2008
ART PARTY CAMP May 19-24 • ages 2-7 with their parents • cost $175; second child $150; per day cost $40/child/day
Camp Hours: 9am - 2pm
This fabulous Spring day camp for the youngest campers and their parents
(or other special adult) will involve partying with art all week long! Louise
will be setting out a spectacular array of visual art explorations each day
and will be joined by creative movement, nature explorers, and music artists
for an all around fun time. In Louise's art class come ready to finger paint;
mix together colorful slime; play in shaving cream; draw with pastels, colored
chalk, and other medium; learn to embroider on burlap or sew your own stuffed
animal; make your own toys, and so much more! When you meet our guest artists
bring your voices and bodies to the tumbling, dancing, singing chorus of activity!
Much of the day will be for adults and children to share in creating together.
Each afternoon we will offer an hour long workshop with our guest artists
that will be specifically for the creative exploration and rejuvenation of
the adults while other artists and camp counselors work with the children.
Singing Games provide a lively morning circle and our day ends with a closing
circle and story told by Louise.
> MORE Art Party Camp photos
TOYS & GAMES CAMP June 16-20 • AGES 7-13 • cost $250
Lead Teachers: Jan Burger and Louise Omoto Kessel
A joyous way to begin the summer! Come join Jan Burger the KING of PLAY! for
a week of romping and running and creative cooperative games, along with some
traditional favorites (yes! Capture the Flag!) Louise will lead the Toy Making
workshop! Your children will spend the week entertaining themselves and one
another using simple materials and raw imagination! No electronic or store
bought games allowed! Parachutes, trouble dolls, stomp rockets, origami toys,
kites and hula hoops are all on the list of possibilities for the toy making
workshop. AND Louise is also collecting an array of counselors and guest artists
who will bring us toys and games from various points on the globe!
> MORE Toys & Games photos
RECYCLED ARTS CAMP June 23-27 • ages 9-16 • cost $250
Lead Teachers: Issa Nyaphaga and Bryant Holsenbeck
To have BOTH of these artists in the same place was a DREAM of mine
and it's really happening! If your child loves creating visual art this will
be a NOURISHING week for them. Not only are they both working artists who
are busy showing their work in galleries and museums, but they are both seasoned
community education people who have YEARS of experience working with children
in a variety of settings. On top of all that, the opportunity to hang out
with someone from Cameroon (Issa that is) doesn't happen every day!
Issa Nyaphaga ( www.nyaphaga.com) is an artist who is originally from Cameroon in Africa and who lives now in Paris, France. He blends artistic sensibilities from his experiences growing up in his village with modern day materials and his own esthetic to create portraits, paintings, and sculptures using paint, natural and recycled materials. www.nyaphaga.com.
Bryant Holsenbeck (www.bryantholsenbeck.com) is an artist living in Durham who specializes in using recycled materials in her art installations that are can be beautiful, whimsical, and thought-provoking.
Check out their websites and understand what a powerhouse team this is for an outstanding art camp experience! This camp for somewhat older campers will feature longer studios with each artist daily, and our usual mix of "Anything Goes" in the afternoon.
THEATRE ARTS / AFRICAN ARTS CAMP July 7-11 • for ages 7-13 • Cost $250
Lead Teachers: Teli Shabu and Erick Davis
During this week of exploring both Theatre Arts and African Arts traditions
we work as a camp to bring an African folk tale to life!
Teli Shabu's family is from Liberia originally and have devoted
their talents in music, dance, and textile design to the sharing of African
traditions in NC and beyond. Growing up in the Shabu family, Teli is a life
long performer. He plays djimbe (a drum from West Africa) and the kora (a
stringed instrument). Our wonderful drummers Lamar Lewis and Elisha Harris
will also be back for their fourth summer at African Arts Camp! So there will
be plenty of occasion to experience the "Magic of African Rhythmn"
and "Djimbe Fire" (also the names of two of the programs the Shabu
Family presents. Teli will direct the theatrical end of our camp's story-theatre
production.
Erick Davis is a mural painter, mosaic tile artist and all
around great artist and playful human! He has worked at our camps for the
past four summers and we are happy for his participation in this weeks endeavors!
Erick will involve the campers in creating visual art to create a special
environment for our show.
I absolutely LOVE the way our theatre camps pull the entire camp community
into a creative happy chaos of preparation for the "big show!" The
performance pressure is amazing creative FUEL! And the team work involved
inspires all that is BEST about summer camp magic! This session with a strong
visual art component and a vibrant musical component will be especially rich
and will have plenty of options for both performance and "behind the
scenes" roles. The sweat and creativity that goes into pulling a whole
"show" together in five days time is exciting and the results have
been wonderful to watch as well! (Parents will have a chance to enjoy the
show at our Friday night potluck and sharing!)
>MORE African Arts Camp photos
FIBER ARTS CAMP July 21-25 • for ages 9-16 • Cost $250 plus $10 materials fee
Lead Teachers: Candace Waken, Teresa Fischer, and Louise Omoto Kessel
A favorite at Clapping Hands Farm, Candace Waken, a felt artist of many years
experience, will be returning as our felting teacher for this year's Fiber
Arts camp. Candace is an outstanding teacher with an ability to help a whole
studio-full of felting students each working on a unique project of their
own design! Colorful wool is combined with soap, hot water, and friction.
. . is molded, pounded, squished, squeezed, and scrubbed, until it is transformed
into sturdy and beautiful felted objects as varied as balls, puppets, bags,
beads, slippers, hats, toys, and geodes. Felting is FUN! And the results are
lovely.
Teresa Fisher raises sheep, sheers sheep, processes wool, spins wool, knits, crochets, and sews! We'll have some "sheep to shawl" demonstrations, and the opportunity to try a range of fiber arts during her studio workshops. Sewing, quilting, embroidery, knitting, crocheting and spinning are all possibilities in Teresa's workshop. PLUS, Teresa will actually bring one of her sheep to camp!
Louise Omoto Kessel is our friendly neighborhood camp director here at Clapping Hands Farm, and also a lover of fiber arts. She will offer crocheting instruction (including the making of rag rugs) and a variety of simple weaving experiences (on cardboard looms, inkle looms, stick looms, finger weaving, and card weaving.)
Fiber Arts is a special camp every year because the young people who choose this camp share traits with fiber artists everywhere: focus, patience, delight in making things! This studio intensive camp offers 3 hours of fiber art instruction each day, with the option for two MORE hours of fiber arts during our afternoon choice classes called Anything Goes.
EARTH ARTS CAMP August 4-8 • for ages 7-13 • Cost $250
Lead Teachers: Erick Davis, Gumby Montgomery, and Louise Omoto Kessel
Erick Davis is a working artist who's work includes stone and tile mosaics, public murals, and paintings. During this week we will create art from natural materials with Erick Davis, masks made from grasses, fairy houses made of twigs and sticks, sculptures made of flower petals, wood bark, or leaves, that blend into the forest. Erick is back at camp for the four year in a row and his work in the area of helping campers make art from and in nature is supreme! I LOVE wandering the farm and seeing evidence of their work. . . a collage of carefully chosen colored leaves in a spiral on the ground. . .or hanging in the air suspended by sewing the leaves onto the stems of the next leaf, a section of our hay field braided like hair, etc.
Gumby Montgomery is a DEEP student of tracking, outdoor skills, and a keen naturalist. He is also a gifted storyteller, knows a million games, and likes to climb a tree. He's an exuberant playful spirit and a incredibly knowledgeable person all rolled into one, and a wilderness first responder to boot! With Gumby Montgomery we will learn earth skills like fire making with flint and steel, bow drill and hand drill (no matches) and tracking and we'll explore the many acres of forest, field and pond that are part of our Clapping Hands Farm terrain.
Louise, along with being our camp director, has much environmental education experience as well. She spent three seasons on board the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater helping with their environmental education programs on the Hudson River, she worked as a State Park naturalist at Merchants Mill Pond State Park, and for the Nature Conservancy at Damariscove Island in Maine. She also started the Haw River Festival, a solar powered, river side Learning Celebration that travels the length of the Haw River each year working with school children.
ANYTHING GOES CAMP August 18-22 • for ages 7-16 (returning campers only) • cost $250
Lead Teachers: Louise Omoto Kessel, some super star counselors, and
a different guest artist every day!
This is the perfect camp to end summer with . . . a glorious celebration of
summer's free time and make-your-own fun! During our regular summer camp sessions
we have two hours of choice classes each afternoon that we call "Anything
Goes". During Anything Goes campers, counselors, lead teachers, guest
artists, camp directors, can ALL lead projects and activities. Campers choose
between a wonderful diversity of offerings and the whole camp takes part in
planning the activities for the following day.
At this camp, we have Anything Goes in the morning AND the afternoon! We held this camp two summers ago and have it on the schedule again by POPULAR DEMAND! It is for returning campers ONLY, though campers who come to any of our other 2008 camps are eligible.