The students of AYP to ZED Art Academy are divided into 4 different age groups:

• KIDS Group (5-8 years old)
• BIG KIDS Group (9-10 years old)
• TEENS Group (11-14 years old)
• ADULTS Group (15-75 years old)

The sessions are of different durations:

• KIDS Group and BIG KIDS Group: One hour each week. The teacher is Miss Maral Panossian, together with assistant teachers.
• TEENS Group: An hour and a half each week. The teacher is Miss Maral Panossian.
• ADULTS Group: Three hours each week: an hour and a half with Miss Maral Panossian and an hour and a half with Mr. Jirar Panossian.

In the KIDS and BIG KIDS groups, we concentrate on encouraging them to express their own feelings and ideas by using their imagination. We try not to interfere too much, in order to respect their individuality and uniqueness in their artwork.

With the TEENS group, technically we train our students to get acquainted with the oil media, to prepare them for the ADULS program. We also encourage them to explore their inner world and express themselves in the language of Art by using both colors and forms.

ADULS projects are mainly in Oil color, as well as pencil, charcoal, pastel, and watercolor.

Students can experience their favorite themes: still life, landscape, figure and portrait, horses and flowers, perspective, modern and contemporary, symbolic, or free style painting, etc.

Each student in the ADULTS Group will graduate from the Academy and will participate in the Graduation Exhibition, only after finishing 4 years of the Academy’s Drawing and Painting program (8 semesters). As we believe that a big part of our knowledge in Arts is passing to our students, we believe also that these exhibitions give a great motivation to them, together with the Evaluation classes inside the Academy which are held every two years also.

In Ayp to Zed Art Academy, each scholastic year is divided into 2 semesters. Each semester is 4 months.

• FALL semester: beginning of October until the end of January.
• SPRING semester: beginning of March until the end of June.

Back on January 7, 2006, when the Ayp To Zed Art Academy was inaugurated, we knew then that an uncertain journey was ahead of us with 14 students registered to the school. The excitement was great in a future so unclear. We had a plan to expand the school to 40 students in three years’ time…
Fortunately, reality proved different. After three months of its inception, the number of students increased to over 60, and the academic year ended with 90 students. 40 more students were on a waiting list due to limited places. The following year, the Academy was expanded to host 217 students.

As for kids and teens, the excitement of the parents was obvious. We noticed how the parents were eager to see their children attend creative classes, a place where they can nurture their taste and at least stay a few hours away from computer addiction.

Nevertheless, the most encouraging aspect of the Academy remains the enthusiasm of our students to learn and discover the secrets of art.

Through the years, more than 300 ladies with family responsibilities have attended the Academy and showed great interest and passion for the classes. Keeping their love of art in their hearts and minds since their childhood and teens, these mothers attend the Academy today to revive their old dream and enrich their daily life with art and creativity. They consider their once-a-week three-hour session a means of therapy – art therapy.

The Lebanese people have been through hard times in the past four decades, and to get away from difficult lifestyle that has been created, they have chosen the path of art to satisfy their spiritual thirst. They firmly believe that they are capable of attaining the Good, Beauty and Truth through the path of art. The Ayp To Zed Art Academy, through its task of spreading the love of art, is certainly taking part in the spiritual reconstruction of this beautiful country: Lebanon.

Art Directors
Maral and Jirar Panossian