Summer Camp in Dobbs Ferry, NY (K-5)
SUMMER CAMP FOR K-5TH GRADERS
QUICK FACTS:
Join for individual weeks or the whole season!
Monday-Friday, 9AM-3PM
At our Studio: 63 Main St, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522
Daily schedule includes walks in the beautiful area surrounding our studio, collaborative outdoor earthworks, daily sketchbook challenges, outdoor play, and of course, tons of art-making!
Early drop off at 8:30AM & late pick-up 3:30PM is available. $15/day for each.
5:1 camper:teacher ratio
All camp sessions include a camp t-shirt.
You send a bagged lunch, snack and water bottle. We are nut-free.
PAYMENT:
$730 per week, paid in full or with a payment plan of 4 installments:
At check-out
2 mo before camp
1 mo before camp
First day of camp
Cancellation Policy: Registration requires a $200 non-refundable deposit per camper. Full refunds (not including deposit) will be given until May 1st, 2024. For cancellations after May 1st, a program credit will be issued and can be used in any other age-appropriate class within one year of original enrollment. If cancellations are made 6 days or less before the enrolled week, there are no credits or refunds. If cancellations are made during the week of camp for any reason including illness, there are no credits, refunds, or make-ups for any missed days.
WEEKLY THEMES:
7/15 - 19 CLAY
This week is all about the most direct material an artist can get their hands on, literally! We'll begin the week making our own clay using a variety of different "ingredients" including those found in the art studio, the kitchen, and even, the great outdoors. Together, we'll explore how these clays work for making both functional and purely aesthetic sculptures. Next, we'll make our own nesting bowls using terracotta air dry clay. Using a variety of found objects, artists will use mallets to pound texture into their round slabs of clay and then mold them into bowls. We'll finish up the surface of our pieces with a choice of paint or acrylic glaze for some shine! Artists will leave camp with a foundational understanding of the qualities of clay as a material along with some really beautiful handmade containers to share with family & friends at home!
7/22 - 26 EARTH ART
This week is a celebration of how artists integrate the natural environment into their creative process! We'll begin the week by venturing outside the studio to explore the natural pigments in our own environment and then bring them back to the studio to make our own watercolor paints. Next, we'll make our own paper from recycled studio scrap, adding flowers and other found materials to make each piece a unique work of art that we'll mount on foam core with a drawn frame. Finally, we'll end the week by creating gorgeous paper pulp bowls from cardboard egg cartons, complete with a decoupaged surface. Your artist will leave camp with a new appreciation for how to forage the natural world (or the recycling bin) for art materials instead of just the art store!
7/29 - 8/2 LARGE SCALE PAINTING
All kids like to work on a large scale and who could blame them? Painting BIG allows artists the space to push against physical boundaries and discover new possibilities. This week, your artists will have the opportunity to work BIG! We'll begin by stretching our own canvas panels. Canvases stretched, we'll gesso them and create beautifully complex abstract paintings using acrylic paint and sumi ink. The second painting of the week will be a collaborative large-scale monster painting. Each artist will be assigned a specific body segment that they'll sketch, ink and color. Artists will focus on adding incredible detail and texture using line work. When the panels come together, they'll create a gorgeous and HUGE imagined creature.
8/5 - 9 ART & PLAY
An artist had to design and create the toys we play with, right? Of course! This week is dedicated to toy & game design. Artists will start the week by developing their own comic books complete with character design, setting and text. They'll use, as always, high-quality illustration tools to sketch, ink and color their books. Then, they'll move on to designing their own board games complete with original clay pawns and illustrated cards. Artists will have TONS of fun this week including a publishing party to share their comic books with their peers and a playing session where campers will play each other's games. Artists will leave camp with an enthusiasm and capability to design and create their own toys and a couple to play with as soon as they get home.
8/12 - 16 PRINTING PRESS
Printmaking is all about trial and error. Once you have created or found whatever you're stamping, it's very hard to predict exactly how the print will turn out. This process lends itself wonderfully to artists learning from practice and repetition and accepting that failure (and eventual success) is all part of it! Artists will begin the week by collecting plants and flowers from the outdoors and creating botanical prints. They'll transform these prints into completed landscapes using liquid watercolor and colored pencils. Next, they'll explore patterns by creating their own block prints using found and recycled materials. They'll use their blocks and others to create large-scale abstract black & white prints that they'll hand color using both acrylic and liquid watercolor. Artists will leave this week of camp with a solid understanding that practice doesn't make perfect but it does make some very interesting and complex artwork!
8/19 - 23 IDENTITY
It'd be difficult to find an artist who didn't describe their work as somewhat autobiographical; we develop a better understanding of ourselves through what we create and the artistic choices we make, especially when creating amongst our peers. This week will be all about delving into our identities through our projects. We'll begin with a self-portrait painting. However, in this self-portrait, your artists will depict themselves as superheroes. What powers will they have? How will you be able to tell what their unique qualities are, from their costumes? We're so excited to see the varied "answers" to these questions in their work. We'll finish up the week with a collaged family crest including symbols and objects that represent your artist, your family and your culture. Artists will leave camp with a solid understanding of the many possibilities of how to depict themselves in their work: both who they are now and who they envision they want to become.
8/26 - 30 COMMUNITY ART-MAKING
Artists, especially Scribble artists, do not create in isolation: they create within a vibrant community. This week, we'll venture outside the studio and bring some inspiration back! We'll begin by taking walks in the community, capturing pictures of different buildings or sites that we feel are representative of our neighborhood. Each artist will then be tasked with creating a 2-D replica of the building using collage, painting, and drawing tools. We'll mount all of our buildings together to create a large-scale collaborative, and dare we say gorgeous street! We'll finish up the week with a series of small community sculptures and installations. These will include a sculpture challenge in the park, a painted rock installation, a sidewalk chalk mural....and hopefully a special project that we'll develop together! Artists will leave this week of camp with the knowledge that their work can include influence from their community AND that the community can be influenced or changed by their public work.
