Home

Week One, June 17-21: Heroes &Tales

A Week of Printmaking; Action Figure Sewing; Storytelling & Movement || Sew an Action Figure Character with Lori Fischer–This class will consist of hand sewing wire-armatured creations of your own making. Be it a beautiful doll or a frightening monster or anything in between – you are the inventor! In printmaking with Sandra Kelch, students will explore a variety of ways to create texture and images. Projects will be adapted to the various age groups and will allow each child to experience all the methods and materials available in this type of art-making. Soyinka Rahim teaches movement, storytelling, voice, and...
Read more...
Week One XP: D-I-T Mini-Golf Course!

Sold Out! Please contact us if you would like to be added to the waitlist. In week one’s special focus project, CAMPers will get to imagine, design, and build a mini-golf course that will then become part of CAMP 510 for the rest of the summer! CAMPers begin the process by brainstorming ideas and drawing plans… then, as a group, choose the designs they will work out how to build. The rest of the week will be spent building the courses and integrating structures, kinetic obstacles, and decorations to make each hole different, challenging and fun. Incorporating kinetic mechanisms, solar power,...
Read more...
Week Two, June 24-28: Structures and Textiles

A Week of Cob Oven Shelter Design & Construction; Dyes & Stitching; Paper & Books; Cooking Sold Out! Please contact us if you would like to be added to the waitlist. || Design & Build: Jennifer Cooper will work with CAMPers to design and construct a shelter for the cob oven that we built last summer. The project will involve design and simple wood construction with hand tools. From drawing to sawing and from hammering to drilling, the kids will all have hands-on experience building a real semi-permanent structure. Dyeing & Embroidery: Kaiya Batsel-Alfresco works with local plants, flowers, herbs, and...
Read more...
Week Two XP: Leatherworking

Sold Out! Please contact us if you would like to be added to the waitlist. Campers will learn the techniques of working with leather in hands-on project-oriented sessions. Over the first two days campers will learn how to cut, dye, oil, and attach hardware like belt buckles and buttons to leather while they make their own belts. The last three days will have campers learning how to hand sew and wet-form leather as they make their own belt or shoulder bags and Viking Spanghelm (leather Viking helmet without horns) with options for oculars, nasal, neck, and cheek guards. By the...
Read more...
Week Three, July 8-12: The Invisible World

A Week of Thingamajigs, Capoeira, Cooking and Top Secret! Messages & Treasure Maps || Thingamakids! Instrument Building Camp: Join Thingamajigs’ artists in creating unique and engaging instruments out of recycled materials and random treasures found in places like the beach, forests, and even your recycling bins. Be part of the Bay Area DIY Movement and learn how to make your own one-of-a-kind wind and percussion instruments, and how to play them–transforming your thinking about sound, rhythm, and music. This program offers instrument building, deep listening, and music appreciation with a spirit of experimentation and play. With Mestre Pincel, CAMPers will...
Read more...
Week Three XP: Insect Welding

Sold Out! Please contact us if you would like to be added to the waitlist. Oakland-based master metal designer and fabricator, Doug Hellikson, is also a Technical Arts teacher at Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco. He’s designed this week-long intensive for 10-12 year olds to learn and think about sculpture, design and metal fabrication. CAMPers will learn about the structure of insects, create and prototype their own sculptures in foam core and heavy weight paper, and then fabricate them in metal–using a wide range of techniques and tools including bending, shaping & cutting metal, and welding. CAMPers will have...
Read more...
Week Four, July 15-19: Be A Re-Inventor!

A Week of FixIt! Clinic; DIY Clothing; Cooking & TBA || Get ready for a week of discovery and adventure! as CAMPers get hands on experience with tools and electronics with FixIt! Ever wonder what’s inside of that DVD player that no longer works? Disassembly of non-working devices is a benign way to gain experience and confidence in the world of wires and gizmos. The idea is to foster powers of observation and curiosity through semi-structured demolition (or even restoration) of devices which might have seemed off limits such as games and media equipment. All will have fun exploring the...
Read more...
Weeks Four & Five XP, July 15-26: River CAMP

River Camp 2013: Land of the Tree People Sold Out! Please contact us if you would like to be added to the waitlist. || River Camp looks skyward this year! Young architects and storytellers will work individually and together to create a society of people and creatures who live along a river flanked by towering tree-houses! Each child will devise a vertical landscape to include trees, trees-houses, aerial gardens, exotic birds, bird people, angels, fairies, scary creatures, mythological figures, and mysterious elevated habitations. Along the way campers will learn about architecture, design, and a smidgen of biology and hydrology. The...
Read more...
Week Five, July 22-26: Industrial Science

A Week of Metal Insect-Making, Electric Car Building, Monster Mash-Up & Cooking Sold Out! Please contact us if you would like to be added to the waitlist. || Metal-Sculpture emphasizes observation, design, metal fabrication skill-building, problem solving, and hands‐on building, as CAMPers create their own insect sculptures. CAMPers are challenged to look at insects from a new perspective, and think about how they are constructed to best suit their needs and jobs within their habitats. Where do the wings attach on a flying insect? How long and/or thick do legs need to be in order to land safely on a...
Read more...
Week Six, July 29-August 2: Around the World

A Week of Ballyworld, Capoeira, and Thingamajigs Instrument-making || Imagine and build a space in which a ball can move, roll, tumble, climb, spin, jump, fly, and live. What does it look like? What does your ball do? What kind of world and universe can you imagine? With Mestre Pincel, CAMPers will learn and/or deepen their Capoeira repertoire. Capoeira is a rich African-Brazilian hybrid martial art form with dance-like moves, ritual, music and culture. Join Thingamajigs’ Artists in creating unique and engaging instruments out of recycled materials and random treasures found in places like the beach, forests, and even your...
Read more...
Week Six XP: Mask-Making

This class will give campers the opportunity to manifest their imaginations in the form of a detailed, sculptural mask that they can wear, play with, and display with pride. The whole process of realizing a vision, — from formless imagining through brainstorming, practical design, construction and detailed finish — will be engaged in this class. We will work with sculptural processes including mold-making and casting, soldering, painting, sewing and assembly; using materials as diverse as fabric, metal, latex and silicone. 12 spaces available for CAMPers ages 9-12. *** XP options are week-long, innovative projects for older campers, where they focus...
Read more...
Week Seven, August 5-9: Bots n’ Bags

A Week of Leather-working, Capoeira, and Robotics || Campers will learn the techniques of working with leather in hands-on, project-oriented sessions. Over the first two days campers will learn how to cut, dye, oil, and attach hardware like belt buckles and buttons to leather while they make their own belts. The last three days will have campers learning how to hand sew and wet-form leather as they make their own belt or shoulder bags. By the end of the week each camper will be walking home with a rugged belt and bag as well as the knowledge to keep their...
Read more...
Week Seven XP: Local Gastronomie

Sold Out! Please contact us if you would like to be added to the waitlist. Experience a week of hands-on (and taste buds-on) seasonal cooking, baking, and time at the table. Campers will learn how to make fresh pasta, mozzarella and ricotta cheese, frittata, fried rice, crepes, quick breads, jam and more. We will focus on developing knife skills, cooking from scratch, food preservation, and savoring the bounty of local foods. By the end of the week campers should know how to cook a delicious breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and snack. We will also spend time designing a CAMP 510 cookbook....
Read more...
Week Eight, August 12-16: Realm of Dreams

A Week of Collage & Painting, Cooking, and Sculptural Books || An offshoot of last year’s, Make Your Own Monster, this summer’s Realm of Dreams offers campers an opportunity to explore the possibilities of mixed-media collage more deeply. By incorporating found images, a variety of colored papers, images of their own creation, cutting techniques and different forms of application, campers will walk away with paper paintings that function as a response to the tactile experience and immediacy of collage. Campers who express an interest in learning how to draw directly from these images will also have an opportunity to learn basic representational drawing...
Read more...
Week Eight XP: Pinhole Cameras

Let There Be Light! Pinhole Cameras with Heike Liss Did you ever wonder how a camera works? By the end of the class you will not only understand the mechanics of a camera, but you will also know how to build and use a camera. Your eyes, and the eyes of many animals and insects, work the same way as a pinhole camera. Pinhole cameras come in many shapes and sizes, but basically a pinhole camera is a simple, light-proof box with a small hole in one side. You will build your very own pinhole camera from scratch using recycled...
Read more...
Week Nine, August 19-23: Upcycle, Recycle, Bicycle (And More!)

A Week of Art Bikes, Chandelier-making, Papermaking Plus+, Yoga & Permaculture || In our Art Bike Collaboratory, CAMPers will work in groups to design, decorate and create one of a kind art bikes. Instructors will be there to help them turn their whimsical, crazy and fanciful ideas into rideable works of art. From fur to paint, gizmos to flowers, and plaster to duct tape, materials will be added, twisted, sprayed, and glued. Finished bikes will be featured (and ridden) at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire in October. (Bikes will be furnished and worked on collaboratively). With Mike Gutman of...
Read more...