Everyone is an artist, according to Magda Dia, who owns and operates Jump Into Art studio located at 708 N. Church St. in Historic Downtown McKinney.

“It’s my job to develop [the students’] creativity through nurturing and loving kindness during my classes,” Dia said. “I believe I can help them find their own artistic voice.”

Jump Into Art began in 2011 at a room in the McKinney Art House and opened in the historic Davis-Hill Carriage House in September 2017.

“Jump Into Art is a safe environment where we play with a variety of different mediums and work with visiting artists, and we just let everyone create,” Dia said. “We are here to develop the whole person through nurturing, and when they get positive feedback from their peers, they feel better about themselves.”

Although Dia is quick to tell her students she is not a classically trained artist, she said her background as a concierge provided her with the skills to be a “solver of all problems.”

“For art, I do tons of research to break it down, so I know how to show my students to achieve what they desire,” she said. “They learn mosaics, 3-D, watercolor, clay, batik—you name it.”

Dia said the path to her own art studio was a perfect storm.

After taking classes at McKinney Art House, owner Sona Knox needed someone to run the studio’s birthday party program.

“And she asked me if I wanted my own room,” Dia said. “I prayed about it and took on the room, and instantly my classes tripled in size and I outgrew my space there.”

The most popular classes at Jump Into Art are the after-school and home-school multimedia classes.

“We do everything under the sun,” she said. “This isn’t a paint-by-number studio. It’s about letting me guide them through their creativity with loving kindness.”