New location makes Born to Be Arts Academy city’s largest arts centre

The Born to Be Arts Academy has completed its move into a far-larger space at 52 High Street West, with many more rooms, an expanded program, and a dozen more teachers.

The Academy is a charitable project of the Moose Jaw Church of God. Co-director Kyleigh Coad said it was not an evangelical project and did not require that students share their faith — rather, they operate as a safe place for children to learn the arts.

“We believe that Moose Jaw needs a place for kids to belong, to be welcome, and to just feel loved,” she explained. “This will be our 11^th year. We started with 25 kids and within a couple of years we ballooned up to 100, then 200. And this year, we have 450 registered so far for our fall session.”

Jessika Kopp, co-director with Coad at the Academy, said that they were delighted with the turnout for the Grand Opening. Hundreds of people showed up for a hot dog and a tour of the facility.

“It’s been really steady. People have been coming in that are new to our studio, along with lots of old faces. … We still have a few spots open, but sign-ups have been great. I think it’s because we added so many programs that there’s just lots of options for everybody.”

Luke Johnson is the studio’s drums, guitar, and bass teacher. He said he’s enjoying the supportive environment so far and praised Coad and Kopp for their community-oriented leadership.

Johnson can’t wait to get started. He has private lessons, group classes, and homeschooling groups coming in throughout the week.

“So, I’m the Taekwondo instructor here,” Daniel Mundell said. “I’ve been doing Taekwondo for about a decade and teaching it for about four years.

“Kyleigh and Jessika are great people to work for. Today (the grand opening) has been going great, there’s been lots of people around asking questions, lots of interest. It’s exciting.”

Many programs are offered at the Academy. They are able to offer low prices because the Church of God rents the building for them and supplements instructor salaries.

It isn’t a business, Coad said, so we don’t have to follow a business model. This is something the Church of God is doing for the community, with no ulterior motives.

Programs include:

• All styles of dance, including acro
• Hands-on, full-technique art classes
• Sculpting
• Painting
• Glassblowing
• Photography
• Videography
• Taekwondo
• Kindermusik
• Voice program
• Triple Threat Theatre Company — singing, dancing, acting, and producing musicals
• Drums
• Guitar
• Bass guitar

Easy sign-up for classes is available online at www.borntobe.ca.