For more than 25 years, the Minnetonka Center for the Arts has supplemented its year-round programming with its summer arts camps for young art lovers ages 5 through 15.
Executive director Roxanne Heaton explains that a large part of the camps’ appeal is variety: Camps cover topics from ceramics to stone carving, beeswax to photography. “We have really high-quality classes that focus on a wide range of media. So kids can come for an entire summer and not take the same classes.”
Nicole Buchholz, children and youth program director, says kids especially love ceramics. “There are some special opportunities in ceramics for all ages,” she says. Younger groups start with hand-building, manipulating the clay to create smaller projects like animal figures. A wheel and hand class is offered for older students, or they might even do decorative design work on their vessels. “They do more intricate designs on the pot, being more thoughtful about the surface décor,” Buchholz says.
Another favorite? Duct-tape art. Buchholz says that instructor Julia Zimmerman really lets the kids’ imaginations run wild, all with basic household materials.
It’s the tremendous energy and enthusiasm kids have for art that really makes this a great time of year, says Heaton. “One of my favorite things to do is to watch them run down the hallway when parents come to pick them up, with big smiles on their faces and great projects in their hands,” she says. “It’s really satisfying.”
Minnetonka Center for the Arts
Summer camp classes run through August 26.
