Artenia Beast's Academy of Play and Whimsy is located at 5265 H Street, Sacramento, CA 95819.
We lease our space from The Table, a progressive Methodist congregation.
Our school opened October of 2014 with two classrooms. We have grown to 5 classrooms, including a huge play space full of light and over 2600 square feet of exploration space. The outdoor play space is a natural playground where children explore, create, and grow close to the natural world.
Artenia Beast is directed by the same creative team behind Art Beast Children's Studio in midtown Sacramento. Artenia Beast herself is of course advising our efforts from far flung corners of adventure and mischief.
We offer full and part time (M/W/F or T/TH) care for children between 2 and 6 years old. We do not offer half-day schedules.
Our hours are 8:00 am to 5:30 pm Monday through Friday.
Artenia Beast's Academy of Play and Whimsy is a licensed child development center operating with license 343620093.
Our employer identification number (EIN) is 47-1487750
To learn more or to be added to our list of interested families:
Call: Vy Tran Vinluan 916-601-2586
Email: vy@arteniabeast.com or blithe@arteniabeast.com
Director Biography: While Artenia undertakes a 26 month trek to the furthest flung corners of The Republic of Nauru, the academy and directorship has been entrusted to Blithe Raines. Blithe is co-founder of Waking the Village. In that role, Blithe has directed Tubman House and Art Beast Children’s Studio. Tubman House is a community for young parents and their children overcoming homelessness. In addition to supporting staff and providing direct service to resident parents, children, and staff at Tubman House, Blithe co-created and supported an onsite child development program for infants and toddlers. In 2009, Blithe co-founded Art Beast Children’s Studio to offer Sacramento’s families a place for dynamic art exploration and a play space for ages 0-7. Art Beast also generates funding for Tubman House. Prior to founding Waking the Village, Blithe taught for five years at Mustard Seed School at Loaves and Fishes where she designed project based curriculum for a multi-age classroom and worked intensively with children experiencing homelessness. Blithe received her Bachelor of Science Degree at U.C. Davis in Applied Behavioral Science with an education, race, and ethnicity emphasis. In 1999, Blithe teamed with Bridget Alexander to lead 17 youth experiencing crisis on a 2,300 mile bike trip across America. To date this is still one of her proudest memories. Blithe is the mother of three children. She profoundly believes that early childhood should be steeped in play and she is devoted to creating and maintaining environments that allow children to grow and community to blossom.
Vy (she/her) is the director of Artenia Beast's Academy of Play and Whimsy preschool that serves over 70 children between the ages of 2-6. She has been with Artenia since it first opened in 2014. She holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Child Development. She also holds a Director's permit from the California Commission on Teaching Credentialing. Since 2019, Vy is also a part-time lecturer at Sac State and an Adjunct Professor at Cosumnes River College. Since the summer of 2021, she also works part-time as a Leadership Development Director under Waking the Village's Teacher Brigade pilot. Vy believes that children thrive through play-based environments where children can be their unique selves, build secure attachments with caregivers and have opportunities to be creative, build friendships and feel a sense of home when they are away from home. She also believes that children need daily doses of process art, music, STEM, storytelling and outdoor play. She loves that she can work directly with children while also teaching college students and ECE teachers best practices when they work in the field of early childhood.Vy is originally from Stockton, CA but has been living in Sacramento since 2008. Vy currently lives in River Park with her husband Cris and is expecting her first child in 2024!