COVID-19 has made life more challenging for many, but the Surry Arts Council is forging ahead with its Arts Alive and other summer activities for youth, albeit with concessions to the pandemic.
“Arts Alive is celebrating over 40 years,” arts council officials said earlier this week. This year’s theme is Arts Alive Around the World: Discover Seven Continents theme. Students explored the continents through singing, dance, arts and crafts, language activities and creative writing.
Ages 3 to 5 attended camp June 8-11 and ages 6 to 11 attended June 15-18. Activities for the participants included learning words and phrases in Spanish, Japanese and Swahili; exploring karate and African dance; and using mixed media and stamping to create art.
Due to the federal and state COVID-19 guidelines, all Arts Alive sessions were limited to ten or fewer children per group. Masks were worn by staff and volunteers and participants were encouraged to do so as well.
“It was wonderful to see students at the Surry Arts Council again, and they were more than happy to adhere to the new rules,” said Shelby Coleman, director of artistic and educational programs. “They were so excited to learn new language skills and many were able to show off the Spanish skills they acquired at school. They learned a Spanish song and the continents song.”
One highlight is the annual Arts Alive T-shirt design competition, won this year by Charlee Moser, age 9.
“Charlee has been an active art student with the Surry Arts Council,” camp workers said. “She loves to draw and her design was printed on all of the 2020 Arts Alive T-shirts.”
Each participant used a passport to document their week.
“We made the passports on the first day,” explained Madeline Matanick, artistic and visual arts director. “They used the passports throughout the week to document their art and writing projects. They also made pasta necklaces while learning about Europe, they made Japanese cherry blossoms with stamps while learning about Japan, and they made personalized boomerangs while learning about Australia. The popular penguin hats were made while learning about Antarctica.”
“The kids are so creative,” Heather Elliott said. Elliott led the writing session of the older kids’ camp. “We used photographs as inspiration, and the language that they came up with to describe their scenes was really rich.”
Cassidy Mills, Mattie Noonkester, Natalie Cockerham, and Gracie St. Angelo volunteered to help with Arts Alive. “We could not do it without our volunteers,” Matanick said, “they were great and we so appreciate them.”
For additional information on other Surry Arts Council summer camps this year, or summer camp scholarships, email courtney@surryarts.org or call 336-786-7998. For additional photographs from Arts Alive, visit the Surry Arts Council website at www.surryarts.org.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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