Butler Art Center summer camps offer creative outlet
A Butler-based summer camp features campers’ summer crafts in an art gallery.
The Butler Art Center hosts summer camps for children and for teens, teaching them not only different artistic mediums, but information about the weekly subjects. For instance, the week of Aug. 8 through 12 has a national parks theme.
“For the national parks week, I’ll be teaching them about the animals in the parks and where they are,” said Alina Glath, an instructor at the art center.
The Butler Art Center began hosting the camps last summer, which Shirley McCauley, board secretary for the Associated Artists of Butler County, said were well-attended.
The camps this year began June 13, and will continue until Aug. 12. Five children attended the “summer fun camp” throughout the week, and McCauley said there are plenty of spots open for the rest of the summer camps.
McCauley said the camps cost $30 per day or $140 for a week, but the art center has needs-based scholarships that can pay for children’s enrollment.
According to McCauley, the opportunity to create art that can be taken home or displayed is exciting for many attendees.
“They love it,” McCauley said. “One of the kids said, ‘Wow, my artwork is in a real museum.’”
Every camp week offered by the art center differs, whether it be in subject matter or artistic medium. Some weeks have campers work with clay, and other weeks, the campers work with paints. Glath also enjoys showing them how to repurpose household items, like toilet paper rolls and pipe cleaners to make art pieces.
“I try to use natural objects as much as we can,” Glath said.
The camps are geared toward all skill levels, but Glath said beginners can develop their artistic skills at sessions as well. The multiple mediums offered also allow children options as to which camps they would like to attend.
“We get to focus more on the art aspect here,” Glath said. “We work on their motor skills and we work with different mediums so they don’t get bored.”
Jessica Robinson, assistant instructor at the art center, said the camps help give children an introduction to different mediums so they can find their preferred outlet.
“Everyone has got an artist in them,” Robinson said.
Trevor Frankenstein, 9, of Butler, made a campsite diorama and a bird feeder with repurposed items at the Summer Fun Camp Friday.
“I made the bird feeder with a milk carton and string,” Trevor said. “The campfire I made with wire and the bushes are wires.”
For more information on the art center’s camps and scholarship opportunities, visit its website at butlerartcenter.org.
