WORKSHOPS STARTING IN JUNE:
(in order of appearance)
message from camp director louise about our online workshops
Clapping Hands Farm is pleased to offer an exciting array of engaging, interactive, connecting workshops online this summer, via Zoom! Our goal in offering these workshops is NOT to keep people on screens! Quite the opposite! We aim to ignite some new skills, friendships and passions that will have you and your family diving deep into dancing, inventing, creating and making. We hope these workshops are a gateway to a summer of enjoying hands-on activities and each other.
visual schedule of our workshop offerings
click HERE! to see our summer schedule laid out in pretty colors in a calendar format.
guidance for families taking workshops together
Clapping Hands Summer 2020 Workshops can be FAMILY TIME. Although young people or adults can take them solo (see age recommendations for each workshop), we encourage you to take these workshops as a family! There is something special about that shared experience and interaction that we think will make it more fun for all involved, especially with our online format this summer.
If both parent and child will be “campers” —- making projects and wanting instructor attention—- then you will count as a participant and please either pay the camp fee or request a scholarship. If you think you will primarily be assisting your child, please consider yourself a volunteer, and thank you! If you think you’ll be somewhere in-between, please set your own camp fee as you feel is appropriate!
If both parent and child want to be MAKERS for the workshop, you should BOTH get a kit if one is provided. If the parent just wants to assist the child in making stuff, ONE kit is enough.
One of the issues on Zoom is if we have too many screens joined, it becomes hard for the instructor to SEE everyone at one time. So, it is very helpful if families taking workshops together can SHARE ONE SCREEN.
Art Party Parents Workshop with Louise Omoto Kessel, for parents of children ages 3-8, Sunday 8-10 p.m. AND Fridays 9-10 a.m. with parents AND kids. Session 1: June 7 -July 10; Session 2: July 12- August 14.
LOUISE OMOTO KESSEL is the instructor for this class. Louise is the camp director at Clapping Hands Farm, and is looking forward to making art with our awesome Art Party Parents!
Each Sunday evening (after bedtime) just us parents will meet. We will check in about our week. We will make art together. And I will teach you how to do four or five very cool art projects with your children. During the week, you can share these projects with your children, and we will have Zoom time with you and your children each Friday for 30-45 minutes to see what you’ve been working on! We will also have a shared photo album where you can post your creations and your children in action! My goal is to set you up for some of those treasured “rock star parenting moments” and to infuse your summer with some artful inspiration. Art! And Human Connection! Being two of my favorite things!
Session ONE projects will include painting with liquid watercolors, making hobby horses and straw rockets, drawing with oil pastels, making tissue paper flowers and shrinky dinks, playing with gloop and water beads . . . . . and SO MUCH MORE!
Your supply fee will provide a giant collection of carefully curated art supplies lovingly gathered and organized by Louise. In this box will be what you need to do 20-25 projects with your family. And extra of everything if you want to do a project again or improvise with whatever is left over. There will also be a list of things that YOU need to supply—- mostly things I thought you might have around the house already or are easy to get—– tin foil, flour, vinegar, baking soda, yarn, fabric. . . . things like that—– and a low temperature glue gun and glue sticks to go with it.
All parents in one family are welcome to participate for the same cost so long as you share a screen during our Zoom meet-ups. All the children in one family can participate whether it’s one kid or six kids!
Session 1: June 7-July 10 (5 weeks)
Cost: $150, plus a supply fee of $60
Session 2: July 12-August 14 (5 weeks)
Cost: $150, plus a supply fee of $60
The supply fee represents the actual cost of materials plus $5 for the time involved in gathering all the stuff. PARENTS will be expected to supply SOME of the tools and materials themselves, but only the stuff that I think you probably already have in your house (see Participants Need section below). As always, scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Participants need:
- to set up a workspace for YOURSELF (parents) during our Zoom workshop and for the whole family during the week.
- to gather some basic tools and materials. I will provide a list, but it is stuff that I think you might already have in the house or would find easy to get. Scissors, masking tape, flour, vinegar, oil, baking soda, corn starch, tin foil, sharpies, yarn, fabric, needle and thread, and a GLUE GUN and the glue sticks that go with it. When you get the list, if there are things you need help getting, let me know.
Introduction to Felting with Louise Omoto Kessel,
ages 10-adult, ages 7-9 welcome with an adult at home to assist.
Mondays 10 am- Noon. June 15- July 13.
INTRODUCTION TO FELTING REGISTRATION
LOUISE OMOTO KESSEL is the instructor for this workshop. She learned to felt with Candace Waken when Candace taught it for several summers at camp. Louise is a professional storyteller and the founder and program director at Clapping Hands Farm.
Ever put a wool sweater in the washing machine on hot by accident? And it shrank and got really thick and tough? That is felting! Except we will do it on purpose using colorful wool to make wonderful things. In this workshop you will be introduced to both wet felting and needle felting. You can make cool felted animals, beads, jewelry, pouches, sculptures, backpack charms, patches, and so much more!
Your supply fee will provide a kit with several felting needles, finger protectors, a tweezer, some clips and hardware, a felting pad, and a good assortment of wool.
Dates: June 15-July 13 (5 classes)
Cost: $100, plus a supply fee of $30. Scholarships available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer!
Latin Dance with Andrea Lara, ages 9-adult, T, Th 9-10 a.m.
Session 1: June 16-July 16 (Session 2: July 21-August 13)
Originally from Colombia, Andrea was born in a family of artists. Her mother, a folklore dancer and her father, a songwriter and musician, influenced her love for music and dancing. At a very early age Andrea was dedicated to learn different Latin American folk dances at the school of arts she attended in Bogotá. She joined a Latin American Folk Dance company where she participated in different performances like Tango, Cumbia, Mapale and other folk and urban dances for seven years. Andrea came to the U.S seven years ago and has been teaching at Walltown Children’s Theater and George Watts Elementary School in Durham. Come enjoy the sounds and rhythms that will transport you to the roots of Latin America!
This workshop will explore different styles of Latin music, including folklore, pop, urban (salso-merengue), etc. Each workshop includes stretching and a choreographed routine, including brief explanations of the different steps. Andrea will provide YouTube videos for campers to practice their choreography with at the end of each workshop.
Participants need: a clear open space where they can move safely. Please wear comfortable clothing for dancing!
Session 1: June 16-July 16 (10 classes)
Cost: $100. Scholarships available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer!
Session 2: July 21-August 13 (8 classes)
Cost: $80. Scholarships available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Felting Studio Workshop for Experienced Felters with Louise Omoto Kessel, Ages 12- adult, Tuesdays 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. June 16- July 14
FELTING STUDIO WORKSHOP REGISTRATION
LOUISE OMOTO KESSEL is the instructor for this workshop. She learned to felt with Candace Waken when Candace taught it for several summers at camp. Louise is a professional storyteller and the founder and program director at Clapping Hands Farm.
If you have felted before, feel you have mastered the basics, and are eager for more— this is the workshop for you! I will share a lot of images for project inspiration, you can choose a project and I will coach you through it to completion!
Your supply fee will provide a kit with several felting needles, finger protectors, a tweezer, some clips and hardware, a felting pad, and a good assortment of wool. If you already own some of these things, let me know and I can trade out the things you have for other things that you can use.
Dates: June 16-July 14 (5 classes)
Cost: $100, plus a supply fee of $30. Scholarships available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer!
Mbira Build & Play with Teli Shabu, ages 8-adult, T-Th 2-3:30 p.m. June 16-July 16 (no class week of July 5th)
MBIRA BUILD & PLAY REGISTRATION
Teli Shabu is originally from Liberia and part of a family of performers and artists. Teli has been bringing his big heart and inventive mind to our Clapping Hands Farm community for a dozen summers, leading drumming, story theater, adinkra printing, telling stories, and building instruments.
In this workshop, campers will build their own Mbiras (thumb pianos), decorate them, and learn to play them! The instruments will be made by constructing a wooden box and then installing metal keys. The boxes will be decorated with paint. They can be tuned to play along with any other instrument. And then we’re ready to make music together!
Dates: June 16-July 16 (8 classes- no workshop week of July 5th)
Cost: $120, plus a supply fee of $28.15. Scholarships available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer!
Design Challenge with Kat O’Melia, Ages 8-12, W, F 3:30-4:30 p.m., June 17-July 17
DESIGN CHALLENGE WORKSHOP REGISTRATION
Kat O’Melia was born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She is a rising second year at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. Throughout her life, she has balanced both her passions for science and dance. Kat is a member of Oberlin’s chapter of oSTEM, a group to celebrate and support LGBTQ+ students in STEM. Over the summer, she plans to learn PYTHON to begin working on research on the Great Lakes in the fall. She hopes to excite and nurture students of all backgrounds in STEM.
Do you love to build, design and engineer? Do you like to learn the ins and outs of how things work? Do you like to experiment? If so, Design Challenge is for you!! During each workshop, you will be given a design challenge and materials to design with. You use your powers of imagination and persistence to design solutions! Outside the box thinking encouraged! We will work alone and together to create and build. Come ready to think, imagine and share!
Dates: June 17-July 17 (10 classes)
Cost: $100 with an optional supply fee (inquire). Scholarships available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer!
Come Dance With Me with Kat O’Melia, ages 4-7, Fridays 1:30-2:15 p.m., June 19-July 17
COME DANCE WITH ME WORKSHOP REGISTRATION
Kat O’Melia was born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She is a rising second year at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. She grew up dancing with the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble with opportunities to perform all across North Carolina and beyond. She now teaches children and adults tap dance and has taught in Durham, North Carolina at Ninth Street Dance and Empower Dance Studio and in Oberlin, Ohio at Neos Center for Dance. Other dance performance experience includes performances with Oberlin College’s VIBE dance company, local bands in Chapel Hill and Oberlin, Oberlin College’s student dance showcase and Oberlin’s dance department showcase. In addition to tap, she also has experience with contemporary, hip-hop and flamenco.
This workshop is for all those kids who love to move!! Stretch, jump, dance and imagine! During these workshops kids will learn how to express themselves through movement, gain body awareness and control, and learn to embrace and love their bodies through a series of movement games, rhythm and music play activities and movement exercises. Kids will play games, learn to warm-up their bodies to move, dance, play pretend, and listen to some of their favorite songs. Kids should come ready to have fun and dance along with others!
Dates: June 19-July 17 (5 classes)
Cost: $50. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
WORKSHOPS STARTING IN JULY:
(in order of appearance)
Quilting and Sewing with the Log Cabin Block with Kate Hibbard, ages 10-adult, Wednesdays 1-3 p.m. AND optional drop-in Saturdays 1-3 p.m., July 1-July 29
QUILTING & SEWING REGISTRATION
Hi, everyone! Waving from Rhode Island! My name is Kate and I live on an island in RI with my dogs and cats. I love sewing and quilting, and I am glad we’ve figured out a way to continue quilting and sewing together this summer! I sew on my Grandmother’s 1928 Singer sewing machine, and I’ll be using that when we meet via Zoom.
We’ll start with a block called the Log Cabin and use it to make any number of things: a pillow, a large bag, a small bag, a pot holder, a wall hanging, a lap quilt, a pillow case, or something else. We’ll meet in real time via Zoom once a week. And, there will be an optional drop-in studio time every week where we can sew together some more.
Dates: July 1-July 29 (5 classes & 4 drop-in sessions)
Cost: $125. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Story Bridges with Louise Omoto Kessel, for adults, POSTPONED to Fall 2020, exact dates TBD.
Please indicate INTEREST in this workshop by filling out form below which includes giving information about your SCHEDULE.
Louise is a professional storyteller and the camp director at Clapping Hands Farm. In addition to telling her own stories, Louise loves working with others to find/create their own stories and tell them! Sharing our stories is a powerful bridge to understanding other perspectives and connecting with our own humanity.
In this storytelling workshop we will explore the Art of Storytelling in the context of our own cultural identities. Louise believes We Are All Storytellers! So, we will dive into the craft with exercises to deepen your connection with the characters and places in your story; we will look at ways to bring audience participation into your performances; we will practice word painting and ways to tell the story with our bodies, voices, gestures and faces. We will also journey into our family stories, revisiting our earliest memories of race, religion, geography and community; with all the foods, holidays, spiritual practices, and important values and relationships that came along with our particular lens on the world.
You will be invited to find a story that relates to your cultural heritage, and then to learn it by heart and bring it to life in a performance. The workshop will conclude with a recital for friends and family.
Dates: July 6-August 24 (8 classes) with a recital on August 29 or 30.
Cost: $240. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Toy Making with Louise Omoto Kessel, ages 8-13, Thursdays 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., July 16-August 13
Louise is a professional storyteller and the camp director at Clapping Hands Farm. She is very excited to dive into toy-making fun with you on Zoom this summer!
Toys and Games camp is a Clapping Hands Farm favorite and is our longest running camp; we’ve done it every summer for more than 15 years. Louise has a LOT of GREAT toys and games that we can make! I haven’t planned this out in detail yet, but I can promise it will be fun! And homemade fun is the very best kind!
Your supply fee will include everything needed to make a bunch of toys! This is a great workshop to do as a family.
Dates: July 16-August 13 (5 classes)
Cost: $75 with a supply fee of $30. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Hand-carved Rubber Stamp Printmaking with Louise Omoto Kessel, ages 12-adult, 8-11 welcome with parental help, Mondays 10-11:30 a.m., July 20-August 10
RUBBER STAMP PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP REGISTRATION
LOUISE OMOTO KESSEL is the instructor for this class. Louise is a professional storyteller and the camp director at Clapping Hands Farm. She makes prints of various kinds and sizes and hopes you will get as hooked on handcarved rubber stamps as she is!
Using linoleum carving tools, you can carve your own original rubber stamps out of erasers! I have carved literally hundreds of rubber stamps and love using them for both fun and useful things. In this workshop you will learn the basics of print design and carving. Then we will do several projects with our homemade stamps!
Your supply fee will provide a set of four carving tools, a box of a dozen magic rub erasers, and one extra large eraser. YOU will need to provide a stamp pad and ink for the stamp pad and/or a set of watercolor markers that are still “juicy,” and paper and card stock for printing on.
Dates: July 20-August 10 (4 classes)
Cost: $60 with a $15 supply fee. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Latin Dance with Andrea Lara, ages 9-adult, T, Th 9-10 a.m.
Session 2: July 21-August 13
Originally from Colombia, Andrea was born in a family of artists. Her mother, a folklore dancer and her father, a songwriter and musician, influenced her love for music and dancing. At a very early age Andrea was dedicated to learn different Latin American folk dances at the school of arts she attended in Bogotá. She joined a Latin American Folk Dance company where she participated in different performances like Tango, Flamenco, Mexican Jarabe Tapatio and other folk dances for seven years. Andrea came to the U.S five years ago and has been teaching at Walltown Children’s Theater in Durham. Come enjoy the sounds and rhythms that will transport you to the roots of Latin America!
This workshop will explore different styles of Latin music, including folklore, pop, urban, etc. Each workshop includes stretching and a choreographed routine, including brief explanations of the different steps. Andrea will provide YouTube videos for campers to practice their choreographies with at the end of each workshop.
Participants need: a clear open space where they can move safely. Please wear comfortable clothing for dancing!
Session 2: July 21-August 13 (8 classes)
Cost: $80. Scholarships available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Talking Drum Build & Play with Teli Shabu, ages 10-adult, 7-9 welcome with parental help, T, Th 2-3:30 p.m., July 21-August 13
TALKING DRUM BUILD & PLAY WORKSHOP REGISTRATION
Teli Shabu is originally from Liberia and part of a family of performers and artists. Teli has been bringing his big heart and inventive mind to our Clapping Hands Farm community for a dozen summers, leading drumming, story theater, adinkra printing, telling stories, and building instruments.
In this workshop participants will build, decorate, and learn to play a talking drum! The drum will be constructed using PVC pipe fittings, strong cord and goat skin drum heads. Talking drums have heads on two ends connected by strings. By squeezing on the strings while playing the drum, you can change the pitch and make the drum sing and talk in different tones. These drums originated in West Africa and Teli has used pieces and parts available here to make the building of a talking drum accessible to our campers.
Dates: July 21-August 13 (8 classes)
Cost: $120 with a supply fee of $56.75. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
