Learn to see, and your whole world changes. Visual art classes, hands-on workshops, and 1:1 mentorship for every age. Taught across the parks, gardens, and museums of New York by Ileana Lado, a first-generation Cuban-Mexican artist and educator from The Bronx.
After a decade in the city's classrooms and museums, she teaches art as a way of seeing: rigorous, culturally rooted, and open to anyone.
A teaching practice rooted in New York's cultural and educational institutions.
Nearly a decade of teaching across the city's museums, public schools, nonprofits, and universities — past and present roles below.
Upcoming Classes
Learning to See: Drawing at the Brooklyn Museum
A free drawing class for adults — the five essential elements and sighting, practiced from a sculpture. All levels. RSVP required.
Saturday in the Garden: A Parent & Child Art Afternoon
One grown-up and one child make art together — watercolor and oil pastel among the flowers. All materials provided.
Intro to Watercolor: Seeing Green in Prospect Park
A plein air intro to watercolor — learn to see and paint the green of the trees. All materials provided. All levels.
What People Are Saying
Recent and ongoing work.
A selection of museum classes, workshops, and mentorship from across the practice.
Objects of Reflection
Make a Splash
Offsite Launch Workshop
Portfolio Mentorship
Ileana Lado
A working artist and educator — first-generation Cuban-Mexican, from The Bronx.
Ileana is a practicing multidisciplinary artist whose own work in drawing, painting, printmaking, and photography is rooted in documentation, lineage, and cultural memory. She teaches from inside the practice — not from a textbook — which is what lets her show students how artists actually see, decide, and make.
That artist's eye is paired with nearly a decade in the classroom. She teaches at the Brooklyn Museum and serves as an artist-in-residence with the Basquiat Project in NYC Public Schools, and through Learning with Lado she brings both sides — the maker and the teacher — to small-group classes, one-on-one mentorship, and workshops across the parks, gardens, and museums of New York.
More about Ms. Lado →