A bunch of weeks before the school year ended, families in Guelph were making plans to send their kids to Summer Art Camp.
The Art Gallery of Guelph summertime offering has become hugely popular, so much so that all five camps were filled in advance. Camp leaders are making final preparations for week-long camps that start next week.
“We’ve had huge support this year,” said Alexandra Hartstone, the gallery’s community engagement coordinator. “We are full for every week, and actually have a wait list for each week of summer camp.”
The summer camps, she said, explore the many forms of art through adventures in the outdoors, through crafting and DIY projects, and through studying and reflecting on the art on the walls of the gallery. All of it is designed to allow kids to get personally engaged in art, and appreciative of it.
The camp themes and activities developed by camp facilitators like Erin Manifold and Erin Szikora revolve around the current exhibitions at the gallery, which are based in the landscape, the politics of the landscape, and Canada’s 150th anniversary. The plan is to engage children aged 7 to 12 in those themes.
Children are complex thinkers, Hartstone said, and “they approach things with an unfiltered perspective.” They produce a lot of very interesting art.
“I think it’s going to be fun to watch kids develop some of the skills they might already have, and maybe learn and figure out the different techniques used, and the different types of art there are,” Erin Manifold said. “It’s not just painting and drawing, but also video, audio and so many other aspects of art.”
Some parents, said Szikora, just want their children to have a fun camp experience, where they can get their hands messy. Other parents are practicing artists or fine art faculty members at the University of Guelph, with children who have perhaps had more experience in art.
“When you have kids coming here for camp, they bring their families in,” Szikora said. “We have little exhibitions on Fridays, on temporary walls. Bringing people into the gallery is really important. And a lot of kids have come back from last year. It’s fun to see the impact it has on them.”
Hartstone said the camps help make the gallery environment more familiar, rather than being an inaccessible institution. Kids, she said, get to be a part of all the exciting aspects of the life of a gallery, including behind the scenes. Their confidence grows, as does their comfort level in the gallery setting.
“It sort of animates the gallery,” Szikora added. “You’re not just looking at the art on the wall. We want them to have fun in here. It’s not just a place to be quiet.
