Personal Mentoring for art Educators

Personalized support for educators who want to start, develop or grow their own classes, workshops, programs or art studio.

“My 1:1 Mentorship is a personalized 1–2 month program designed to help art educators and creative entrepreneurs move from ideas and questions to a clear, practical plan.

This isn't a prerecorded course or a one-time consultation.

We work on your actual program together.”

-Kate Bulgakova, founder of Art Backyard, who holds a Master’s degree in Architecture and a Master’s degree in Art Education

How 1:1 Mentorship Works

Start by completing a detailed questionnaire about your experience, ideas, current challenges and what you'd like to accomplish.

This helps me understand where you are now and whether my mentorship is the right fit for what you need.

Apply

1

If we're a good fit, we'll identify the most important goals for our time together and create a direction for your mentorship.

Instead of trying to fix everything at once, we'll focus on the changes that can make the biggest difference.

We define your goals

2

Throughout the mentorship, we'll work through your questions, decisions and next steps together.

You'll leave our meetings with clear actions to take — and we'll use the next meeting to evaluate what's working, solve new problems and keep moving forward.

We work together for 1–2 months

3

You build while we work

4

This is important.

Mentorship isn't just about talking or collecting information.

Between our meetings, you'll be doing the work — developing your program, testing ideas, creating offers, improving your marketing or taking whatever steps make sense for your goals.

Then we refine things together as you progress.

Who Is This For?

This mentorship may be right for you if you're:

An art teacher who wants to build something of your own.

A creative person who wants to start teaching but doesn't know where to begin.

An independent art educator trying to turn classes and workshops into a sustainable business.

A new studio owner who needs help with programs, pricing, marketing or organization.

An established educator or studio owner who feels stuck and wants a fresh perspective on what comes next.

Get Started

Why Work With Me?

I'm Kate Bulgakova — an architect, art educator and founder of Art Backyard.

I've built Art Backyard from an idea into a working creative-education business, developing classes, camps, workshops, birthday programs, school programs, online educational products and teacher training along the way.

My background in architecture and art education also shapes the way I approach creative teaching: not simply as making beautiful projects, but as helping students think, explore, design, problem-solve and create independently.

My mentorship combines those two worlds:

education + business.

Get Started
A group of children and two women sitting and standing on the stairs of a historic building with tall white columns, a decorated ceiling, and ornate architectural details.
Young woman working on a stained glass mosaic art project, coloring with paints on a design that has various colored glass pieces outlined in black.
Colorful cardboard cityscape with painted buildings in blue, red, purple, yellow, and pink, featuring cut-out windows and cardboard sidewalks with painted trees.
A young girl in a blue dress standing in front of a large colorful pop art style painting of a living room with a sectional sofa, coffee table, shelf, and dining table in the background.
A young girl in a blue dress standing next to a large metallic blue balloon sculpture of a dog by Jeff Koons inside a Broad museum in Los Angeles. The background features a glass wall with reflected architectural details.
A young girl in a black dress with white heart patterns looking at a classical marble statue of a woman in a museum. The statue is on a pedestal against a gray wall, with an informational plaque nearby.
Young girl painting a colorful picture of a vase of lavender flowers on a canvas propped on an easel, with art supplies scattered on the table.
A hand-drawn illustration of a castle with towers, mountains in the background, and a boat on water in the foreground. There is Russian text written across the top of the girl and a small rectangular section with a person on a boat.
A group of children and a woman sitting on steps outside a modern building with a white facade, columns, and a sculpture of a figure raising a hand.
A young girl with blonde hair smiling and holding a cardboard model of a bridge and buildings in front of a white wooden door. The model has the word Jesse, Florence Italy, and 1345 written at the top.
A young boy sitting at a table outdoors, reading a book titled 'Discovering Architecture' with a garden in the background.
A diorama of a building made from a cardboard box with white painted geometric patterns, placed on a brown cardboard base with the words 'Pompidou Centre PARIS' written in black ink. The top of the building has small colored marker pens, plastic bott