Julie Stover
"The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." -Marcel Proust
Graduating with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a degree in Art Education & a minor in photography, Julie continued her studies after her move to California with an emphasis in Art History and Western Civilization from UC-Santa Cruz.
After owning & running a successful design business with her husband for over eight years, Julie started (and still co-owns for over nine years) ArtHouse Kids Studio, a fine arts studio in Willow Glen that provides art technique classes & art history to children of all ages. She also has created & managed after-school enrichment classes to over 12 schools in the local school districts.
Julie has developed numerous programs for schools from "Art & Autism" classes to the "Kids As Docents" programs for special needs children where children assist with art, discuss & start to understand others disabilites, in the local schools. She is an avid supporter of local artists and has started a very successful annual venue called "Art As Gifts", to showcase & purchase local artists gifts in downtown San Jose. She also has created numerous ways to fund art in the schools such as the creation of "art cards" made by childrens art & holding sales of childrens pieces to fund parent & child "Art Nights". She is thrilled to be a part of Starting Arts, to finally realize her mission to provide the arts, in all forms, to all children which is desperately needed.
Julie still, above all, is moved by teaching, having taught in the Bay Area Schools for over 15 years. "What I love is reaching that child that hasn't experienced much, but watching them create something from their imagination which has already taken them farther than most of us can dream. It is our job to teach, to nuture, to get GOOSEBUMPS over that journey....And the best? Watching their parents faces & their own at a creation that they are bursting with pride over."
Julie lives in Willow Glen & has two very creative & wonderful teenage boys.
