Our New York City Story
Spark started in the small Upper West Side studio apartment of Sebastian Alappat. After a friend mentioned he should teach art to kids, he took it to heart and started with one student at his dining room table. Through a connection to a local school, Sebastian began running summer camps in his NYC backyard with the support of his wife Amanda.
In the early first years, Sebastian focused on teaching just art but being an avid yogi, he realized there was more that he could offer to make this small business stand out. He completed a WeeYogis certification for kids yoga as well as a Mission Be certification to become a mindfulness educator. These two new elements of yoga and meditation changed everything.
In 2018, Sebastian hired his first Teaching Artists to help spread the program. As a fellow creative, he saw the the value in teachers who were also artists on their own creative paths who love working with kids. Now Spark employs a team of incredible Teaching Artists that serve the five boroughs of NYC. Spark is always looking to work with people who share the same vision of helping kids thrive.
Because of Spark’s success, it outgrew its humble homegrown beginnings . He decided to open his own studio on the Upper West Side. Over the years, Spark has had multiple spaces but now employs a gorgeous sun lit studio on West 72nd that has become our base of operations.
Spark has been able to leverage the best of what the city has to offer to bolster and enhance the program. There are regularly scheduled trips to the BEST museums in the world: The Met, MOMA, Guggenheim and the Museum of Natural History. With sketch books in hand, the children draw, observe and develop an appreciation for some of the most famous artwork ever made. Spark also loves to use Central Park and Riverside Park as a way to forge a connection between kids and nature.
In the last decade since Spark’s inception, Sebastian and his talented team have taught and served thousands of kids. Currently, in over 20 schools as an enrichment provider, Spark continues to spread to Brooklyn, Long Island and now his new home state, Pennsylvania. Spark has multiple offerings from classes to birthday parties, holiday and summer camps, portfolio prep programs for kids looking to get into prestigious art high schools as well as pods, privates and virtual classes. In the Fall of 2024, he launched Spark Nature, a forest school program based in PA to add the 4th tool, nature, as another tool for children’s wellbeing. In 2022, he also created Spark Arts Inc, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to bring the arts to underserved communities both in NYC and his home of PA. In 2025, he launched the Spark Sticker Shop, a new low cost initiative for anyone to support the non profit.
2024-2025 Holiday Camps
The school year is here and we have the entire year of camps mapped out based on the DOE schedule. Sign up for our holiday camps and get your kids inspired with us!
