A Happy Place Grows in Scarsdale
Article by Drew Kramer
A happy place is a space, physical or mental, where one feels most carefree. It is where I can let my freak flag fly highest, unafraid to fail or feel judged. To interview the founder of an art studio that sparks joy and zaps inhibition, naturally, we went to Metro. After making our rounds at the local coffee shop where everybody knows our names, we settled down with grilled cheese and fries to discuss the one year anniversary of Happy Place—an arts and crafts studio that helps children grow through creative expression. Dressed on brand in a smiley emoji patched beanie, Happy Place founder and Scarsdale Mom, Abby Spivak, is an artist with a business plan. While her resume reads strategic and deliberate at first glance, I soon learn that her path from big corporate retail to local creative business owner is a lesson in connecting the dots of life as they come.
Born in the wilds of Short Hills, New Jersey, Spivak spent her childhood doodling and dancing. In college at the University of Pennsylvania, Spivak tried to figure out what it meant to be a creative professional. Majoring in communications with art and art history minors, Spivak did a lot of painting and graphic design, but didn’t know what to do with it after school. Excited by fashion and the art world, she gravitated to media. After stints in the fashion closets and on the art teams of Cosmo, Teen Vogue and Ralph Lauren, Spivak eventually landed in product development at Macy’s. Selecting fabrics, prints and analyzing profit margins, she made the creative decisions and ran the business–a perfect schooling for eventual entrepreneurship.
Later, as the director of brand marketing for GapKids and babyGap, Spivak began to draw the connection between her love of art and children. Running marketing campaigns that featured kids as she began to have her own, Spivak learned how to appeal to parents and children on the job and at home. When COVID rendered her GAP content creator and 24/7 parent to her then 2 year old daughter, Spivak added art teacher to her skill list. Producing content with her kids, Spivak discovered that she loved coming up with new projects (like teaching the Gap audience how to personalize a jean jacket) and getting her hands dirty.
Upon moving to the burbs in 2022, Spivak felt inspired by the burst of female entrepreneurs in the Scarsdale community. This was her moment to pursue her dream of making a meaningful difference for kids through hands-on art experiences. With a leap of faith, Happy Place Creative Studio was born. Noticing that there wasn’t a place for process art in lower Westchester, Spivak differentiates her brand of art education by prioritizing the experience of making art versus the output. While some of her classes end with a take home piece, the goal is not to produce a perfect unicorn painting. Rather, her aim is to encourage sensory exploration with the materials and classic art education to encourage uninhibited self-expression and confidence-building. In Spivak’s view, when speaking of her youngest students, “if you come out of the class 10 weeks later with a new friend and tolerating paint on your hand for the very first time, you’ve grown.” Although most parents aren’t aware of the Process Art movement, as Spivak says, “parents do appreciate the development of children through art.” Spivak wants to give families a forum for artistic expression that might not exist in every home. “Not everyone is comfortable getting messy in their own space,” says Spivak, “but all see its value.”
Not a teacher by training, but eager to bring that value to kids, Spivak began by seeking the guidance of Gabrielle Felman, child therapist and owner of Community of Play – a child-led and grown-up supported play space located on Weaver Street in Scarsdale. Reflecting on their early conversations, Spivak humbly credits Gabby for “taking a chance on her.” One year after launching her business at Community of Play, Spivak now teaches there six times a week. Outside of the play space, she teaches at Westchester Reform Temple, Greenacres Elementary and regularly pops up at birthday parties and in backyard pods across the county. Spivak aspires to meet families where they live, leveraging passion points, like fashion, and connecting to current events and pop culture in age appropriate ways. Her free-to-be-me approach to art education, outside-the-box projects and elevated brand aesthetic keep children and parents coming back for more.
At the mention of more, I ask Spivak to dream big. What more does she want for her Happy Place? A space of her own to house the art and retail concept of her fantasies? Maybe someday. An adult art offering for Scarsdale’s underbelly of former AP Art students turned soccer moms? Yes, please (and this is already well underway!). Already embroidering, patching and hand-painting gifts under the Happy Place umbrella, Spivak’s prior life in retail makes a curated assortment of giftable clothes and art kits feel like low hanging fruit for future growth. But as she says, “there is something to be said for remaining a local source for creativity.”
At Happy Place Creative Studios, it’s all on the table. And I’m here for that.
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