By getting inspiration from the Permanent Collection and information from adult members of their families, participants in the Summer Art Camp learn how to create artworks with personal meaning. Activities focusing on favorite family holidays allow for expressive drawings and paintings. Interviews, including questions about ‘what was fun back then’ and ‘what was your schooling experience like,’ of a parent or grandparent provide a look at the family history. That information is integrated into the children’s and teen’s art works, which include drawings and paintings of family members from photographs. Some result in a painted portrait, and others, a whole scene from a specific time period.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Sabrina Ochoa, teacher. “Several of the family portraits are just amazing. They are so detailed that it almost looks like an exact replica of the photo. I mean, the detail – you can feel the emotion that went into these drawings. With the little ones, their artwork is so telling. It’s so innocent and just very clear. You get what they really feel about their family and what their interests are.”
A variety of materials are used at the Camp. In addition to pencils, watercolors, and acrylic paints, children use crayons and oil pastels for scratchboard. Everyone makes paper maché piñatas by covering balloons with newspaper strips, glue, and tissue paper. Making clay pinch pots and coil pots and painting them after firing is fun, too. It’s a whole new experience for the students; most of them have never worked with clay and had it fired.
Summer Art Camp participants also listen to a talk about works from the Museums Permanent Collection. For one activity, they select a painting and do a study of it with pencil and colored pencil. Understanding the importance of historical documentation, they also draw sunrises, palm trees, and other things that exist in the Valley. The collection serves as a stimulus for ideas.
The art show at the end of each Camp instilled a sense of pride in the young artists. They proudly pointed out which art works were theirs. “We have the parents come in the last day of class when we hand out certificates to the kids,” said Miriam Hernandez, teacher. “The parents can get their child’s artwork off the wall in the little gallery. By just seeing what was accomplished, the parents felt proud of their kids.”