Hongyun Art

A great art school.

My kids love Hongyun Art and we have been going there for 3 years. We also referred many friends and classmates, many of them we bump into at pickup or drop off. The staff is well organized and friendly. Some teachers also have advanced degree in child development and child psychology.
I feel the biggest and most significant growth I’ve seen with my kids going HYA is their confidence in expressing themselves through paper and pen/​pencil. Before HYA, my kids will often get frustrated at the quality of artwork they produced; especially my younger one, as she always wants to compare her work with her older sister. Through classes and camps, my kids have improved their art skills but more importantly learnt that it is ok to not be perfect but have confidence that they can make improvements. To me, this is more valuable than just perfecting a drawing.
We have been really happy and impressed with HYA’s classes and programs, including TA programs and parent classes. And most importantly my kids just love, love, I mean love going there.

Hongyun Art School (HYA) is more than a visual arts school. Kids learn about color, design new products, write comic books, practice academic drawing, and tell stories of their art works, using different medias and state of art technologies.
Like Leonardo da Vinci, many inventors were great artists. HYA distinguishes itself by emphasizing creativity, leadership and entrepreneurship, creating a youth training camp for the next generation Silicon Valley leaders and innovators. Its TA program and party team are especially fun for my children, having a chance to help others and instilling self-​confidence as a reward.
HYA also helps students work on their personal branding /​identity cross art studio, school and home. Teachers encourage kids to have fun with arts only after completing work at school and home with good effort. Kids have personal attention from teachers, who provide detailed and encouraging periodic written feedbacks. In addition, Hongyun is always available, stepping up to be a great mentor to help individual kid build good foundation not only in arts but also in character. My children enjoy their weekly class at Hongyun Art for the last 6 years and that’s the Happiest Classroom in the Bay Area.

They charge 45 for try out class, the classroom is very crowded, instructors are high school students, don’t know how to handle kids. The supervisor for small kids is super rude, yelled at student.

I’m not big on 5-​star reviews. Just check my history.
We tried a different art school nearby for our four year old son. He is now five. Although his teachers were nice and probably good artists we saw little value from our decision to enroll him. There didn’t appear to be any structure.
One of the reviews here and a drop-​in at Hongyun’s upper school got me interested in trying. They have an audition system which you pay $ 45 for. I didn’t mind because I am a business owner and we charge for our initial client interaction. The art my son produced on his first day blew away anything he had ever done in school or at the other school. I was sold. Here is a summary of the reasons I give them 5-​stars:
1. Kids produce quality art that pushes their imagination. It always includes multiple characters and a story. They are also required to fill the page with color, meaning no white spaces.
2. Their philosophy includes socialization and becoming sensitive.
3. The business appears to be tightly and efficiently run.
4. After the first few classes kids walk to their classrooms alone. Front desk staff doesn’t accompany them.
5. No waiting room and no area for parents. We must leave. They don’t give in to the Bay Area crazy helicopter parent mentality. They kick you out. I love this.
Hongyun is definitely a business and it probably bugs some people but as a business owner in Cupertino I get it. They are always upsetting but so what. If your kid is learning to love art and produce wonderful pieces as they continue to evolve, that’s a pretty good deal in my book.

there are too many commercials and they are more interested in recruiting than teaching. lots of superfacial shows. the so called TA kids are teaching other kids. they tried initially have higher level kids teach the lower level ones and pretty soon I found they even have the same level kids teach the same level. it is very cheap practice and you are paying hefty price for that. i bet you kids hardly even talk to hongyun.

My children tried different art studios /​schools before finally settling down at Hongyun. We tried day-​care type of art studio (fun, but not systematic enough), art museum drawing classes (great environment but courses too easy), traditional art studio (one or two teachers running everything, not professional enough and with limited scale-​ability).
Two years ago, we dropped in Hongyun’s annual celebration at AMC Cupertino by chance, and their idea of «Art = Skills + Creativity + Communications» turned out to be just we were looking for. Hongyun students are grouped by levels, what they call «Clouds». Students learn drawing, creativity and communications skills specific to their levels /​Clouds. They are tutored by different teachers each semester so they have the best of sketch, comic, oil painting, etc. This is a real school environment, in which kids level up step by step, in a structured way. (And they have clear, reasonable, strict school rules, too).
I found my kids super happy at Hongyun. They come home with big smiles, interesting experiences, and about every two weeks, with a drawing /​project — these vary from cartoon, sketch, acrylic painting and oil painting, to fashion accessory and 3D art work. I can feel the dynamism in class, and the inspiration and fun shared among teachers and classmates. And each school year, upper-​level students have an art field trip, where they go to places like Stanford and Montalvo to do outdoor sketch. My kids really look forward to these trips.
The school has formed unique leadership programs, including student TA (teaching assistants), and Party Team (conducting volunteer /​charity events as well as paid birthday party service). These are for selected students, but fun and educational.
However, as my kids grow older, I start to worry if the school program can sustain to high school juniors /​seniors. Good thing is that recently I heard they are expanding to divide into Lower School and Upper School. Need to find out more about this later.

i would not recommend to send your kids to this place. the teachers are lack of patience and short of love. my daughter is 6 and she moves a lot and the teacher dislike her and showed no patience. Besides this place is tinny. Not recommended.

I am a local artist who usually teaches in the classroom at elementary schools throughout the Bay Area, but decided during the summer to try teaching in a studio setting. I don’t remember quite why Hongyong was the studio I decided to interview with, but when I got there, I was mortified. Instead of treating the teaching artist applicants with dignity and respect, they herded us from room to room in large groups like cattle. I then discovered that the class they were looking for teachers for was the three and four year olds, which is a bit younger than my expertise. Hongyong continued to insult me a few days later she emailed me and said that despite my extensive teaching experience and degree in art that my portfolio «was not strong enough» to teach preschoolers. I was a very disappointed with their method and lack of respect for other artists in the community. I will not be sending my children here.

They have a huge van parked for day’s in our neighborhood in San Mateo at a spot where it is blocking the view to a dangerous intersection. Phone is not answered. Left voicemails to move the van to no avail.
This is NOT the way to advertise your business.