summer camp Archives - Arts for Learning Virginia

The Sights and Sounds of A4L’s Summer Camps

August 7, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

Even though the pandemic and Tropical Storm Isaias aren’t making it easy at times, kids are learning and creating and having tons of fun at summer camps where our performing and teaching artists are working. Check out some of the scenes from the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts’s visual arts camp, which wrapped up last week. Thanks to Carly Holmes for taking these wonderful pictures. This week’s stormy weather has pushed theater camp to next week.

With all of our in-person camps, we’re observing strict safety protocols to keep campers, artists, and staff members safe.

Over at Operation Hero’s Armed Services YMCA camp, Harold Wood showed off his magic to a wowed crowd.

And in teaching artist Beverly Taylor’s class, campers learned about different musical instruments and made their own while joining in a song with some great advice for us all. Click here to listen and enjoy!

One Book, Two Book, Red Book, Blue Book

July 29, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

You can bet there are some big smiles hiding behind the masks—children at Virginia Beach’s Armed Services YMCA camp are the proud owners of some brand new picture books, thanks to a Women United book group who donated them to the United Way of South Hampton Roads (UWSHR). UWSHR is underwriting Arts for Learning’s residencies at the camp which is reserved for sons and daughters of members of the military.

Arts for Learning weaves age-appropriate literacy concepts into its curriculum, so the book giveaway was a natural. In true A4L fashion, teaching artists Lenecia Porro and Gary Garlic made it a fun educational experience instead of kids just being handed a book. In Lenecia’s Artsploration class for five and six year olds, kids drew numbers from a toy cauldron and had to match the numbers with the correct book. In Gary’s Poetry and Percussion class for seven and eight year olds, kids had to identify musical instruments from clues that Gary shared.

No matter whether it’s Pete the Cat or Pop-Up Dizzy Dinosaurs that’s sparking kids’ imagination, hats off to these generous donors and the United Way (hats that may look a lot like the red and white striped one below!)

A Creative Collaboration: Suffolk Center Art and Theater Camps

July 23, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

Get set for a rush of creativity flowing out of Suffolk starting next week. We’re thrilled to again collaborate with our partners at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts (SSCA) to offer in-person camps for children ages six to twelve, with Centers for Disease Control COVID-19 measures in place to keep everyone safe and healthy. The camps offer a chance for kids to interact with their peers while learning and having creative fun.

Our teaching artists have led the camps for the past seven years. At next week’s visual arts camp, teaching artists Jerilynn Ruger, Matt Harrison, and Joppa Whitehead will mentor campers on the fundamentals of drawing, painting, sculpture, and collage. At the theater camp, teaching artists Katherine Willet, Jerilynn Ruger, and Jennifer Gammill will share the fundamentals of theater, costume design, set design, improvisation, scene writing, and more. At each camp, students will have the opportunity to share their work with their families at the end of the week.

These photos from 2013 give a glimpse of the fun kids have at the camp. A4L’s longstanding partnership with the Suffolk Center began that summer and has strengthened ever since. In 2018, Arts for Learning named the Suffolk Center its “Partnership of the Year” for the unique summer camp collaboration.

“We partner with Arts for Learning because they have talented and brilliant instructors who spearhead a week of creative fun while weaving in the need for art, the history of art, and the execution of art in our everyday life,” says Gavin Harper, SSCA Program and Education Manager.

The visual arts camp starts this Monday, running from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. through Friday, July 31. The theme is “Our Future.”

We had decided on the Our Future theme before COVID-19 hit,” Harper says, “so what an interesting and pertinent time for students to think about their future and how the world will be affected and how art can be a source of light in a dark time.”

Campers will work on pottery, graphic novels, Picasso shapes/Cubism, pop art, splatter painting, and paper mosaic, and will also learn how art is translated to dance. A final art show will cap off the week, with artwork also to be featured in a new virtual exhibition for family and friends to view.

The theater summer camp will run from August 3-August 7, with campers learning how to act, sing, and dance. Our teaching artists will work with students to write, rehearse, and produce a ten-minute musical that they’ll present on stage at the Center’s Birdsong Theater. The historic 530-seat auditorium offers plenty of space for family members to social distance while they enjoy the show. The Center may also offer a virtual option by live-streaming the performance on its Facebook page.

To make sure campers have a fun, safe week interacting with their peers, Suffolk Center camp staff members will proactively follow guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Campers will have their temperature taken upon arrival and will work in small groups. Hand sanitizers and wipes will be available to campers and surfaces will be sanitized before and during camp. Both camps will take place inside and outside to allow for ventilation. Please visit www.suffolkcenter.org for a complete list of safety guidelines or email Gavin Harper at gavin.harper@suffolkcenter.org for additional information.

Registration is available on-line at www.suffolkcenter.org/summercamps/ or you can reserve a spot for your child over the phone at 757-923-0003, ext. 103. We’re looking forward to a great couple of weeks.

Happy Campers

July 1, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

Thanks to a very generous grant by the United Way of South Hampton Roads, we’re pleased to announce we’re providing special performances and literacy-based arts programming to the children of service men and women at the Armed Services YMCA in Virginia Beach.

It feels so good for our artists to be working directly with students again (with all safety protocols being followed, including fewer campers than in years past.) On Mondays, campers can look forward to performances by our artists, with a field trip to WAVE Church’s outdoor picnic area.

Kicking it off last week was musician Gary Garlic with a dynamic steel drums performance.

Tuesdays through Fridays, a rotating group of our teaching artists will work in classrooms with campers ages five to twelve divided into three age groups. This week, teaching artists Joel Casanova, Jasmine Marshall, and Joppa Whitehead will present Dance for Life workshops. Campers will learn (in an extra fun way!) core literacy concepts they’ll need as school resumes in the fall—our curriculum has been adapted to combat the expected negative effects of learning loss from the “Covid Slide.”

Watch out for many more pictures and stories of summertime fun and success.

Thanks again to the United Way of South Hampton Roads for making this programming possible through its United for Children campaign to expand summer access to learning.

The Sights and Sounds of A4L’s Summer Camps

One Book, Two Book, Red Book, Blue Book

A Creative Collaboration: Suffolk Center Art and Theater Camps

Happy Campers

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