LINCOLN SQUARE — Two childhood friends will open a play-based art studio for kids next month in Lincoln Square.
Owners Jinny Choi and Lois Song will open Bunny Ears Art House in April at 4541 N. Lincoln Ave. The studio will allow parents and children to explore their creativity while experimenting with art techniques.
“It’s for children of all ages, starting at age zero and going all the way through elementary school,” Choi said. “It’s play-based and process-based, which means that we focus on the process of making art and not the end result.”
Children at Bunny Ears will get to learn about and experiment with art materials and techniques and then use that knowledge to discover how to create a work of art on their own, Choi said.
“It’s the joy of discovery. We they we want them to figure it out for themselves, like how does this paint and this paint mix together? What color is this going to make?” she said. “What’s going to be the result of using these two different materials? We don’t necessarily tell them because we want them to figure things out for themselves. It’s very open-ended.”
Choi and Song — who have been friends since the third grade — are former public school teachers and trained artists who like to joke that this is their second business venture together, Choi said.
“We actually started our first business together on the playground,” Choi said. “In third grade during recess, we would take orders for custom friendship bracelets and beaded earrings, stuff like that. And we collected money on the playground.”
Choi has an Illinois professional educator license, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in art and education and previously taught grammar school students in Boston and Washington, D.C. She also lived in South Korea for a couple years to learn traditional folk crafts.
Song has bachelor’s of fine arts in art education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is a potter and freelance graphic designer and a former Chicago Public Schools art teacher.
“I think that really sets us apart, because we do have degrees in this. It’s not just a hobby that we grew into a business. It’s something that we’re professionals in,” Choi said.
The friends took time off of work to raise their children and, during that time, started talking about how fun it would be to open a studio like Bunny Ears because they love working with children and designing play-based art curriculums, Choi said.
“It took a while for us to figure out the name of the place. But we have this picture of us doing like bunny ears on each other. We took it when we were about 10 years old. So that’s where the name comes from,” Choi said. “And opening this new studio kind of brings back our childhood memories of starting our first business on the playground.”
After hatching their plan, the friends received a nearly $185,000 community development grant this year from the city to help launch the business.
Neighbors may already be familiar with Bunny Ears from the pop-up booth Choi and Song ran during last year’s Lincoln Square farmers markets and events like the Square Roots music festival and Lincoln Square’s Apple Fest, Choi said.
“We’ve met so many supportive community members through those markets. People … would come every week ask what our new activity is,” Choi said. “People have been positive about having something for the kids at the market almost every week so kids can go make something while their parents go look at produce.”
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