Top 10 Places for Art Education at Disney World

I love art. And I especially love the moment when someone who thought they were "not an art person" stops in the middle of a busy theme park and stares at something beautiful without even realizing it.

Disney World is full of those moments. And most people walk right past them.

So this month's Top 10 on the 10th is dedicated to art educators, classroom teachers, school counselors, curious families, and Disney fans who want to see the parks through a different lens. These are not the obvious spots. These are the ones worth slowing down for.

Here are my Top 10 places for art education at Walt Disney World.

10. The Cinderella Castle Mosaic Murals (Magic Kingdom)

Most people rush through the castle breezeway on their way to Fantasyland without stopping. Please stop.

Inside Cinderella Castle, five stunning mosaic murals line the walls, each one retelling the story of Cinderella in breathtaking detail. The panels are fifteen feet high, contain over 300,000 hand-cut pieces of Italian glass in more than 500 colors, and include genuine sterling silver and 14-karat gold. They were designed by Disney Imagineer Dorothea Redmond and painstakingly assembled by German mosaic artist Hanns-Joachim Scharff.

Here is the part I love most for art education: the color choices are intentional storytelling. Anastasia is tinged red with rage. Drizella is green with envy. Two of the figures are actually portraits of legendary Imagineers Herb Ryman and John Hench, the men who helped bring the castle itself to life.

Art Education Connection: Mosaic technique, color theory, visual storytelling, and the relationship between art and narrative.

Counselor Connection: This is a beautiful way to talk about the power of perspective. The same story can be told in a hundred different ways. What details did the artist choose to highlight? What does that tell us about what matters?

9. Impressions de France (EPCOT — France Pavilion)

Tucked into the back of the France Pavilion at EPCOT, inside the Palais du Cinéma, is an 18-minute film that has been playing every single day since EPCOT opened in 1982. That is not a mistake. It actually holds a Guinness World Record for the longest-running daily screening of a film in the same theater.

Impressions de France sweeps you through the French countryside, cathedrals and châteaux, Versailles, Normandy, and Paris by night, all set to French classical composers such as Debussy, Ravel, and Saint-Saëns. The film is projected across five screens in 200 degrees, so you are essentially surrounded by France.

Before or after the film, do not miss the exhibit inside the lobby, "Tales as Old as Time: French Storytelling on Stage and Screen." It features six galleries showcasing the costumes, music, and artwork that brought French literature to life through cinema, theater, ballet, and opera.

This is a front-of-house lesson in how music, cinematography, and visual art work together to create an emotional experience.

Art Education Connection: Film as an art form, musical composition, cinematography, French Impressionism, and the connection between visual art and music.

Counselor Connection: When did you last sit still and let something beautiful just wash over you? This is a 20-minute permission slip to breathe. Model that for your students.

8. Mary Blair's Grand Canyon Concourse Mural (Disney's Contemporary Resort)

You do not have to be a hotel guest to walk into the Contemporary Resort. You just have to walk in. And when you do, stop and look up.

Nine stories above you is a ceramic tile mural created by Disney Legend Mary Blair, the artist behind the visual language of It's a Small World, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. The mural spans three massive walls, stands 90 feet tall, is made of 1,800 hand-painted tiles, and took eighteen months to design, produce, and install. Blair drew inspiration from Pueblo murals, Navajo ceremonial art, and sand paintings, and the colors, those signature Mary Blair colors, the avocados and corals and turquoises, are unlike anything in any art class textbook.

There is also a five-legged goat hidden in the mural. Blair reportedly included it as a nod to a Southwestern Native American belief that nothing made by man can be perfect, because man is imperfect.

Look for it. Then have a long conversation about what that means.

Art Education Connection: Ceramic and mosaic art, mid-century modernism, color theory, Indigenous art traditions, and artist biography.

Counselor Connection: The idea that imperfection is intentional and beautiful? That is an SEL lesson and a half right there.

7. Walt Disney Presents (Hollywood Studios)

This attraction is easy to skip. It looks like a gift shop from the outside. Please do not skip it.

Walt Disney Presents is a self-guided gallery exhibit inside Hollywood Studios featuring one-of-a-kind sketches, original concept art, architectural models, costumes, photographs, and artifacts that trace the creative history of The Walt Disney Company from Walt's earliest years through today.

It ends with a 15-minute documentary, Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, featuring rare audio recordings, historical footage, and home movies. Sneak peeks of upcoming projects are sometimes shown in their place, which is honestly a whole different kind of art education.

For anyone who teaches creative process, design thinking, or the idea that vision plus persistence equals something remarkable, this room is your classroom.

Art Education Connection: Concept art, storyboarding, architectural design, illustration, and the creative process from idea to execution.

Counselor Connection: Walt Disney was told no. A lot. There is a whole career exploration and growth-mindset lesson in this building if you are looking for one.

6. Coming Soon: Olaf Draws! Inside The Magic of Disney Animation (Hollywood Studios)

This one is not open yet, but it is absolutely worth putting on your radar right now.

Late summer 2026, The Magic of Disney Animation opens inside the newly reimagined Walt Disney Studios area at Hollywood Studios. And the centerpiece that has every art educator in the Disney world buzzing? An experience called Olaf Draws!

Brought to life as an all-new Audio-Animatronics figure, Olaf welcomes guests into a space inspired by one of his most memorable moments from Once Upon a Studio, sitting at an animator's desk, joyfully discovering the art of drawing. Josh Gad recorded original dialogue for the experience, and the drawing classes are guided by real Disney Animation artists through recorded tips, techniques, and stories from inside the studio.

There will be nine different variations of the show, each teaching guests how to draw a different Disney character: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Ursula, Genie, Stitch, Olaf, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, and Moana, each led by an actual Disney animator or animation director.

But Olaf Draws! is just one piece of the larger experience. The Magic of Disney Animation also features Off the Page!, a character meet-and-greet hub where guests can meet beloved Disney characters across six unique departments of the animation studio, each space highlighting a key stage of the creative process. And for the younger crowd, the Drawn to Wonderland playground features an oversized flower garden with musical instruments, a Mad Tea Party playset, and a Tulgey Wood exploration area, all inspired by Disney Legend Mary Blair's original Alice in Wonderland concept art.

This entire space is a love letter to the history of Disney animation, and it replaces the former Star Wars Launch Bay in a building that, back when Hollywood Studios opened in 1989, was a working animation facility where actual Disney films, including Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear, were created. Coming home, indeed.

Art Education Connection: Character drawing, animation technique, the creative process from concept to screen, and the careers of real working animators.

Counselor Connection: Olaf's whole thing is warmth, curiosity, and believing in the best in people. There is no better character to sit next to while you try something new and maybe mess it up a little. That is exactly the kind of learning environment we are always trying to create.

5. The France Pavilion Architecture (EPCOT — World Showcase)

Before you even get to the film, slow down and look at the pavilion itself.

The buildings of the France Pavilion were designed to evoke La Belle Époque, the period from roughly 1870 to 1910 that gave the world Impressionism, Art Nouveau, and the original Eiffel Tower. In fact, the small Eiffel Tower replica at the back of the pavilion was built using Gustave Eiffel's original blueprints, scaled to about one-tenth the size of the original.

There is also a small park area designed to evoke Georges Seurat's famous pointillist painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. And the area around Remy's Ratatouille Adventure was deliberately designed to evoke the Paris of Hector Guimard and the post-Impressionist painters like Seurat, Matisse, Gauguin, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

The entire pavilion is essentially a walk-through art history lesson.

Art Education Connection: Impressionism, Art Nouveau, architectural design, and art history from the late 19th century.

Counselor Connection: Context changes everything. Where we are shapes what we notice. Disney understood that before most schools did.

4. The World Showcase Pavilions as a Whole (EPCOT)

While we are in World Showcase, it is worth saying out loud: every pavilion is a study in how architecture, landscape design, art, music, food, costume, and cultural detail come together to create a sense of place.

Morocco, Japan, China, Mexico, and Norway each involved real collaboration with the governments and artists of those countries to create something that felt authentic rather than generic. The mosaics in the Morocco pavilion alone are worth a slow walk-through. The woodblock prints and gardens of the Japan pavilion. The folk art and hand-painted tiles throughout.

Pick one pavilion. Go slowly. Ask: what choices did the artists and designers make, and why?

Art Education Connection: Global art traditions, architecture, landscape design, cultural context in art, and design as a form of communication.

Counselor Connection: World Showcase is one of the most accessible tools I know for talking about cultural humility. Every culture has art. Every culture has something worth stopping for.

3. The Art of Animation Resort (Disney's Art of Animation Resort)

You do not have to stay here to walk the grounds.

Disney's Art of Animation Resort is a living museum of the animation process. Each of the four themed areas, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Cars, and Finding Nemo, is filled with larger-than-life character sculptures, hand-painted murals, and design elements that walk you through how a two-dimensional animated film becomes a three-dimensional environment.

The detail work is extraordinary. The color choices are specific and intentional. And walking the property with an art-curious eye gives you a completely different experience than just checking in and heading to the pool.

Art Education Connection: Animation, production design, color and scale in design, and the translation of 2D art into 3D environments.

Counselor Connection: Every character in these courtyards overcame something. That is not an accident. Disney chose these stories for a reason.

2. The EPCOT International Festival of the Arts (January – February)

Every January and February, EPCOT transforms.

The Festival of the Arts brings in working artists from around the country, sets up gallery booths throughout World Showcase, and offers guests the chance to participate in a giant collaborative paint-by-numbers mural, watch chalk artists create full-scale character portraits, learn to draw Disney characters in sessions led by real animators, and browse and/or purchase original Disney-inspired fine art.

There are also live Broadway-style performances on the main stage, an exhibit inside the France Pavilion celebrating Disney on Broadway, and an interactive scavenger hunt that turns the whole park into a gallery.

If you are a teacher, school counselor, or Disney fan who has never been during the Festival of the Arts season, put it on your list. It is worth planning a trip around.

Art Education Connection: Fine art, illustration, chalk art, animation, musical theater, and art as a community experience.

Counselor Connection: This festival is proof that art is not a solo act. It is something we create together. What would your school look like if it felt like this?

1. Everywhere You Slow Down Enough to Look

Here is what I really believe.

Disney World is one of the most intentionally designed places on earth. Every color, every texture, every sound, every smell, it was all put there by someone who cared deeply about the experience of the person walking through.

That is art. Not just art on a wall. Art as intention. Art as environment. Art is the feeling you get when you walk under the train station at Magic Kingdom, and suddenly the whole world changes.

The most important lesson in art education Disney World can teach is this: art is not something that happens in a museum or a classroom. It is something that happens in the space between what was designed and what the person experiencing it feels.

Slow down. Look closer. Ask why.

That is the lesson.

Which of these spots is on your must-see list? Drop a comment and let me know. If you want help planning a trip that makes the most of every art-forward moment Disney World has to offer, I would love to help.

Counselor Clubhouse is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The Walt Disney Company. All Disney references are used for educational and inspirational purposes only.