Our Story

Art Box Workshops was established in 2011 from a shared vision between artist-educator Julia Sawicki and her mother, Basia Zieli?ska, an experienced primary school teacher, art therapist, and lifelong creative. What began as a small studio offering school holiday workshops has become a thriving, values-driven arts education company that inspires the next generation of artists to connect deeply with their creativity, community, and the environment.

Our roots are personal, sparked when Julia became a mother and sought to combine her background as an exhibiting artist with her growing passion for teaching, after running workshops during her time exhibiting at Sculpture by the Sea. Basia generously offered her garden art studio to launch what became Art Box Workshops, and together they co-created an engaging curriculum aligned with the NSW education syllabus, balancing traditional and contemporary art practices.

We’ve nurtured thousands of children in Neutral Bay and beyond for over a decade through our school holiday programs, after-school classes, and online learning platform. Our programs are designed to be immersive, supportive, and joyful. They encourage students to explore various art forms—including drawing, sculpture, printmaking, mixed media, and painting—with a strong emphasis on technique, imagination, and self-expression.

Art Box Workshops organises public art exhibitions for the students to showcase their works annually.

Our Studio in Neutral Bay

Art Box Workshops’ Neutral Bay Studio is a creative haven just a 10-minute walk from the main bus stop on Military Road and only minutes from Neutral Bay Public School. Nestled in a peaceful residential setting, our studio offers a safe, nurturing environment where children can explore various art media.
We facilitate classes from indoor and outdoor studio spaces, each thoughtfully designed to support creative learning. The latter has transparent cafe blinds that can be rolled down with heating during the colder months.

– During term-time after-school classes, we host a maximum of nine students in our indoor studio to ensure calm, focused learning with lots of individual support.
– We expand into our beautiful outdoor garden studio for our school holiday workshops, accommodating up to ten students per session in a more open, nature-connected setting.

The indoor studio is a treasure trove of artistic inspiration. One wall features a floor-to-ceiling library of art books, while another is lined with shelves fully stocked with professional-grade materials for painting, sculpture, printmaking, and collage. A third wall is filled with rotating displays of inspirational artwork.

Natural light floods the space through skylights and a wall of windows overlooking Basia’s vibrant garden—a lush private space with a lawn and a covered seating area where students enjoy their meal breaks.

Every detail of our studio is designed to spark imagination, support self-expression, and offer children a holistic and enriching art experience, connecting them with their inner creativity and the world around them.

Our Vision for 2025 and Beyond

As Basia transitions into retirement and now offers only private one-on-one tuition, Julia is leading the next chapter of Art Box Workshops with a renewed focus on sustainability, mentorship, and environmental awareness.

In early 2025, after a parent raised concerns about potential allergens in studio acrylics (specifically PEG 200), Julia began a mission to create handmade art materials, using traditional methods with natural, non-toxic binders and  Earth Mineral Pigments. This has led to the successful development of watercolours and wax crayons, and a child-safe alternative to acrylic paints is currently in development.

This pivotal shift inspired a new holistic direction:
– Training future art educators in sustainable studio practices
– Developing a mentorship program focused on after-school art programs
– Creating a curriculum centred on animals, the environment, and threatened species
– Introducing children to eco-friendly printmaking and mixed media techniques
– Offering slow-art workshops that include making your art materials from Earth Mineral pigments

The studio’s Term 2 art classes have started to incorporate sustainably sourced Earth Mineral Pigments, with many projects themed around the preservation of natural habitats, reserves, Indigenous cultural areas like Kariong Sacred Land, the Hanging Swamp, and Kincumber Wetlands, and coastal marine areas Julia has engaged with through nature education programs.

What We Believe

We believe that children are natural advocates for what they love. By empowering them with the tools of visual art—rooted in the fundamentals of colour theory, drawing, sculpture, and printmaking—we offer more than just an art class. We nurture young Earth guardians, helping them understand how their creative voice can inspire awareness, advocacy, and meaningful change.

We aim to provide age-appropriate, artistically rich learning experiences that teach students how art materials are made, using traditional development methods, why sustainable choices matter, and how imagination can be a powerful force for environmental awareness.

Looking Ahead

As we grow, Art Box Workshops is committed to:
– Expanding our reach through mentorship and staff training programs
– Collaborating with like-minded educators and communities
– Sharing our model of sustainable, creative, child-centred art education

Whether you’re a parent, teacher, carer, or creative professional who shares our values, we’d love to connect and explore how we can bring this vision to more children, locally and beyond.

Together, we can inspire a generation of artists who care about their work and the world in which it is created.