It has been one week since we had to close the studio doors and what a week it has been. One of moving through the typical stages of shock and grief for most people, I’m sure. That has certainly been the case for me personally.
The most encouraging thing has been the outpouring of support from our customers and fans. We are so grateful for everyone taking their time to send us messages and while we haven’t yet been able to reply to everyone, know that your positive thoughts mean so much.
We are only available by email during this time as no one is in the studio to answer the phone. Please ensure that both our regular [email protected] and our [email protected] email addresses are in your ‘safe sender’ lists so that you don’t miss any communications from us.
Current Class Students
For anyone who was in the current session of classes or workshops, we have paused all classes and will resume as soon as we are permitted to safely re-open. If we have an online option for your class, we will send you the details via email once it’s available.
Birthday Parties
In person parties are being rescheduled into May and beyond. Should you not wish to reschedule your party, we have two options:
- Apply the fee to another program (can be for any person), merchandise, or service.
- Have a virtual birthday party. We provide individually packaged materials and loot bags for guests and lead everyone through a project using an online platform.
After School Program
Our after school families have received a separate, specific email from us – please look out for it.
Online Classes
Online classes are something we have wanted to offer since we began, but the logistics of filming are a bit tricky at the moment. We can’t have the team in the studio to film (even one at a time) due to government restrictions on non-essential business workplaces. So, we’re testing some options and deciding what works best. We want to continue to bring high quality arts instruction to our customers, so we’re not going to settle for just anything online.
Cancellation and Refund Policy
For now, in line with our existing policy on cancellations and refunds, we are only providing credits for future programs for any fees already paid. We are waiving our administration fee of $25 on transfers should you wish to make changes to registrations (change of session/week or change of student).
We are expecting that summer camps will still go ahead as planned. Should this change, we will be in touch with all current registrants.
Keeping busy: Window Art
We’re working on some online resources to keep everyone busy while staying home. One thing we recommend is window art! There are a few lists circulating across social media for what to put in your window on which day. We can’t even remember what day it is though, so we think you can just put up something new in your windows everyday. Whether people are going for walks or drives, it’s fun to look at everyone’s window galleries.
Supporting local small businesses
If you’re local to our studio, you likely know that most of the businesses around us on the Danforth are also small businesses run by local women or women and their partner.
In case you didn’t know, commercial tenants have no government protections for their leases. The landlords hold all the cards. Ours has been helpful in this time, allowing for a partial deferral of April’s rent until we are reopen. That is the major reason why we are hopeful that we’ll be able to weather this difficult time. Other local businesses are not as fortunate. Regardless, everyone is hurting by being closed or not having dine-in options. If you’re able to continue to support online sales or take out/delivery from local businesses, please do!
Stay safe everyone. We hope to see you all very soon!
Jennifer and the Create Art team
