Oksana King, Founder of Dropinart

My love affair with drawing started when I was a child. Sitting and doodling in class – much to the dismay of my teachers – or sketching at my desk at home in Kyiv when I had important homework to do, was my favourite pastime. Without even realising it, drawing became my therapy, the way I thought, dreamt and created stories.

Princesses, ballerinas, girls and people’s faces were my favourite subjects to draw, but there were also plenty of horses, birds, dresses and shoes making their way into my maths and physics notebooks – you could always tell when I was especially bored :-)).

As an adult, I never gave up drawing and painting. They remained my greatest passion, even while I built a career in teaching.

Dropinart was born not only from my love of drawing and art, but also from another passion that came later in life – community leadership, project management, and creating meaningful learning opportunities for people of all ages.

With Dropinart, I wanted to create a space where visitors to busy shopping centres could step away from the hustle and bustle of shopping and reconnect with creativity through drawing, painting and other art forms – calming, meaningful and screen-free activities that we all need more than ever these days.

So many times while walking through shopping centres – sometimes with my husband Peter, sometimes with my two children – I wished there was a place where we could pause, recharge and do something creative together. Unfortunately, that usually meant leaving the shopping centre altogether… but not anymore.

At Dropinart, you can create, rest, dream and reconnect with yourself through art in the middle of your busy shopping day.

We look forward to meeting you soon.