Maybe you burned through your vacation time over the summer or need alone time at home to get ready for the holidays. Regardless, if you are looking to preoccupy and engage your kids—outside of the house—during winter break, consider a creative option: Winter Art Camp! Each artist-designed week includes playful discussions and activities in the art galleries followed by studio projects where kids experiment using different techniques, ideas, and materials. Every Friday, campers get their 15 minutes of fame as we install their art work for friends and family to see and celebrate.
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Here’s what we have in store for young artists this winter:
December 19–23
Kids ages 6 to 9
Artist Caitlin Lainoff’s supply list for her camp week might win for being the most eclectic. What will campers be doing with neon paint, wacky scissors, charcoal, Q-tips, chalk pastels, square canvases, wood blocks, recyclables, blue painter’s tape, markers, fabric, and rulers? Answer: Shadow hand monsters, made-up animals, tangle drawings, a cardboard city, serial prints, abstract paintings, perspective drawings, and brightly colored posters—all in one week! To inspire their artistic expression, Caitlin will first take campers to the galleries for lively group discussions as they investigate contemporary art exploring ideas of humor, peace, belief systems, abstraction, color, and scale.
Kids ages 10 to 13
Artist Valentina Quezada has planned a week of wearable art where the conversation will be around form, function, and personal expression. Kids will check out the sculptural jewelry in the Beyond Bling exhibition, look at fashion represented in paintings or on mannequins, print on fabric to create textile designs, and even make wigs! The project Valentina is most excited about is making clothing out of paper. She can’t wait for the students to discover how an everyday material, like paper, can be transformed into something exciting and beautiful.
December 26–30
Kids ages 6 to 9
In artist Peggy Hasegawa’s class, kids will tap in to the five senses when looking at and making art. They will study still lifes with fruit and flowers, textural ceramics, and even a sculpture that plays musical instruments. They will learn techniques for watercolor resist and build a vessel out of clay, expand their art vocabulary and develop keen observation skills. Peggy’s most excited about the journey she takes with her students and the discoveries they make together. “With 20 students, there will be many ways to look at one art work!” explains Peggy, referring to the participatory and open-ended nature of camp. “There are opportunities to share, not only in the galleries, but during art making and reflection. I wish for the kids to fall in love with some or all of the artwork we look at.”
Kids ages 10 to 13
Artist Gloria Westcott’s week-long class is an experimentation lab. Campers will have the freedom to investigate different ways of seeing and making as they explore the diversity of exhibitions on view. From German Renaissance art to 17th-century Chinese paintings and contemporary Japanese prints, they will seek inspiration from art across time and place. In the studio, experimentation awaits as the campers push their creativity to another level using collage, paint, ink, printmaking, and maybe even spray paint to create mixed media scrolls, prints, maps, and more!
If your child or grandchild is looking for a creative outlet this winter, enroll them today to join us!
Winter Art Camp is from 10 am to 3 pm. Tuition is $330 per week for NexGen members and $355 per week for the general public. Art Camp is designed for children ages 6 and older; children ages 5 and under will not be admitted. Proof of age will be required. Have questions about the camp? Check out the Art Camp page.