🌺 AMAPOLA ARTS NEWSLETTER
September 2026
🌺 Hello, September!
We’re Back—and Creativity Is in Full Swing
September is here, and Amapola Arts is buzzing with creativity!
After a busy August of renovations and preparing for the season ahead, our refreshed studio is open and filled with artists again.
It’s exciting to see this next chapter taking shape: more opportunities to learn, more time and space to create, and more ways to gather—all while preserving the small, welcoming community at the heart of Amapola.
Welcome to fall at Amapola Arts. 🌺
🌙 SEPTEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Amapola After Hours: Finding Balance
Culture • Community • Creativity…After Hours.
📅 Friday, September 18
We’re launching something brand new this month!
On the third Friday of each month, join us for Amapola After Hours—an afternoon and evening dedicated to creativity, culture, community, and connection.
Our inaugural theme is:
🌿 Finding Balance
Come for one part of the evening—or stay for all three!
🌿 Amapola Restore
3:00–5:00 PM | FREE | REGISTRATION REQUIRED
Slow down, create, and reflect through a creative wellness experience centered on Finding Balance.
No art experience is necessary. Just come as you are and make a little space to create, reflect, and restore.
☕ Cafecito Social
5:00–6:00 PM | FREE
Gather around the table for Puerto Rican coffee, traditional pastries and treats, and good conversation.
No art-making required—just stop in and have a cafecito with us. ❤️
🎨🏺 Clay & Canvas con Cafecito
6:00–8:30 PM | Ages 21+ | Registration Required
End the evening by creating a Finding Balance-inspired work of art.
Choose your experience:
🎨 Canvas Painting — $60
🏺 Clay Handbuilding — $70
Your registration includes your selected creative experience and materials.
And because this is After Hours, you’re welcome to BYO one favorite grown-up beverage to sip while you create. 😉
✨ Space is intentionally limited to keep the evening relaxed, social, and intimate.
Register early to reserve your spot!
🏺 Beginner and Intermediate Pottery Are Underway!
The wheels are turning at Amapola Arts!
Both our Beginner and Intermediate Pottery Series are in progress this September, and it has been wonderful seeing new and returning potters creating alongside one another.
🌱 Beginner Pottery
Our Beginner potters are learning the fundamentals of working on the wheel—from centering and pulling walls to shaping, trimming, glazing, and finishing their own pieces.
There’s something special about watching someone go from their first tentative attempt at the wheel to that moment of:
“I made this!”
🌿 Intermediate Pottery
Our Intermediate potters are building on those foundational skills—strengthening their wheel-throwing techniques, refining their forms, experimenting with new approaches, and developing their own creative voices.
It’s exciting to see that progression from learning how to do something to asking:
“What happens if I try this?”
🌺 Ready to Learn? Beginner Pottery Returns in October!
Once our current series wrap up, we’ll return to Beginner Pottery twice each week, giving you two options:
🏺 Wednesdays at 5:00 PM
Next series begins October 21
🏺 Saturdays at 11:30 AM
Next series begins October 24
6 Sessions | Ages 16+ | $270
✔ No previous pottery experience required
✔ Studio tools and glazes included
✔ Step-by-step instruction
✔ Small-group learning environment
✔ Clay purchased separately
✨ Registration is open—choose your day and reserve your spot!
🎨📸 Creating One-on-One with Nino
Not everyone learns best in a group—and sometimes you simply want to focus on your own creative goals.
Our custom 1:1 Canvas Painting and Photography classes with Nino Morales are underway and available for beginner and intermediate artists.
🎨 Custom Canvas Painting
Build foundational skills, explore new techniques, or focus on a particular style or project through instruction designed around your interests and goals.
📸 Custom Photography
Learn to better understand your camera, strengthen composition, explore lighting, and develop your photographic eye through personalized instruction.
🌿 Your Goals. Your Pace. Your Creative Journey.
Sessions are scheduled individually, allowing you and Nino to create a learning experience that works for you.
Contact us to design your personalized Painting or Photography experience.
🌿 Make Amapola Your Creative Home
Founding Studio Membership
September marks the official launch of our Amapola Founding Studio Membership, created for artists who want to make creativity part of their regular routine.
$200/month
Membership includes:
✔ Unlimited Pottery Open Studio
✔ Unlimited Canvas Painting Open Studio
✔ Unlimited glazing & firing
✔ Full personal shelf space
✔ Full use of studio tools and equipment
✔ One guest pass
✔ 10% off retail purchases
Clay, canvases, and other consumable materials are purchased separately.
We want Amapola to remain a place where artists know one another, encourage one another, and feel at home. That’s why Founding Membership is limited to just 10 artists.
Your $200/month Founding Member rate is guaranteed for as long as your membership remains active.
🌺 Interested? Contact us to become a Founding Member.
🎨 Your Time to Create
Open Studio
Already have experience and looking for dedicated time and space to work independently?
Open Studio gives returning students and experienced artists the opportunity to continue developing their pottery or canvas work while creating alongside our studio community.
🎨🏺 Open Studio Schedule
Tuesday
5:00–7:30 PM
Wednesday
12:00–2:30 PM
Thursday
12:00–2:30 PM & 5:00–7:30 PM
Saturday
11:30 AM–2:00 PM
Handbuilding Pottery
Open Studio Passes
Single Session — $35
5-Session Pass — $165
Valid for 2 months + half-shelf storage
10-Session Pass — $300
Valid for 4 months + full-shelf storage
Open Studio is intended for returning students and experienced artists. New artists without previous Amapola Arts experience must demonstrate proficiency in their chosen medium and complete a brief studio orientation before participating.
Come when inspiration strikes—or make creativity part of your weekly routine.
📚 A Beautiful Evening at Amapola
Celebrating Maria “Clari” Cruz
What a beautiful way to begin our fall season!
We were honored to host Maria “Clari” Cruz and her family for a book-signing celebration of Get Heartset: The Evolution of the Soul.
Our newly renovated studio was filled with family, friends, books, art, conversation, and community. Guests gathered to celebrate Maria, explored the studio, browsed artwork, and connected with one another.
It was exactly the kind of gathering we envisioned when we began opening Amapola to more private and community events.
Thank you, Maria, for trusting us with such a meaningful celebration—and thank you to everyone who joined us!
🎉 Your Event. Our Space.
Looking for a unique space for your next gathering?
Amapola Arts is available for:
🎂 Birthdays
📚 Book signings
🥂 Showers & celebrations
🎨 Creative gatherings
🤝 Team-building experiences
📸 Intimate community and professional events
Rent our space for your gathering or work with us to incorporate a custom creative experience for your guests.
Contact us to start planning.
🦋 More Ways to Create
Looking for a shorter creative experience? We have options for children, teens, adults, and families.
🎨 Family Canvas Painting Hour
Ages 7–12 | Select Saturdays at 10:00 AM | $30
🏺 Family Pottery Hour
Ages 7–12 | Select Saturdays at 10:00 AM | $35
🎨 Create-in-a-Day Canvas Painting
Ages 13+ | Select Saturdays at 2:30 PM | $55
🏺 Create-in-a-Day Pottery
Ages 13+ | Select Saturdays at 2:30 PM | $65
Try something new, spend creative time together, or simply give yourself an afternoon to make something.
🤝 Creativity Beyond Our Walls
Amapola Arts continues to bring creativity into the community through partnerships, educational programming, workshops, and professional development.
We believe access to meaningful arts experiences shouldn’t end at our studio doors, and we’re grateful to work alongside organizations that share that vision.
🌟 The Belle Center
We continue our arts programming at The Belle Center, providing young people with opportunities to explore creativity, build confidence, and express themselves through the visual arts.
🍂 The Kenan Center
We’re excited to continue our partnership with The Kenan Center as part of its Fall ACRES programming!
This fall, Amapola Arts will bring two creative experiences to the Kenan Center community:
🎨 Creative Mixed Media Canvas Workshop
Explore color, texture, layering, and a variety of materials while creating a one-of-a-kind mixed media canvas.
🏺 Holiday Platter Pottery Workshop
Create and personalize a handmade pottery platter for the holiday season—perfect for your own celebrations or as a meaningful handmade gift.
We love opportunities like these that allow us to bring the Amapola experience into other community spaces.
🌟 Art + Learning
We also partner with schools and organizations to design customized creative and professional learning experiences.
Most recently, we had the opportunity to work with the team at Wee Can Preschool and Childcare through our professional development workshop:
Art as Expression in Early Childhood: Windows, Mirrors, and Meaning-Making Through Everyday Materials
Through hands-on artmaking and conversation, educators explored how everyday creative experiences can support expression, identity, access, and meaning-making for young children.
Whether we’re working with children, adults, families, educators, or community organizations, this work reflects something we believe deeply:
Art helps us express. Art helps us connect. Art helps us understand one another.
👀 Coming in October
🌙 Amapola After Hours: Let It Flow
📅 Friday, October 16
Our monthly After Hours experience returns with a new theme and new opportunities to create, gather, and connect.
Culture • Community • Creativity…After Hours.
Stay tuned for details!
🕒 Fall Studio Hours
Tuesday–Thursday
🕙 10:00 AM–8:00 PM
Friday–Saturday
🕙 10:00 AM–3:00 PM
Studio hours may occasionally vary due to classes, private events, exhibitions, community programming, or off-site events. Please check our online calendar before visiting.
📍 Join Us at Amapola Arts
Whether you’re looking to take a class, attend an event, explore our programs, or simply learn more about what we do, we’d love to connect with you!
🗓️ Register for Classes & Events https://amapola-arts-studio.breely.com/
🎁 Purchase an Open Studio Pass or Gift Card https://app.squareup.com/gift/MLP56DQ9WWY0M/order
🌺 Interested in a Founding Studio Membership? Contact us to learn more and reserve one of our 10 Founding Memberships.
🎉 Looking for Something More? Amapola Arts also offers commissioned artwork, photography, graphic design, and other creative services. We’d love to help bring your next idea or event to life!
❤️ Support Amapola Arts https://square.link/u/KCZb4FO4
🌐 Visit Our Website https://www.amapolaarts.com/
📧 Email Us info@amapolaarts.com
📞 Call Us (716) 617-0885
📍 Visit Us Amapola Arts 217 Highland Parkway Buffalo, NY 14223
❤️ Thank You
Seeing our renovated studio filled with people again has reminded us why we created Amapola Arts.
It isn’t simply about pottery, painting, or photography.
It’s about creating a space where people can learn something new, express themselves, slow down, connect with others, and feel like they belong.
And that community extends beyond our walls—from the artists creating in our studio each week to the children, families, educators, and organizations we have the privilege of creating alongside throughout Western New York.
Every class you take, piece of artwork you purchase, friend you bring to the studio, event you attend, and kind word you share helps this small, family-owned creative space continue to grow.
As we begin this next chapter, we’re grateful that you’re growing with us.
With gratitude,
Nino & Gliset Morales
Co-Founders, Amapola Arts 🌺
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