We're on a mission to put art back in schools, classrooms, and homes to make a more colorful, exciting and joyous world.
our six pillars
Our founding vision is to serve teachers, homeschoolers, families, and self learners all over the world who want to learn art, access beautiful art curriculum, and share the joy of creating.
We believe so strongly in getting art curriculum out to everyone all over the world. Our goal is to always strive to keep all of our curriculum affordable, so that learning art is within reach for everyone.
We feel a great responsibility that through our lessons we are helping to nurture creative expression. It is a responsibility we do not take lightly and will always work as hard as possible to produce materials that meet your needs.
We see the creative process and the visual arts as a counterbalance to the overuse of screens in school.
We believe art has a great potential for playfulness and exploration, and work to ensure each lesson is instilled with the creative, playful mindset.
Our goal, first and foremost, is to make teaching art easy and stress-free. You do not have to have a background in art education to teach our lessons. Each lesson is open-and-go and easy to use.
We believe that the arts are the key to a well-rounded, advanced academic curriculum. Our lessons demonstrate thoughtful integration with other subjects such as ELA, Science, and Math. Our lessons combine technique, art history, and creative expression, and we're never done adding new content to the site.
The name Kiarroscuro is a riff on the Italian word, Chiaroscuro (pronounced "key-ar-o-scuro"), the visual representation of light and shadow on a three-dimensional object. Coined by artists in the Renaissance, Chiaroscuro translates from the Italian "Chiaro - Light" and "Scuro - Dark." Artists still use this technique today to create depth and dimensionality in their work.
Who is the team behind Kiarroscuro?
Our founder, Deb Karpman, is a veteran art teacher and professor who saw with her own kids how little exposure they were getting to visual arts education. An avid YouTuber and Tiktoker, Deb gets immense happiness and fulfillment from helping students all over the world learn art skills. Every lesson on this site is created with utmost care and craft, and a deep belief that art should be accessible to everyone.