Beth Hall / The New York Times
A class at Painting with a Twist, a so-called paint-and-sip studio, which mixes art and alcohol, in Bentonville, Ark., Sept. 9, 2017. The paint-and-sip trend has been growing for nearly a decade, as more and more people seek diversions in experiences rather than in buying things.
Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017 | 2 a.m.
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — On a rainy Friday evening in August, customers trickled into an art studio in a strip mall on a busy main road here. The crowd, mostly women, chatted and swarmed a bar for wine and beer before taking stools at paper-covered tables and turning to the task at hand: painting.
The group was settling in for a so-called paint-and-sip class, an increasingly popular activity that mixes art and alcohol. The trend has been growing for nearly a decade, as more and more people seek diversions in experiences rather than in buying things. Paint-and-sip classes are now offered in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and London.
The gathering this evening was at a local outlet of Painting With a Twist, one of the fastest-growing chains in a category that also includes Bottle & Bottega, Pinot’s Palette, and Wine and Design. (Entrepreneur magazine listed Painting With a Twist this year among its 50 fastest-growing franchises.)
The larger chains have hundreds of locations, but single-outlet operations are cropping up as well, attracting adults who want to relax, socialize and flex their artistic muscles.
“We don’t really see this trend ending anytime soon,” said Marci Freede, who opened the Paint Place on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 2014 and added a second location, in Astoria, Queens, last year.
Whether run by franchisees or sole proprietors, the classes have a similar structure: An artist offers step-by-step instructions on how to paint a predetermined image. While they paint, customers enjoy an alcoholic beverage of their choice (or, if they prefer, coffee or water). And when they finish, they get to keep their creations. Classes can cost $35 to $65 a person, depending on location and format.
Cathy Deano, a founder of Painting With a Twist, which is based in Mandeville, Louisiana, said that most participants had not done much painting, if any, before taking a class, and that having a few sips of wine helped tame what she called the “white canvas anxiety” that novice artists can feel when starting a painting. “It just relaxes them,” she said.
“I tell my husband, ‘It’s like going fishing,'” said Susan Jean, the proprietor of Painting With a Twist’s Bentonville, Arkansas location. “You drink a little, talk a lot and bring something home.”
Jean, 59, said she had always wanted to run her own business and had decided on a paint-and-sip shop after taking a class with her sister. She is not an artist herself: “I can’t paint a wall,” she said with a shrug.
She hires local artists to teach the classes, while she and her daughter, Katie Collins, run the business. Some classes are open to anyone; others are geared toward couples or “girls night out” groups. Companies also schedule classes as team-building exercises or fundraising events.
The paint-and-sip trend has been driven in part by a generally heightened interest in wine, said Ben Litalien, an instructor in the franchise-management certificate program at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies.
But, Litalien said, consumers were also increasingly being drawn to experiences that engage them and allow them to express themselves, “rather than simply buying something.” Other examples of experience-based businesses that he cited included Top Golf, where customers play golf-related games, and “escape rooms,” where participants solve puzzles together.
The growth of such businesses may reflect the findings of recent psychological research showing that people are happier when they have an experience rather than making a purchase. In a 2014 article in Psychological Science (title: “Waiting for Merlot”), researchers at Cornell University and the University of California, San Francisco, found that just the anticipation of experiences could be more pleasurable than the anticipation of buying merchandise.
Starting a Painting With a Twist location requires an initial franchise fee of $25,000; total upfront costs, including that fee, can run from $89,000 to $188,000, depending on location. The company’s franchise agreement calls for a seven-year commitment. Annual gross revenue for individual outlets averages about $388,000, according to Painting With a Twist.
Litalien said that demand for so-called experiential classes
