Winter Art Camp Spurs Kids' Creativity

“Every child is an artist,” Pablo Picasso once said. “The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

If the Spanish genius had visited the Winter Art Camp last week at the , he would have been buoyed by what he saw.

Some 20 children between the ages of 6 and 11 years spent the week building forts from tables, fabric, Styrofoam and tape. They made stain-glass windows and crafted miniature houses from clay. They wrote and performed their own plays. 

The center’s mission in arts education is to inspire a passion for artistic expression in each of their students by expanding their concept of what can be considered art—a goal that showed in the exuberantly expressive lanterns, picture boxes and clay sculptures that the children toted home after the week-long camp ended on Friday evening.

If you and your kids missed this winter’s art camps at the Center for the Arts, not to worry. The center has in the works many more engaging programs, for both children and adults, and many of them are free of cost:

1. Clay Jammers 

Friday, 4 to 5:30 pm, February 10 to April 27, 2012.

For ages 6 to 11 years.

Make musical instruments, plants, animals, strange buildings and strange lands from clay. This class will teach skills and techniques such as hand building and glazing while broadening the student’s understanding and application of ceramics.

$65 for a 10-week session or $7 per class.

2. Upstage: Performance Dance Workshop with Jemima Wyman

Wednesday, 4 to 5:30 p.m.

For ages 6 to 11 years.

Students will warm up with dance and theater exercises and learn to make a play from start to finish, including writing their own script, making costumes, designing a set, working on props and deciding on accompanying sound and technology.

Free.

3. Drawing from the Monsters: 10 weeks of ghoulish art making with John Hogan

Thursday, 4 to 5:30 p.m., February 9 to April 19, 2012.

By looking at “monsters through history” in Hieronymous Bosch paintings, medieval manuscripts, Hindu mythology, contemporary cartoons and the like, students will learn to visualize the macabre and improve their illustrative techniques and creative thinking.

Free.

4. Indie-Publishing Workshop with Daryl Gusin and Rebecca Indusil

Thursday, 6 to 8 p.m., February 9 to April 19, 2012.

For ages 18 years and older.

Learn to create zines, interview your classmates, experiment with duplicatable art, and more at this workshop. Free.