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“We are going to hold more creative art classes for adults over the next year,'' said MacBeath. “January we are doing an interim watercolor class, February a traditional painting class, March an Irish step-dance class and in April an artisan craft fair.”
The candle-making class was a partnership with “Scent for Cents,” a business focused on selling affordable soy candles. Giammarco-Moquin said Total Arts!, which she co-founded with MacBeath, partnered with “Scent for Cents” to promote local businesses in the Peabody area.
“We thought that a pour-your-candle workshop would make a great event and would benefit both our businesses if we joined forces for a fun event,” said Giammarco-Moquin. "Partnerships with other local artisans and instructors are a big part of our mission at Total Arts!”
Giammarco-Moquin and MacBeath met when their daughters started attending the same dance classes in 2019. The two began thinking about creating a business that would introduce a wide range of arts to children. In March of 2020, the two established “Total Arts!,” a pop-up business that offered different classes for different ages.
“We teach as low as newborns to 3-year-olds and as high as fifth-graders,” said Giammarco-Moquin. “For the younger children, we have a storytime class or a music class that lets the parents relax for a while and (for) the older children, we have more advanced classes like writing and creative projects.”
Most of the classes took place online in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. MacBeath said that for virtual classes, the two would put all of the materials in a box and have them prepared for participants. In 2021, classes moved toward an in-person setting and “Total Arts!” opened its first facility in Peabody in September.
The two business owners hope that the introduction of adult creative-arts classes will bring more customers to their business and help them meet their mission statement of sharing the creative arts with everyone.
“We have a love for the arts and we want to share them with adults and children,” said Giammarco-Moquin. “We have several more ideas in the coming year.”
