Artea started as one South Melbourne studio and has since become the flagship of a small Melbourne-wide network, but the Alfred Place space is still where the business began and where most of its party bookings happen. Founder Helen Pollard built the name around two things she loves — art and tea — and that pairing shows up in how the studio operates: less about technical instruction, more about giving people a reason to sit down together and make something with their hands. Kids' birthday parties here can be built around clay sculpting, skateboard-deck graffiti, t-shirt design or baby handprint keepsakes, with Artea supplying the materials, decorations and activity leaders so parents aren't left setting up balloons at 7am. School holiday programs and an after-school ArtSmart program run for primary-aged children across painting, drawing, pottery and mixed media. For adults, the studio hosts paint-and-sip evenings, mothers' group sessions, hens' parties and corporate team-building workshops, all held in the same white-brick, wood-floored space that can be dressed for anything from a Mad Hatter's high tea to a simple casual sip-and-create night. The venue itself is compact but versatile, fitting parties of up to around fifty guests, and it's available for private hire outside of scheduled class times. For a five-year-old's birthday or a Saturday afternoon with friends and a glass of wine, the appeal here is the same: a working art studio that doubles as a genuinely fun place to celebrate, rather than a rented hall with a few paintbrushes thrown in.