Meet Syuzanna Arutyunyan | General Manager and Co-Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Syuzanna Arutyunyan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Syuzanna, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
The decision to open an art school came with a demand. Mher and I wanted to open a place where students could express themselves and explore their creative mind. There are many art schools where people can learn how to paint, but Cre8sArt School is a place where people learn by creating.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Cre8sArt School had been founded by Mher Khachatryan and Syuzanna Arutyunyan in 2012. Mher is a professional artist who started his path in Yerevan, Armenia. Mher earned his BFA in drawing and painting at the Art college of Panos Terlemezyan, and MFA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Yerevan, Armenia. Mher has won many awards, and he is an honored member of Artist’s Union of Armenia. He moved to the USA in 2006. Currently Mher Khachatryan is knows as The Smoke Artist (@the_smokeartist) and his interest is the beauty of the smoke and fire, the life and death. He escapes the limits of the real world through his art.

Syuzanna Arutyunyan is an Armenian-born Marketing Specialist who studied International Relations in Russia, and majored in Business Administration at Baruch College, NY. Syuzanna moved to the USA in 2008. She used to work in Fashion before opening Cre8sArt School.

We’ve decided to open our first art school back in 2012 because we believe that art gives voice. We wanted to open a place where students could express themselves and explore their creative mind. Cre8sArt School ignites our students’ imagination and makes their dreams a reality.

World had changed a lot in the past 2 years. We’ve been through a lot, and in today’s reality, art
gives hope, art helps to heal, art helps to build a self-esteem and switch from staring at screens to
focusing on paper and paint.

Here’s what we offer to help our community, to help our children: we offer creative art classes for different age groups, starting from 3 y.o. to adults. We offer Portfolio prep classes for teens.
We have BYOB and LYOP (bring your own bottle and leave your own problems) art classes for
adults to come and enjoy 2-hour painting session with friends. We offer art camps 9am to 3pm,
and extended hours 9am to 6pm for kids who’s parents have to be at work. We offer all these
classes to help our students to forge connection between their mind and body.

One of the most amazing things in Art is that you can speak any language you want, you still can
take our art classes. We have students from different backgrounds, they speak different languages.
and some of them don’t speak English at all, but we never had a problem with teaching Art,
because we all speak one universal language – Art.
Our potential student is any child who ever picks up a pencil and tries to create something. Our
potential student is any adult who wants to leave behind a stressful day and soak in relaxing art
world, and finally, our potential student is any elderly person who wants to stay active by
constantly using their mind and imagination.

Within a span of 10 years, we’ve opened 3 art schools in NJ. And
this is just the beginning. One of our team’s strength is to adapt and grow in any situation. As an
example, instead of panicking and being depressed, we became stronger and more successful
during Pandemic because we were able to react fast and started our online classes which helped
us to make money and keep our teachers’ positions. There is an interesting book called “Who
moved my cheese” by Dr. Spencer Johnson where he talks about different attitude towards
change, with cheese being what we consider success. If you haven’t read, I strongly recommend
it.
We have a team of 16 people from different backgrounds who make our school a very unique
place. Right now, we are working to expand our first location that we opened in 2012. We
outgrew it. We also working on developing an App that would help us to be more sufficient and
organized. With the help of the App we can increase our repeat business opportunities and
improve referral rates. We can boost new classes and camps adoption rates. Our mobile app will
offer convenient one-and two-way communication between us and our customers.
We are confident that our school helps many and would like to bring Cre8sArt to your cities.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We love to go to Mana Contemporary (cultural center) in Jersey City, NJ. We have our favorite spots for coffee and breakfast: Kuppi in Edgewater, NJ; Mavis in Fort Lee, NJ,

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Of course. First and foremost are our families. Without their support nothing would be possible. Wayne Dyer’s books and speeches had huge impact on us.

Website: https://www.cre8sart.com/

Instagram: @cre8sart_school_fortlee

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cre8sartschool?mibextid=LQQJ4d