Anderson Museum of Art hosts last two art camp sessions of the summer
Jul. 9—ANDERSON — The Anderson Museum of Art will hold its two remaining sessions of the Summer Art Camp this month.
The fiber arts camp will be held on July 11 and the 2D art camp will begin on July 18, with a few registration spots left open for both sessions. Kids in grades 1-6 are eligible to participate.
The fiber arts session is done in tandem with the museum's contemporary fibers exhibit, titled "Intertwined," and includes a variety of projects that allow kids to explore the medium, according to AMOA Programs and Collections Manager Stephanie Michaels.
Many of the crafts include different methods of weaving and dying, as well as working with yarn.
"We're going to focus on Huichol yarn art, which is a traditional yarn designing process done in Mexico with the Huichol people," Michaels said. "They take a resin and beeswax and put it on a board and then basically draw with glue and yarn. It's a really cool process. We are also going to do shibori tie-dye, which is like regular tie-dye, but it's a process of folding in certain ways, and using just Indigo ink."
While the 2D session will still focus on some of the basics of drawing and painting, students will also explore different types of printmaking and collages.
"They're doing cyanotype prints, which uses a special cyanotype paper, and you put objects on a paper and take it out and the sun prints it," Michaels said. "They're going to be doing jelly prints. Typically, when you do printmaking, you either do wood or do a linocut, but they're doing it on a jelly kind of base and they can paint on it and add things. They're also going to be doing a Matisse collage."
The AMOA hosts the camps because, according to AMOA Executive Director Mandee Mikulski, art is everywhere and the museum wants to allow kids to explore their creativity through different skill sets and learn something new.
Some of the camps, like the fiber arts session and the previous Native American art and design session, provide the opportunity to learn unique art forms.
"We wanted to provide different camps that would be fun for lots of different kids. We wanted to provide something that might be interesting to everyone," Mikulski said. "The Native American art and design, we worked really closely with the Andersontown Powwow, and they actually were a partner in that camp. We wanted to encourage that art form because it's one that we don't do every year and we thought that it'd be nice to introduce them to that."
Michaels said that because kids do not always have access to arts programs in schools, camps like the ones at AMOA offer those who attend the opportunity to get away from technology while relaxing and learning to express themselves and their creativity.
"We're able to work more with them one-on-one," Michaels said. "And we get a full week to work with them on even just simple color wheels and designs and design principles and stuff like that, but still make it fun."
The weekly camp sessions cost $90 each, and AMOA members can pay a reduced fee of $80. Mikulski said the museum was able to provide some scholarships through partnerships with the Madison County Community Foundation and the Youth Leadership Academy.
The museum is hoping to continue this program and put on more art camps in the future.
"Everyone can take part in the arts," Mikulski said. "Art is something that people have different perspectives on. You can put that on paper and be proud of something at any level of art education."
