Saturday I enjoyed my first visit to the relatively new Shea campus for 5th through 12th graders at the Tesseract School, a private school founded in 1988 — which also has a Doubletree campus for preschool through 4th grade students.
I was there checking out the many camps with fun exhibits, cool contests and nifty giveaways — and in an act of extraordinary self control, I somehow managed to walk right past the booths serving ice cream and Mojo yogurt.
I chatted with folks from all sorts of camps, but focused my attention on camps specializing in the arts — dance, music, theater and/or visual arts. You can click here for a companion post featuring photos designed to give you a feel for the day.
I was pleased to discover that several general camps who exhibited at the 2011 RAK Camp Fair include visual and performing arts fare in their many offerings.
In the All Saints’ “Summer 2011” brochure, for example, I found classes like “Vans Gogh,” “Write On!,” “Young Musicians,” and “Fractured Fairy Tales.”
While many camps were represented by their director or program staff, some brought along parent volunteers or kids who’ve attended their camps in the past.
Longtime Greasepaint Youtheatre volunteer Lorraine Kirkorsky was there with one of four sons who’ve enjoyed theater at Greasepaint (including the oldest, now in medical school).
Lots of camps used unique means to attract attention — from Wild West get-ups to reptiles. Also spinning contest wheels, furry little animals, videos of performing campers and more. I’ll share photos of some of those on Sunday as well.
At nearly every booth I explored, I found a story with an arts twist — reinforcing my theory that art touches (and transforms) every aspect of life.
The woman working the Pointe Hilton Resorts booth described how various family members have come, in different ways, to making art of one sort or another — promising to alert me next time her grown daughter with a flair for chalk art exhibits during First Fridays in Phoenix.
When I got home from the 2011 RAK Camp Fair, my 17-year-old daughter Lizabeth eagerly showed me a letter that had come while I was away. It was from an East Coast college offering her a generous financial aid package. (She’ll start college this fall but has yet to choose a school.)
I haven’t any doubt that it’s her many years of education in the arts and humanities — including her study of music and theater at Arizona School for the Arts and many summers filled with music, dance and theater camps — that has readied her to not simply stumble from the nest, but to soar.
— Lynn
Note: If your summer camp exhibited at this year’s Raising Arizona Kids Camp Fair, feel free to send photos of your booth for possible use in future posts.
Coming up: A director’s tale, Get a Q!, More drama in Wisconsin, Josh Kornbluth meets Andy Warhol, Favorite Oscar moments
Stage Mom Musings 