think she would even love.

Tallia: Yeah, we just had a whole, like, a big high school class come in last week for a field trip, and they all did all the things. They had so much fun.

Melissa: You're never too old for those creative endeavors, so that's great. Well, we also love hearing kind of the human interest side of the nonprofits we have on here. So do you have any specific stories or experiences where you've seen what you've done there has made a difference in the people that you're serving?

Tallia: Oh, yeah. So some things are just like small, right? Like when we do big events and I can just art in the park, and I look around and I'm like, there's just like hundreds of people in this park, and they're all making art together and having fun, and that is really nice.

Melissa: Right? Just the energy that's there.

Tallia: Yeah, I just love it that we created something like that. But the thing that most comes to mind is the kids who come to the art center every week. Over the years, there have been a lot of parents and kids who will come one time, and it just kind of clicks and they are like, oh, I found my spot, and they'll come every week. And I remember once there was this mom with two little kids, and she just would come every week. She would talk to other moms. They all made friends. They would meet up every week and chat. And it was just like, so nice to have that community space for their kids to play and for them to talk and have a good time. And then there's also all the kids who are in our drawing club or who come to our classes. There's one little girl, she's taken every single class that we have done.

Melissa: Oh, wow.

Tallia: For the last two years, and she's just like, this is my thing. I take art classes and it's like she found her space and she found where she feels safe and comfortable, and she just really loves art. She comes every week, she comes to drawing club and art classes. So she's there twice a week at least. I don't know, I feel like, I think about like, oh, she's going to remember this when she grows up. She's going to remember all the things she learned and the friends she made, and this is having a big impact on her life. And that feels, like, really special to me.

Melissa: Right. That's great. You have talked about all of these good benefits and things. You've kind of touched on this. But what is the biggest why for you to keep fundraising, the challenges of that, running a nonprofit like this?

Tallia: Our biggest why is serving and enriching the community, making our town and our county like a good place to live. And we're giving kids a creative space. We're bringing people together. We're supporting families, giving them more things to do with their kids, more support in the community. That is definitely our biggest why? Of why we keep doing this.

Melissa: Yeah.

Tallia: And just to see also, just, like, the funny things that kids make that makes it so worthwhile, too.

Melissa: Yeah. You can see their point of view of life a little bit sometimes. Those creations they bring to you, we have listeners from all over. So I would love to hear you give any encouragement or advice to someone that's listening to this and wanting to either create and make art more accessible for people in their community, or advice that you would give, even for starting a nonprofit, when you have an idea or you see a need that needs to be fulfilled.

Tallia: So as far as. Okay, the first thing you said. Sorry. Yeah, the first part I would just say to just making art more accessible, making art in your community is just to get out there and do it. There were so many times while we were starting the art center, we were just making it up as we went along. We did not know what we were doing. We were just doing the things that. Things that we thought would work and things that we wanted to see and just doing it. Even though I'm not even an artist, I studied exercise science in school, but I just wanted to see it happen. And so I just got out there and started trying things. So I would say, just get out there and try and try to make things happen. And it doesn't have to be fancy, and it doesn't have to be perfect. If I had waited till the perfect time and for everything to be exactly right and me to have all of my funding and all of our programming, that would have taken years. Right. We would just be now starting, but we just started and then just figured it out as we went. And I feel like that we learned so much more faster, and then things were actually happening and we were actually making a difference, which made us excited and then want to do more. So I would say get out there and do things. It doesn't have to be fancy. I mean, we just learned from this. Kids love cardboard. They just love cardboard and tape. You don't have to have all these fancy art supplies. Right. They're excited to have a couple of feathers and some glue. So you don't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to look perfect. You just do something and see how it goes, and then it's great advice. Yeah. Because I think lots of times it's like, that is the scary part. And just starting is just start and.

Melissa: Do, and it's amazing the opportunities that open up when others see what you are trying to do.

Tallia: Yeah, definitely. And, I mean, I think it took a few years. It took us a few years till we felt like, okay, we know what we're doing and we're accomplishing our mission. It took a while. It wasn't just overnight, and all of a sudden, everybody's giving us money and everybody wants to be a part of the art center. It took us a long time, but it was because we were doing things that more good things came our way. Yeah, absolutely. Doing things. That's most of my advice.

Melissa: It's good advice for almost anything. And what about just starting a nonprofit? Was that intimidating to kind of some of those hurdles?

Tallia: Yeah, I feel like it is a lot of work. And some of the best advice I saw about starting a nonprofit was like, first, look around in your community and make sure no one else is doing this work already so that you're not just duplicating it. You could just support them or you could support each other. And so once that was established that there was nobody else really doing this work and that we were going to start our own is I just went through, and I'm sure in other states they have this, but Utah nonprofit association has like a PDF file that had the steps that you do, and I just went through them. There's like maybe 20. Right. But having that was really helpful. And I bet that other states have that as well. And so it just showed you how to get all, what tax things you needed to file when you needed to do different things and in what order. And so that made it really easy. And then I just would say having an accountant and people that you can ask questions to while you're setting stuff up is also really helpful.

Melissa: Well, again, I'm just so impressed how you saw that need as a mother, and then you've worked hard to fulfill it, and it's great service you're providing. And I do have to ask, too, one last question, because you mentioned the children's museums that you've seen, and I know your bio on your website mentions the traveling. So for any travelers out there or those listening that might be close to one, what are some of your favorite other children's museums that you've visited around the.

Tallia: Oh, yeah, yeah. This is like, my favorite thing. I love children's museum. I'm so sad. My kids are old now because it's like you can't. I need to find some younger kids. So the Pittsburgh Children's Museum is like my top, top. It is the most amazing children's museum I've ever been to. Everything in there is so good. I love them. We lived there for a few years and I took my kids there all the time. Their art studio is so great, but all of their stuff, they work with artists to create exhibits is called tough art. And the exhibits that kids can interact with that are so cool. Everything they do, they awesome. Number one, the Children's Museum of Art in New York in Manhattan. That one is also really cool and also a big influence on us. Haven't been to their new space, so I don't know exactly what it's like right now, but that one is really cool. And it's just a children's museum. That's just art stuff. They have lots of cool things in it, and they also work with artists and have artists in residents there and have cool exhibits and stuff like that. Those are my top two, though. They're really great.

Melissa: Yeah, sure.

Tallia: I'll think of a whole bunch later after that.

Melissa: You're good. Well, you can tell how passionate you are about this work and creating these spaces for kids. And I love that you've seen these ideas in other areas of the country and you're bringing them back here to Provo. That's great service. Thank you so much for being here on the podcast today. Is there anything else you'd like to add for those that do our local and listening ways that they could get involved with the neighborhood arts center?

Tallia: Oh, yeah. So you can go to our website. It's just neighborhoodartcenter.org and we have a form there if you want to volunteer or get involved. We need lots of volunteers in the summer for our summer programs and stuff. Like also our Instagram is just neighborhood art center, and that is where we try to keep everything updated all the time about what's going on, funny art that kids make and just stuff like that.

Melissa: Great. I will put links to all of those in the show notes so others can find and learn more about you. Thank you so much, Talia, for coming on the podcast today.

Tallia: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. This is fun.

Melissa: That concludes my interview with Talia Feltus, the executive director and founder of the Neighborhood Arts center in Provo, Utah. So many good things from that interview. I love first how she shared she was just a mom with her kids and wanting to find a good community space where they could create and explore and seeing that there was a need for that in her community and deciding to be the one to create it. I think that's so admirable, just seeing that need from her own experiences as a mother. And now she's helping other kids to be able to have that space and those experiences as well. And then I loved how she walked us through their space. Sounds like such a fun place. I have not been there, but now I am so excited to take. I have a seven year old. I'm excited to take him there. I think he will absolutely love it. And what a great thing that they're doing. So many different areas, so many different ways to encourage kids creativity and exploring those different ideas. And I'm also, as I mentioned, just so impressed how hard they have worked to keep this space accessible. They have all these things they're doing there, and yet it's still affordable and accessible. As a mother, raising my own kids here in this area, I've tried to explore and do all those things ever since they were little and I have never seen a place that has so many different things that she explained and is also as affordable as it is. And I just think that is really, you can tell that's really important to her. They've made that part of their mission to keep it accessible. I think that's great that so many will be able to take advantage of that space because of their efforts to do that. And finally, she gave some great advice. For anyone that's wanting really to get involved with anything, just go and do was her advice. Don't wait until everything is lined up. Jump in, learn along the way and see what you can do and the opportunities that will come your way because you got started first. So great advice from Talia as well. I will put links to everything that she mentioned. If you want to go learn more about the neighborhood arts center, those will be in the podcast show notes and if you listened to this episode and enjoyed it, share it with a friend. Go ahead and share that link and let them know about learning about the neighborhood arts center. Or if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, we would love to have a great review or rating on Apple Podcasts. So thank you so much for being here. I'll see you next time.