Budding artists from ages 5 through 9 years old can create their creatures in Monster-Makers Camp, make dinosaur-themed projects in Welcome to Fitton Park: Dinosaur Adventure Camp and more.
“Offering Summer Camp Creativity is important to the Fitton Center’s mission because it allows us to engage our community through high-quality, affordable, hands-on arts experiences,” said Kate Rowekamp, director of education for the Fitton Center, 101 S. Monument Ave.
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Campers ages 7 to 12 years old can become novelists, printmakers, combine art with the STEM subjects, make mosaics, and get runway ready in a variety of different themed-camps such as Artistic Authors Camp, Inky Ideas Camp, Camp STEAM, Mesmerizing Mosaics Camp, and Fashion & Jewelry Design Camp.
Teens can write and learn about publishing their own stories in the Tell Your Story: Creative Writing, Self-Expression, and Self-Publication Basics camp, explore the intersection of art and STEM subjects in Camp STEAM or print designs on our etching presses in New Editions: Teen Printmaking.
“Each year, our line-up of camps is a little different, so we have many exciting new camps on our schedule,” Rowekamp said.
The camps, which are now in their 12th year, are two to three hours in length, depending on the age group. The 2-hour camps, which are for ages 5 – 9, run 10 a.m. to noon. The three hour camps, which are for ages 7 through 12, are offered from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and then again from 1 to 4 p.m. Camps for teens are also offered from 1 to 4 p.m.
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“With so many fun camp options, summer is one of the most energetic and creative seasons for our education program,” Rowekamp said. “We’re looking forward to inspiring and collaborating with many young actors, authors, artists and maybe even a few dinosaurs.”
Each week, the Fitton Center camps offer new week-long camps and parents/guardians have up to the start of a camp to register and may sign up for as many weeks of camp as they wish. Scholarships covering full tuition are available.
For the past three summers, a mosaics camp has been offered, which always includes a different large-scale collaborative project using recycled materials. This year, the camp is recycling broken crayons by stripping off their papers, cutting them down and using them as the material to create a collaborative mosaic mural.
Rowekamp said all camps are open to both Hamiltonians and non-Hamiltonians and the furthest away she’s seen a camper travel so far this summer is from Westerville, a more than 100-mile journey.
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The summer camps are at about 130 campers, roughly 8 percent more than last year, Rowekamp said. Camps employ eight instructors and two dedicated support staff with “the whole Fitton crew” pitching in to help with camps in one way or another, she said.
For more information, call 513-863-8873 or visit www.fittoncenter.org.
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