Past Youth Art Camps

Kids Studio August 2nd - 5th

This summer's Kids' Art Studio will be an Encore! of our Art Through the Decades summer camps. We will take our inspiration from the 1920's (Tuesday), 1960's (Wednesday), 1970's (Thursday), and the 1980's and 90's (Friday). Even though returning students may be familiar with the themes and artists of the decades, the projects will be new. Unlike summer camp, students may attend one day, all four, or anything in between.

Learning Through the Lens: A Photography Art Camp for 4 and 5 Year-Olds

In this exciting two day camp for 4 and 5 year-olds, students will explore texture, color, light, perspective, and composition through the lens of a camera. They will create still life scenes to make images of, as well as explore the grounds of the center with their cameras in tow. Through process, play, and experimentation, each student will create a set of images that tell their own unique visual story. For our first ever camp for 4 and 5 year-olds, Prairie Arts Center is excited to be partnering with OSU's Department of Human Development and Family Science and their Early Childhood Education program.

Week One: the 1920's

This week our focus will be on the so-called Roaring 20's, a decade of dramatic social change and upheaval. We will make artworks inspired by Art Deco, early Expressionism, surrealism, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz, urbanization, and 1920's fashion trends. Just like the decade itself, our week will be filled with exploration, invention, and enthusiasm!

Week Two: the 1930's-early 1940's

This week we will take much of our inspiration from the wide range of artists of the New Deal and WPA including Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Aaron Douglas, Rosa Rush, and Jacob Lawrence. Students will learn about the role art played in helping lift the United States out of the Great Depression and the wide spread legacy of these programs that remains visible to this day. Like the works of this era, our projects will spark the collective spirit of art making and celebrate belonging.

Week Three: Late 1940's-1950's

This week our artworks will be inspired by both the "high" art of Abstract Expressionism and the "low" art of a newly expanded post-war pop culture. One day we might have fun absorbing the influences of action painting (think Jackson Pollack) and color field painting (think Mark Rothko), and on another day make work related to the birth of rock and roll and artists like Sister Rosetta Tharpe who pioneered the movement.

Week Four: the 1960's

In this week of art camp, students will learn about the aesthetic revolutions of Pop Art, Op Art, minimalism and performance art, as well as the social revolutions that inspired them. Our art projects will explore the still relevant influences of consumerism, mass production, and entertainment exemplified by Pop artists as well as provide an opportunity to play with graphic art, color, and repeated patterns.

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