Moms and Money: Art Zone

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - Walking inside Art Zone is Nixa is like walking into a storm of glitter, paper, glue, and creativity.

“So today we’ve got our Valentines box making going on,” said Laura Rush, co-owner of Art Zone. “It’s a crazy day of glitter and all the fun supplies that you could possibly need for making your own Valentine’s Day box.”

A scan around the room during the Valentine’s Day box workshop and you’ll find all sorts of boxes. Anything from gaming monsters, pandas, mermaids, Harry Potter, and unicorns.

“They just come in and we will help them turn them into whatever their mind can create,” said Rush. " Whether that’s a Minion or Patrick Mahomes, we can do just about any of it.”

Art Zone is the brainchild of two friends, Cathy Russell, a teacher in Clever, and Laura Rush.

“She was my Zumba instructor and we started doing Zumba together, then we decided to kind of take over the fitness studio,” said Rush. “We kind of struggled for a bit that was taking a lot of our personal paychecks so from there, she always wanted and had the vision to have her own art studio.”

Rush said that vision included creating a space that fits into most families’ budgets.

“I worked with the homeless community for a very long time and then Kathy, just from her family history and so forth, that it’s always been a passion of ours to keep our prices low and have the single mom with three kids come in and be able to afford to create and make memories with her family with their family. It’s just a really important thing for us.”

Seven years later and one move across town and they’re still enjoying what they do.

“The kids having a blast, seeing the smiles on their faces and the laughing that they do,” said Rush. “That is the best part of it all.”

The Valentine’s Day box workshop was $6 dollars. To find out more about their events and programs click here.

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