A Glass of Café Keeps The Arts Alive and Thriving in Valencia
By: Jomar Jaramillo and Paige Farley
Are you looking to find a place where you can discover your creative niche while also kicking back with affordable coffee and cocktails? Well, look no further! Here at Playground Art Center, you can do just that!
Located in Valencia, Spain, this unique and creative space is a chill hangout to sip on some coffee and cocktails. With an inviting atmosphere, visitors are able to unwind with their drink of choice and a selection of books to read from. It also employs its location as an art academy for different disciplines.
Here, they hold classes for all ages, as well as all skill levels. Some of the classes they offer range from art classes for young children to mature adults, to video gaming techniques and English lessons.
“I also had a lot of inspiration to do my own work. I wanted to work and learn to do many things. I had a fire inside to rebuild something and break walls and do good. That kind of thing,” said the owner Christopher Peña on why he opened the art center.
Many local and international artists also come here to showcase their talents.
Steliano Ipsalon, a performer here at PAC, expresses why it is important to have a place like this in a community.
“This whole structure is umm it’s beautiful because it’s like a center where everyone can express themselves with art, music and uhh everything,” said Ipsalon.
“This whole structure is umm it’s beautiful because it’s like a center where everyone can express themselves with art, music and uhh everything,” he added.
While many visitors come for the classes, others come solely for the beverages. Ana Sebastian reveals she is one of these visitors.
“We come, sit down, we had a coffee with milk and spend an afternoon,” she said.
After taking in all Playground Art Center has to offer, it’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy their best drink: a Mojito.
An Hour of English
With tight close seating areas playground offers a good place to hold English lessons.
Meet, Michele Schalin, the woman behind the class. Every Tuesday and Saturday at 7 p.m. she holds an hour-long Socratic seminar to help her students maintain the English they have learned.
Here at her table, she chooses one topic to have an open discussion about.
She allows the conversation to flow naturally, but if she notices one of her students who are not as proficient in English staying quiet she will open the floor for them.
For a linguistic lover such as Victoria Munoz groups like Schalin’s help her retain the English she learned growing up.
She expressed why she enjoys returning to Schalin’s table talks.
“It’s not like it’s your turn, it’s your turn, it’s the other people’s turn. It’s like keeps flowing the conversation, which that’s nice,” Muñoz said.
For homework, Schalin sends out ted talks and for the topic, I joined in on, we talked about the correlation technology has to the level of human happiness.
From the classes held in the playground art center, it has brought a new source of revenue not only to the cafe but also neighboring businesses.
“From this business, all the other ones have started to gain and they are taking advantage of the people coming in to grow their businesses as well,” said Peña.
Aside from these classes playground offers more classes during the summer so be sure to come to support them and visit their next scheduled activity.
