TEXARKANA - With freedom to let the mind roam and explore with creative curiosity, art camps for children offer a passport to summertime fun.
Both the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council and 1894 Gallery offer art camp experiences for youth this summer: ArtWall Camp June 22-24 at TRAHC with professional muralist Darlene Taylor; Global Art Camp at 1894 Gallery from July 13-16 and 20-23.
TRAHC's ArtWall Camp meets 10 a.m. to noon for 1st through 4th graders, 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. for 5th through 8th graders. Art campers will create a public artwork for TRAHC's Art Wall outside of the Regional Arts Center downtown, which hosts a rotating series of art displays.
The 1894 Gallery's Global Art Camp sessions run 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for ages 5 and 6, then again from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. for ages 7-9 for the first four-day session. They go again from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for ages 10 and 11, then again from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. for ages 12 and up for the second four-day session.
Jennifer Unger, education director at TRAHC, said their art camp with Taylor will be exciting. "Because she is a muralist and right now prolific muralist," she said.
The students will not only get to work with her, but they will also have their art displayed in a public venue so it's up on the ArtSpark's ArtWall, viewable by the community and visitors in town.
"They have a unique mural experience in that they get to create a mural, but it's on the panels so it's easier for students to be able to create a portion of the mural. But they'll get to understand the process of creating a mural and the style," Unger said. It's different than a painting we see up close.
"The mural, it has to be viewed not only close up but from the street as well as people drive by," Unger said. "The ArtWall is a place that people come and they enjoy the park. There's a lot of people who go and take photographs there."
Taylor will guide students through the process so they learn the steps of creating a successful mural.
TRAHC will host another art camp the week of July 12, with details to be announced soon. It will include the visual arts, writing a script and performance.
Debbie Nicholas at the 1894 Gallery says their art camp focus is to work with different cultures, connecting them to hands-on art activities in addition to information about the culture.
"So we're going to spend some time in Japan and do a couple of Japanese projects, printmaking and origami," Nicholas said. With this and other cultural themes, a culture-specific snack will be given to the campers.
"Then we're going to head to France, so we're going to do pointillism and a Fauvism project with Matisse," Nicholas said. Then the camp lessons head back to the U.S. with Native American art lessons, including weaving and pottery.
As well, the camp will include other projects, one of which is American skyscrapers and the other is Picasso's Cubism movement in Spain.
"We're going to be discussing the cultures and their relationships to the art and the artists, and we'll have a special treat that's tied to that culture or country each day," Nicholas said.
(Cost: $65 for TRAHC ArtWall Camp; $125 for 1894 Gallery's Global Art Camp. Register by calling 903-792-8681 for ArtWall Camp, or calling 870-330-5003 for Global Art Camp. Both groups offer scholarship opportunities. TRAHC's Regional Arts Center is located at 321 W. 4th St. and 1894 Gallery is located at 105 Olive St.)