Firstlight Art Academy Offers Exciting Summer Art Programs

“How small can we make our art camps?”

This is not what you expect a business owner to ask, but at Firstlight Art Academy, that is exactly the right question, and we ask it. A smaller group of students allows us to provide serious art training, individual attention, and
lots of fun. If we can’t accomplish all these things at once, we’re not doing it right.

So what is the ideal art camp size? The answer is different for each age group - as well as the focus of the camp. Here is information for each of our summer camps, with their maximum sizes. 

Art Garden Camp - for ages 4 and 5
Plant the seeds for a big harvest of art in your kids. Each day during camp, we make art projects that grow from the heart and bloom with color. Students create designs, paint flowers and bugs, as well as discover fun ways to make new artwork. A large poster project is worked on all week. All supplies included. 9 am to noon M-F
- One teacher + one assistant
- Maximum of 10 campers

Art Bugs Camp - for ages 6 - 8
Explore the world of art in paint and paper, and draw from a bug’s perspective. We begin the week creating lots of pictures and painting different colors. Each day, we add a section to our giant butterfly poster, and on the last day, there’s a really really “big” surprise. All supplies included. 9 am to noon M-F
- One teacher + one assistant
- Maximum of 12 campers

Color Camp - ages 8-12
Color your world! Learn what makes colors look great by mixing paints each day to make a bunch of beautiful color swatches. You’ll use these in creating a large poster mosaic of a colorful animal. At the end of the week you’ll make an original painted t-shirt with your own design. All supplies, including artist’s acrylic paint, tools and t-shirt are included. 9 am to noon M-F
- One teacher
- Maximum of 12 campers 

Toon Camp - ages 10-14
Jump into the world of cartooning. Learn how to develop characters, give them expression, and make them come to life. You’ll create characters in air-dry clay to take home, as well as on paper. Finish the week creating your own comic book with a color cover! The week of work is collected and bound in a take-home book. 9 am to noon M-F
- One teacher + assistant
- Maximum of 14 campers

If we fill up a camp, which we often do, we’ll try to add another camp on another week. Make sure you request being placed on the waiting list if there are no spots left! 

Encouragement ~ This is our core value, encouragement. Our teachers are trained to understand how to encourage different students in different situations. It’s not just saying nice things. Encouragement is more complex. Real encouragement is respectful.

For one thing, it’s encouraging to young artists to be noticed, and to have their questions answered. We simply could not do that if we had a larger group and just added more teenage assistants. Sure, we’d be able to manage more kids, but we might notice everything that’s going on with them.

Art camps are always a lot of fun. You can be confident that we’ll work hard to make sure no one is being sidelined or feeling discouraged. 

The Summer Art Buffer

Our afternoon drop-in class is super-fun and popular. We have a room for younger kids ages 6 to 8, and a room for older students 8 and up, including teens.

You can come in any weekday from 1 pm to 3:30 pm and work on your own projects.

Ages 8 and up can choose a project from our “menu”. If you need more than one session to finish a masterpiece, come back the next day, the next week, or even several weeks later, and begin right where you left off.

Workshops

There are also 3 specialized workshops for teens and adults covering:
    Artists’ Perspective
    Acrylic Paint Color mixing
    Digital Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

Check out all of our offerings on our special Summer page.