Specialized summer camps around the Hudson Valley can provide an opportunity to take both performance and visual arts to a new level while engaging your child in a world filled with creativity. If your child is a budding Jackson Pollock or would just love to experience a summer filled with singing, dancing, music or drawing, an art focused summer camp may be the place for them.
Dutchess Art Camp
“(Dutchess Art Camp) is about building self-esteem while learning through the arts,” says Carole Wolf, Executive Director of Mill Street Loft, which has been running Dutchess Art Camp since 1982. “We want to stretch children’s imaginations and foster self expression.”
With locations in Millbrook, Poughkeepsie and Redhook, Dutchess Art Camp (DAC) is an educational program for girls and boys in the arts. During the weekly themed art program, children can participate in hands-on visual, performing, literary and media arts, like puppetry, drumming, sculpture, carving and animation.
“They are actively creating, discovering, exploring, making new friends, and having fun while working with professional teaching artists,” says Wolf. “We have children coming from all over to attend and they come back year after year.”
DAC is open to children ages 4 through 14 years old, and holds Friday “Sharings” during which visual arts exhibits and performances illustrate the weeks’ themes and the campers’ accomplishments. In June, there will be Open Houses in all three locations where parents and children can meet the directors, staff, artist/teachers, tour the campus, and register for the camp. 845-471-7477
Highland Visual and Performing Arts Institute
“Participating in an arts camp such as ours provides children with an expressive outlet,” says Maria Peterson, Director of the Highland Visual and Performing Arts Institute (HVPAI). “It is our hope that what they learn during the week will follow them long after camp is over.”
HVPAI in Highland is a week-long camp for students in 1st through 10th grades. Children spend the day rotating through a variety of classes including theatre, chorus, dance, band, art, and African drumming. The camp culminates in an end of the week “Open House” which allows the campers to share what they have learned with friends and family.
“We pride ourselves in offering classes that are not routinely offered to young children in public school,” says Peterson. “Our staff consists of highly trained individuals who are performers themselves. They are skilled at teaching young people with a variety of different needs and skill levels.”
“My two children insist on going to (HVPAI), they really enjoy all that they do,” says Lori Considine, whose children have attended the camp for the past two years. “They receive drama, art, music and experiences that they carry with them and pass along to others." 845-691-9313
KidzArt
“At KidzArt camp, students learn drawing and art skills through fun, easy techniques,” says Alexandra Sullivan, Director of KidzArt, Mid-Hudson Valley. “Our camps are not just for ‘artistic’ children, so even a child that’s never taken an art class before will be creating fantastic works of art.”
During KidzArt camp, kids experiment with a wide variety of two and three dimensional media, like clay sculpture, painting, collage, and printmaking, through the use of high quality art materials, according to Sullivan.
“The KidzArt program focuses on showing children that there are no mistakes when it comes to art, that they can create things exactly as they envision them,” says Sullivan. “We also stress the importance of thinking outside the box.” Camps are open to students entering 1st through 5th grades in September.
845-592-2410; info@kidzartmidhudson.com
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Janine Boldrin is a writer who lives in West Point with her family.