July Classes - All Classes Full
Please email us to be added to the waiting list
July 8-12
A Faeries Garden
(ages 5-9)
Deborah Bazer
Join us for a week of painting, drawing, sewing, and sculpting all things faerie! We will create our own portable faerie gardens, using clay, bark, stones, seeds, and plants. Then, we’ll draw and paint faerie images of our own, as well as design ourselves a pair of fabric faerie wings and flower crowns. We’ll also explore the work of such artists as Brian and Wendy Froud, Arthur Rackham, and Alan Lee, who love to draw and sculpt faeries. While we work, we’ll hear and tell stories of those gentle and magical creatures of the good green woods. At snack and lunch times, it’s off to the woods and fields, for imaginative play, faerie house building and non-competitive games. If we look carefully, perhaps we’ll even see some tiny visitors. Please bring a lunch, water, and a snack.
Mon.-Fri., July 8-12, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
CLASS FULL - Please email us to get on a waiting list
Class Full
Look to the Skies:
Making Things That Fly
(ages 6-10)
Lahri Bond
We look to the skies this week, hearing stories of enchanted
birds, fabulous phoenixes, and delightful dragons, as well as some stories of real winged creatures. Over the week, we’ll create and test out a wide variety of creations that actually fly, including, windsocks, several different kinds of kites, paper airplanes, wooden helicopters, and our very own pair of wings. Children will also have a chance to create paper maché sculptures of their favorite airborne creatures. There will be plenty of time spent on the fields and woods of Hampshire College, trying out our aviation creations, playing non-competitive games. Please bring a lunch, water, snack and your lofty imaginations.
Mon.-Fri., July 8-12, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
CLASS FULL - Please email us to get on a waiting list
July 8-12
Class Full
July 15-19
For
Ages
11-14
Nature Art Studio for Older Kids
(ages 11-15)
Deborah Bazer
If you are wanting a more serious focus on art,
in this class, you will be able to spend time
learning about different materials and honing
new skills. We’ll begin by sampling drawing,
painting, clay, printmaking, and fiber arts,
then choosing what mediums to focus more
closely on. We will also spend our time
exploring the woods and fields, interacting
with the environment and documenting our
explorations and observations in our beautiful handmade sketchbooks. Using natural materials, as well as a wide variety of traditional art supplies, we’ll create art individually and together in a group. Choice might include improving drawing skills, create our own inks, or discover the joy of dying wool with plants for use in weaving, felting or knitting. Choose what kind of art interests you the most and enjoy a week of exploring it more fully. There will be plenty of time to share stories of all kinds, while we work. Bring your enthusiasm, your open mind and your imagination.
Mon.-Fri., July 15-19, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
CLASS FULL - Please email us to get on a waiting list
Class Full
Class Full
July 15-19
Beastly Fun:
An Intro to LARP-ing for Younger Kids
(ages 7-10)
Lahri Bond
Long before video games and iDevices, children spent
significant time outdoors playing make-believe. LARPing
or Live Action Role Playing is a fun and healthy way of
creating fantasy worlds through roleplaying and art-
making. Children will begin by designing a character that
they may wish to inhabit for the whole week.
Beasts, elves, faeries, mythological creatures and
wizards, as well as knights and warriors will be brought to life with costumes, masks and magical implements made from paper maché, cloth, pool noodles and cardboard for imaginative play. Emphasis will be on
adventure over battle. There will also be plenty of time spent in the green spaces and
woods, for finding dragons hidden in the landscape, building faerie forts, and
making magical habitats in nature. Please bring your lunch, water, snack, cape, and your imaginations.
Mon.-Fri., July 15-19, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
CLASS FULL - Please email us to get on a waiting list
Class Full
July 22-26
Muddy Days: Clay Session I
(ages 7-10)
Deborah Bazer
Do you love having delightfully muddy hands, and can’t get enough of clay, that gorgeous squishy stuff that comes from the ground? Clay, you can push it, pull it, poke it into just about anything you can imagine. Here is a class for kids who want to seriously explore the art of clay. We’ll learn about where clay comes from, and how to make amazing art with it. We’ll learn coil, pinch, and slab techniques, and then finish our work with colorful slip (liquid colored clay) and glaze. We’ll also have plenty of time for exploring some other malleable materials, playing games, as well as hearing and telling stories of magical and muddy places. All artwork from this session will be fired and ready for pick up a few weeks after class. Please bring a lunch, water, and a snack.
Mon.-Fri., July 22-26, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
CLASS FULL - Please email us to get on a waiting list
Class Full
July 22-26
For
Ages
11-15
Wizards, Sorceresses & Warriors:
Live Action Role-playing
(ages 11-15)
Lahri Bond
LARPing or Live Action Role Playing is a fun and healthy way of creating fantasy worlds through roleplaying and artmaking. Students will begin by designing a character that they wish to inhabit for the whole week. Wizards, trolls, dwarves, Hobbits and sorceresses play as important roles as knights and warriors in these games. Emphasis will be on adventure over battle. We will establish mutually agreed upon rules of engagement, before making the various magical tools the characters need. Implements might include wands, boffer swords, armor, leaf crowns and heraldic shields, all made with paper maché, cloth, pool noodles, cardboard and a wide range of recycled materials. There will also be plenty of time spent in the green spaces and woods, to fully immerse ourselves in the magical worlds we’ve created. Please bring your lunch, water, snack, cape, and your imaginations.
Mon.-Fri., July 22-26, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
CLASS FULL - Please email us to get on a waiting list