12 Ways Art Teachers Can Indulge in Art Teacher Fun This Summer

Congratulations—you made it through the whole school year! You said goodbye to students, and now it’s time to recharge, play, and connect. Summer is a great time to slow down for simple pleasures and guiltless indulgences. Browse our menu to see what ideas catch your eye for a fun, restorative summer. Start with easy, light refreshers, then move on to seasonal specials, bigger bites, and a literary course that will be the cherry on top of your break.

This summer is the perfect time to indulge in all of the decadent art teacher treats you miss.

Summer Refreshers

After a school year of constantly being on the go, the first day of summer break can be a dramatic shift. Start gently with a light schedule. Simmer down and take it slow the first week or two to adjust. Do the things you can’t do when you rush off to school every morning. Allow yourself to daydream and take glorious, healthy naps!

Here is a sample of refreshing choices for the first couple of weeks of summer vacation:

1. Take time to sit, enjoy—and finish—your coffee. 
   Savor that leisurely coffee at a cafe with a friend who “gets you.” Decompress with laughter and stories of another crazy school year, and dream about summer plans.
2. Relish the current moment.
   Bask in slow moments and experiences that chill your mind and body after months of overstimulation. Take time to luxuriate in the glimmers. While practicing mindfulness throughout the year is helpful, now is a great time to dedicate to it.
3. Whip up something just for fun.
   Cool your nervous system with centering coloring, drawing, or artmaking. Open-ended creative play without an end product in mind is deeply freeing and stimulates creativity.

Seasonal Specials

Design your summer palette with a schedule that creates a relaxed summer rhythm. Find joyful ways to reconnect with the people who matter most to you—family and friends. If others give you energy, add lots of adventures to your calendar! If being around others is draining, stick to a few, intentional meetups. Whatever you do and wherever you go, be curious and embrace wonder!

Connect with your friends through these artsy invitations:

1. Gather around the creative table.
   Serve up a few artmaking “play dates” over the summer. Gain ideas and build energy with your art buddies in a playful, fun get-together. Your group can work on similar ideas or media, or work side-by-side on individual projects. Create freely without teaching, and share snacks, playlists, and materials.
2. Capture the best bites of your summer.
   Join your artist friends this summer for a photo challenge. Make it a collaborative activity to complete the prompts together or turn it into a competition. Share your weekly drops online, vote on each other’s favorites, and cheer for one another along the way.
3. Sample a variety of libraries. 
   Explore your neighborhood’s Free Little Libraries with a friend. Keep an eye out for the wonderfully unexpected spin-offs, too, such as stick libraries, bee libraries, mug libraries, and the free little art galleries!

Bigger Bites

One of the biggest hurdles for art teachers is returning to artmaking once the school year ends. The other is keeping up the artmaking practice once the school year resumes. Every art teacher’s summer is different, with its own pace and responsibilities. Start small with quick, no-fuss artmaking and work up to bigger schemes if you have the time. If you make it a quick, practical part of your regular routine now, it will be easier to maintain later.

Keep your creative basket well-stocked so you never run out of inspiration:

1. Give yourself permission to make a mess.
   Sample playful exploration during your first week of break, as mentioned above in Summer Refreshers. Doodle in a sketchbook, experiment with collage scraps, or test new markers. Take a “bigger bite” and embrace making gloriously bad art. Lower the stakes, follow your curiosity, and let momentum build.
2. Feed your goals with a healthy routine.
   Cook up ideas for your summer studio and set goals for summer artmaking. Before diving into projects, consider the creative rhythm you want to build. Many artists rely on simple routines that make showing up easier, such as starting after breakfast and a walk, tidying the studio first, or keeping materials visible and ready. Small rituals can make creativity feel more approachable and sustainable.
3. Support your craving to learn.
   Satisfy your artistic appetite with a summer art workshop. From local park districts and community studios to immersive retreats such as Ox-Bow or programs designed specifically for art teachers, grow your confidence with unfamiliar media while reconnecting with the joy of making.

Literary Course

Do you read novels? Do you like a good picture book? Are you interested in the connection between art and wellness? Here are books to satisfy your summer appetite. Support your favorite independent bookstore or local libraries. Many depend on visitors to cultivate a creative community. While you search for the titles below, embrace the serendipity of unexpected finds along the way.

Taste test these summer reads:

1. Treat yourself to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
   This book blends a coming-of-age story with art, grief, obsession, and crime. When your creative energy needs a reset, disappear into a really good story like this Pulitzer Prize summer escape! Don’t worry—there are plenty of other art crime books, too.
2. Pair your summer day with the delicious book, The BIG Important Art Book (Now with Women) by Danielle Krysa.
   Krysa is a Canadian mixed-media artist, writer, and podcast host who wrote this delectable book with eye-watering photos! The book focuses on contemporary artists with quick, engaging text.
3. Dig into a healthy dose of forward thinking in The Art Cure by Daisy Fancourt.
   This book validates what art teachers already know deep down: creative experiences are healthy! Fancourt researched and documented how creative experiences can reduce stress, support well-being, and help people reconnect with themselves.

Give yourself permission and time to relish your summer break. Summer offers art teachers something deeply valuable: space to realign with the creative parts of themselves that often get tucked behind lesson plans, grading, and classroom routines. Through playful exploration, artistic community, restorative rest, and meaningful inspiration, summer becomes more than a break; it becomes a decadent season of creative renewal.

What menu item are you most excited about?

How are you going to refresh, celebrate, and connect with art enthusiasts this summer?

To chat about ways to indulge this summer with other art teachers, join us in The Art of Ed Community!