Esplanade summer art camps encourage creativity while celebrating work of local artists

By Samantha Johnson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on August 11, 2023.

The Esplanade has been holding summer art camps for several years and Dana Walls, education coordinator, has been personally involved with running them since 2015.

“The dynamic of the camp has changed since COVID,”stated Walls.

“We’ve opened up the age ranges to be broader.”

The camps used to have a different age range for each week, but are now for ages five through 12, which enables siblings to attend the camps together and it’s been more successful.

The summer camps run for eight weeks and are about connection and experimentation with art materials, allowing kids to be introduced to various mediums, along with learning and trying something new.

“They are all beginner-friendly projects, it’s a way for kids to connect with each other and with art materials and the various areas we have within the Esplanade,” said Walls. “It’s also affordable child care offering this service to the community.”

Children are registered for a week at a time with 22 spaces available in each camp.

“We have two really great instructors for facilitation and they’ve planned the entire curriculum,” said Walls. “They had the month of June to prepare for the two months of camp.”

This year, the camps all sold out within 24 hours and there is a waiting list, such that any time somebody’s plans change and they need to pull their child from the camp, the spaces are filled immediately.

“This is the first year that has happened,” said Walls. “Last year was the first year it completely sold out and it took about a week.”

The two instructors teaching the summer art camps this year are Jessica Siwy and Amber Kornelson.

“I’ve been an artist my whole life,” said Kornelson, who teaches Grade 5/6 at Mother Teresa during the academic year.

“I like to work with lots of different kinds of mediums, so I was really excited to get this job because now I get to teach children how to use the mediums and make lots of complex projects.”

There is a different theme for each week of the camp. This week was a fantasy-based theme.

The kids also go on a field trip each week, such as to Medalta where they each created a clay project.

“It’s been really great to connect with community and get out and see what the community has to offer that could relate to some of the projects we are doing,” stated Kornelson.

Some projects explore different types of art materials kids might not have worked with before, which allows them to learn different techniques. “We planned several larger art projects, because we are trying to engage students from age 5 all the way up to age 12,” explained Kornelson.

“We have taken big project ideas and broken them down into steps so it’s easy for every child that attends the camp. Those are often the projects we display at our art show.”

Each Friday, at the end of the day, there is an art show in the Esplanade gallery where parents and community members can come see the artwork the kids have made that week.

Each child has their own space on the wall where paintings and other creations can be hung. There are also plinths where sculptures or other three-dimensional creations can be displayed.

Work of local artists, or those who have art displayed at the Esplanade, is used as inspiration for some of the art projects in the camp.

The instructors talk about what types of things can be seen, discuss colour theory, the use of lines, the theme of the piece and how to create balance.

“We’ll look at art concepts and discuss an artist’s work and then we use their work as inspiration for a project we do in camp,” said Kornelson. “The kids are always excited because they know the artist’s names and at the art show they say things like did you know this was inspired by… It’s great.”

Registration is now open for both fall programming and the full year of professional development day programming.

Visit the esplanade.ca for more details.

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