about chris
artist. facilitator. participant.
HCPC registered art therapist · artist · artroom.online founder
Chris Smith is an HCPC registered art therapist — but he'll be the first to tell you that's not the primary lens through which he shows up to artroom.online. His training informs how he understands creative expression, but in the group he is an artist who makes work alongside everyone else.
His understanding of art expression is shaped by years of practice, clinical training, and a genuine belief in the value of making things. He founded artroom.online as a place where that belief could be put into action — freely, openly, and every Thursday.
why artroom.online
artroom.online began with a simple, stubborn belief: that making things matters. Not making things well. Not making things for an audience. Just making — for what it does to the person doing it.
Chris's years of practice and clinical training shaped that belief, but they also revealed how rarely people who could benefit most from creative expression are given access to it without a referral, a waiting list, or a cost. artroom.online was founded to close that gap.
Every Thursday, Chris makes work alongside the group — not above it, not apart from it. The role of facilitator is held lightly. The role of artist is held with full commitment. That order of priority matters.
what we believe
Inspired by outsider art — work made without training, without permission, without apology. Authentic expression over polished product.
01
individuality above all
Your hand, your mark, your style. No two responses to the same image will ever be alike — and that's the whole point.
02
use what you have
A pen, a smudge of lipstick, the back of an envelope. Materials don't make the artist. The impulse to respond does.
03
no judgment. ever.
Work isn't graded, critiqued, or ranked. This is a space entirely free of comparison.
join us this thursday
Come and make something. No referral, no waiting list, no charge. Chris and the group are on Zoom every Thursday — just show up.
every thursday · 6:30 – 8:00 pm · zoom · free · open to all
