• Avant-Garde Preschool

  Partners & Spade, 40 Great Jones St., nr. Lafayette St.; 646-861-2827

  There are plenty of ways to learn about art in New York, but they’re likely not as exciting as seeing real artists at work, in the madcap atelier of designer Andy Spade. Spade, husband of designer Kate and mastermind of the Jack Spade label, and partner Anthony Sperduti began last year to invite artists to their Nolita shop to inspire young ones (including the Spades’ 5-year-old, Bea) to explore abstract concepts like color, shape, and form. Since then, contemporary artist Karen Kimmel has demonstrated how to use stencils, and the artist collective ConfettiSystem taught kids to create holiday ornaments. (The next class is a collage project with Donald Baechler this Saturday, March 13.) Sign up at partnersandspade.com to be added to the e-mail list, and respond fast when the invites go out: The first twenty lucky kids are in. A suggested donation of $30 per class goes to the art program at P.S. 126.

From the 2010 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine