Kids + Teens

City living has never been so fun! We’ll draw inspiration from Portland, OR artist Joel Henriques and to make our very own “city blocks” by painting cityscapes on recycled wood blocks that can be shifted, flipped, and moved around to create our very own, hand-crafted city, right in The Arts Center’s studio!

Students who love to draw and paint will thrive in this week at the easel! This mixed media camp will cover a variety of subject matter from still life to portraits and landscape. Several projects will be completed as the group focuses not only on art practice and techniques, but also how to conveying expression and meaning with our work.

Explore the exciting possibilities of ceramic art, including throwing on the wheel and hand building. We’ll work with food-safe clay and lead-free glazes to create beautiful pieces of work, from one of a kind bowls, to sculptures from your original sketches and more.

Teens will focus on traditional metal working skills as well as experience the newest ways of working with metal in this camp. Students will learn to cut, pierce, form, file, join and finish metals on their way to finishing several projects, including jewelry, in various metals. Creativity will be encouraged as students develop their own designs while working safely. The instructor will guide individual students’ creative efforts in addition to class demonstrations. There will be a show at the end of the camp where you’ll display your finished pieces for family and friends!

In this camp, we’ll make drawings, paintings and sculptures while exploring geometry in art. We’ll start with simple lines and dots as we work our way toward building colorful repeating tessellations, as well as intricate projects inspired by Aboriginal and Native American Art. We’ll bring shapes to life by making 3D sculptures and spend plenty of time outside to discover shapes formed by the Hudson River and found in our own backyard.

Get ready to travel the world at lightning speed. This week you will experience the magic and meaning of the art of different countries. Learn about the art of Russia, craft Egyptian mummies and African masks; create Chinese fans and dragons; make paper come to life by mastering traditional Asian paper folding, origami; and so much more! While you explore these and other artforms from a variety of cultures you will also have the opportunity to tell your own cultural story through such projects as the creation of a family crest based in Celtic design and symbols, a book about your heritage and a portrait that depicts your family and cultural traditions. No camp 7/4.

Looking for inspiration? Let illustrator Ira Marcks challenge you to explore new ideas and methods of creativity. Teens are welcome to participate in this camp, composed of part writing workshop, cartooning class, and storytelling experiment. To explore this strange new world, basic writing and drawing skills are helpful. Curiosity required. No class 7/4.

The best stained glass pulls the viewer into beautiful, colored worlds. Begin to work your way toward perfecting this art form as you learn the basics during this camp, including stained glass design and construction, glass cutting, copper foiling, soldering and cleaning. Each student will create their own, unique stained glass panel to take home. No class 7/4.

This camp will focus on the process of drawing accurate portraits. Working from live models as well as photo reference materials, teens will learn about the head and facial structural proportions that we share, as well as pinpointing that which makes us unique. Students will learn proper facial feature placement through measuring techniques to create a likeness of the model. No class 7/4.

This week-long camp introduces students to writing poetry, both for the uninitiated and the experienced writer, highlighting various creative techniques, including the cut-up poem, confessional poem, dreams, everyday sightings, rhymed verse, and several other approaches. The language of music, including rap and hip-hop, is discussed, and a variety of poets are looked at for models. The goal is to work each morning to produce ten poems by week’s end. Each afternoon, students work on creating a chapbook of their own work, which will be completed by the week’s end. Friday afternoon concludes with students reading their own work at a Poetry Reading/Poetry Slam. No class 7/4.

While we love to make drawings and paintings around here, this week is centered around making artwork that’s anything but flat! We’ll work with everything from paper, clay, Sculpey, papier-mâché, and even plaster. We’ll try origami techniques, sculpt animals, beads, clay whistles, and make masks!

Gamers and tech-loving tweens will explore various areas of basic game design using web-based software. Students will utilize our digital arts studio and work on Mac computers to create a variety of projects catered to their unique interests. This a great workshop for students who are interested in learning basics in computer programming, basic animation and gaming.

This camp will focus on an intensive program of drawing and painting with the goal of creating strong portfolio pieces for college applications that represent the student’s current artistic interests and demonstrate drawing skills and awareness of formal visual values. Students will explore a variety of tools, media and approaches draw and paint from direct observation, using still life, models, and landscape as our subject matter, as is typically preferred by most art colleges. Students will begin to develop their own artist practice, discovering interests in new methods and gaining new skills in drawing and image making. This camp will strongly benefit high school students interested in pursuing a college degree in art or design.

The Arts Center is teaming up with the Agricultural Stewardship Association (ASA) for this unique two week program focusing on farming, food, and photography. Students will visit local vegetable and dairy farms to learn about farm operation and harvest food with their own hands. Back at The Arts Center, teaching artist and cook Ellie Markovitch will help students understand the idea of “farm-to-table” with basic cooking skills and work with the student to prepare a meal with the food they’ve harvested while discussing nutrition. The students will also be documenting their time on the farm and in the kitchen while using the Digital Art Studio at The Arts Center to create a series of photographs, recipes, blog posts, and other media related their their experience. The Arts Center will host a food tasting and official exhibition featuring the students’ work at August Troy Night Out to remind the community of the important role farms and food play in our lives.

Enter a world of oceanic adventures! Campers will dive right in and create a world of sea creatures including fish, whales, and jellyfish after learning about different ocean habitats. We’ll create papier-mâché fish, submarine portholes, octopus puppets, sand casted shells + more! A new, neat underwater topic will be introduced each day to inspire a ship’s-load of fun ideas and activities!

Explore the exciting possibilities of ceramic art, including throwing on the wheel and hand building. We’ll work with food-safe clay and lead-free glazes to create beautiful pieces of work, from one of a kind bowls, to sculptures from your original sketches and more.

Do you doodle all day in your notebook, on napkins, and anywhere that’s allowed? What if there was way to take those doodles, and transform them into large, bright, bold paintings? This creative camp investigates the act of automatic drawing and painting. Students will work both independently and collaboratively to create large-scale character based paintings and drawings through the use of simple mark-making, shape, form and color. In addition to working on canvas, students will also get the opportunity to put their doodles on non-traditional surfaces like found objects, furniture, or clothing. No prior skills are required, just your imagination.

Play with clay! In this exciting weekend class for kids, students ages 6-11 will learn to hand build with pinch pots, coils, and slabs. We will combine these three basic techniques to construct fun and whimsical creations with emphasis on form and texture. Each student will complete several glazed creations.

If you think the Potter’s Studio is the place for you, don’t miss this chance to work with a professional potter on the potter’s wheel, sculpting and hand-forming. You will work with food safe clay and glazes to create beautiful pieces of work and you will be encouraged to experiment with everything you do. Our studio is lead free.

There’s a different sort of magic in the air at the Wizard’s Shop this week. Only your sorcery skills can help break the mysterious spell. Not to fear, though, because the magic wands, sorcerer’s hats, movable dragons, and other handmade wonders of wizardry are just a few ways that you will save the day. We’ll also brew some powerful potions, learn some amazing magic tricks, and put them all together in our own Spell Books! Join us! The magic is waiting for you!

Focusing on photography concepts and techniques, students will learn the ins and outs of digital photography, exploring the camera and how it works, lighting and studio techniques, and basic digital image processing and printing. Students will take several walking trips in Downtown Troy for inspiration and subject matter to shoot for their projects. Students will also learn to discuss, critique and curate images. Students may bring their own camera, or use the cameras in the digital arts studio.

From the Delta to Downtown, experience the “Music of Invention” in this week long immersion into blues music. In five days, teens ages 13-18 will study the blues, create original blues poetry and music, and prepare for a public performance at the end of the week, followed by an evening performance that Friday at Troy Night Out. Students should have at least beginner level experience with their instrument of their choosing and must indicate their instrument at sign up.

In this unique camp, we’re taking a hands-on approach to learn basic woodworking and the art of traditional woodcut printmaking. Students will leave with a completed woodworking project and a set of prints to take home. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the wood shop and printing press all while completing impressive works of art for your portfolio. No prior woodworking or printmaking experience required.

Bam! Zing! Crash! Do you ever wish you had super powers? See how fun it is to draw your own super hero characters and bring them to life! We’ll learn how to make comic strips and put them together to form our own class comic book. We’ll create real animation cells, make large stand-ups of our characters, and even make small figurines of some of our characters! Don’t forget your cape and x-ray vision!

In this week-long workshop, students will cover a variety of techniques as they are introduced to different topics in painting. Throughout the week, students will investigate famous painters in history for inspiration, be introduced to color theory, and learn basic mixing and application techniques in painting in acrylic on canvas and various other paint media. Students will participate in critiques for constructive feedback as they improve their skills, and will complete several finished pieces.

Focusing on photography concepts and techniques, students will learn the ins and outs of digital photography, exploring the camera and how it works, lighting and studio techniques, and basic digital image processing and printing. Students will take several walking trips in Downtown Troy for inspiration and subject matter to shoot for their projects. Students will also learn to discuss, critique and curate images. Students may bring their own camera, or use the cameras in the digital arts studio.

Calling all kids with big imaginations! Get ready for a week of making art, performing on stage and sharing stories. Utilizing dramatic play and storytelling techniques, we will create original characters, settings and intriguing situations, using our own original ideas! Together, we’ll all collaborate and share a unique presentation of our stories for a friends and family audience on the final day of camp.

The best stained glass pulls the viewer into beautiful, colored worlds. Begin to work your way toward perfecting this art form as you learn the basics during this camp, including stained glass design and construction, glass cutting, copper foiling, soldering and cleaning. Each student will create their own, unique stained glass panel to take home.

Students who love to draw and paint will thrive in this week at the easel! This mixed media camp will cover a variety of subject matter from still life to portraits and landscape. Several projects will be completed as the group focuses not only on art practice and techniques, but also how to conveying expression and meaning with our work.

This program introduces high school students to the exciting world of robotics. Students will learn to solder and program in Basic as they take a box of parts and transform it into a working robot. The camp also includes sessions on robotics in general, and demonstrations of robots developed by the instructor. The camp will culminate in an exhibition for parents, fellow campers and friends.

Looking for inspiration? Let illustrator Ira Marcks challenge you to explore new ideas and methods of creativity. Teens are welcome to participate in this camp, composed of part writing workshop, cartooning class, and storytelling experiment. To explore this strange new world, basic writing and drawing skills are helpful. Curiosity required.

Focusing on photography concepts and techniques, students will learn the ins and outs of digital photography, exploring the camera and how it works, lighting and studio techniques, and basic digital image processing and printing. Students will take several walking trips in Downtown Troy for inspiration and subject matter to shoot for their projects. Students will also learn to discuss, critique and curate images. Students may bring their own camera, or use the cameras in the digital arts studio.

Explore the exciting possibilities of ceramic art, including throwing on the wheel and hand building. We’ll work with food-safe clay and lead-free glazes to create beautiful pieces of work, from one of a kind bowls, to sculptures from your original sketches and more.

In this fun week long camp, students will create projects based on the 1960s movements in art history known as Pop Art and Op Art. Pop Art was brought to us by artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, using advertisements, comics and pop culture for inspiration. Op Art used mathematical thinking to create bold, geometric, graphic works that can play tricks on the eye of the viewer! Students will complete several finished “masterpieces” focusing on drawing, printing, sculpture and printmaking.

Everyone’s heard of Picasso, but have you ever wondered what made this artist so special? In this camp, we’ll learn about different movements that made Picasso famous while creating colorful paintings, abstract and realistic drawings, and magnificent sculptures inspired by the master himself!

Whether you’re cutting people out of paper, sculpting characters from clay, or drawing your story on paper, you can make make your ideas come to life with stop motion animation. In this camp, creative teens will explore various areas of animation using stop-motion software, DSLR cameras and hands-on art techniques. Students will utilize our digital arts studio and work on Mac computers to create a variety of projects catered to their unique interests.

Whether you love to draw already, or are interested in sharpening your skills, here’s the jump start you need to improve your art portfolio! Guided by the instructor, you’ll focus on direct observation of still life and models using graphite and charcoal. Learn methods for simplifying what you see, create proper proportions and build volume with light and shadow. You’ll be amazed at how much you can improve in one week!

Calling all builders! Discover the science of building structures in a fun hands-on camp. From geodesic domes to the primary structural systems of universe to toys and Buckyballs to collaboratively creating structures of their own design, students will learn by building and doing with Kurt Przybilla, the inventor of Tetratops. The afternoons will focus on traditional woodworking techniques, where students will work with Melissa Collins to learn to craft their own unique woodworking project. Students will learn the skills of construction with hand tools, joinery, sanding, and finishing.

Wave farewell to summer during this craft-packed week under the “big top.” We’ll create circus-themed art projects, animal masks and colorful flags, learn to make balloon animals, come up with games, attractions, clowning acts, and much more for a special camp carnival at the end of the week!

This camp is perfect for tweens who love to work with their hands. Students will spend the mornings in the jewelry studio learning metalsmithing and jewelry techniques and the afternoons exploring the art of stained glass. There will also be possibilities for crossover, such as stained glass pendants. Each student will leave will several finished pieces of art, both wearable and decorative!

Explore the exciting possibilities of ceramic art, including throwing on the wheel and hand building. We’ll work with food-safe clay and lead-free glazes to create beautiful pieces of work, from one of a kind bowls, to sculptures from your original sketches and more.