Lee’s Summit nonprofit hopes to offer children, adults a guide to art exploration
Sharing a passion for art and art exploration are among the goals of Art School’s summer camp program. Art School, a nonprofit in downtown Lee’s Summit, is offering 14 summer sessions in addition to its year-round adult and youth classes, open studio sessions, workshops and special events.
Camps scheduled this summer include ceramics, painting and drawing, mixed media, printmaking, 3-D sculpture and art exploration. One session will focus on creating art from cardboard. Camps begin June 3 and end July 26 with both one-week and two-week sessions offered during mornings or afternoons. Classes are geared to specific age ranges, such as 7 to 11 or 12 to 17.
Art School’s camps are taught by practicing artists who love teaching, said Diana Rendell, founder and executive director of Art School.
“Kids coming to camps will have the opportunity to experiment with so many different art supplies, take a deep dive into projects and processes, and build creative problem-solving and make friends all at the same time,” she said.
The sessions are designed to be a time of “big, guided art exploration,” she said.
“We show kids examples of what they can do and how they can do it,” Rendell said, “and then turn them loose to go follow their own art adventure while we are close by to help them along the way.”
Art School has offered the kids’ summer camps for four years with around 165 children and teens attending summer sessions in 2023. Feedback from the camps have been positive, she said, and students often repeat sessions throughout the summer.
A new camp being offered for the first time in 2024 helps young people learn about printmaking and collage.
“There is so much you can do with printmaking and so many ways to do it,” Rendell said. “With the collage portion, you aren’t wasting many prints, as you can turn around and tear them up and use them for collage.”
Classes that have proven popular over the years include ceramics as well as painting and drawing. Working with clay is often a favorite art form for kids, she said, and students enrolled in these classes usually have the opportunity to try the pottery wheel.
Offering time for experimentation and creation is an important aspect of the summer camps.
“To be good at art, we need to learn to let things go or get messed up,” Rendell added. “Those are the times we truly learn.”
The summer camps also provide young people with a dedicated time to focus on art and art appreciation.
“We always have a great time,” Rendell said. “It is an uninterrupted time to be nurtured, make friends, make mistakes and see successes. Art helps build critical thinking, gain knowledge of the physical world and find your focus.”
In addition to the summer daytime camps, Art School will continue to offer its evening courses for both kids and adults during the summer months.
Art School was founded and is operated by Diana Rendell and her husband, Allen Rendell, the school’s founder/creative director. It is located at 307A S.W. Market St. For more information about the school and its offerings, visit its webpage.
