Bridgewater State University's Arts for Youth

Visual Arts classes encourage campers to express their individual creativity and visual sensibility, offering art projects that span a wide variety of artistic mediums.  Each summer, our art teachers design new and exciting projects, as campers work with clay, oil and chalk pastels, acrylic, watercolor, and tempera paints, ink, metal and wire, and a multitude of other “collage materials”. 

Campers are given group instruction in how to work within each medium, and for those campers who need an extra helping hand, we have “artistic” interns ready to provide that individual support!  Throughout the summer, our campers are exposed to the work of Master Artists, as well as art forms representing a wide variety of world cultures, and then work on projects that celebrate those artists and cultures. 

Sample projects from past summers include:  goyataku fish printing; Picasso “crazy face” ink drawings; Kandinsky paintings; Peace Medallions; Chinese watercolor scrolls; 3-d metal and wire sculptures; “Ice cream” Landscapes; Mardi Gras masks; “stencil” art; Jackson Pollock “drip paintings”; and so much more!  At the end of each session, we hang or display all of the art that the campers have created in our “AfY ART GALLERY” - an impressive visual feast that families and friends enjoy on Arts Fest Day!

NEW OFFERINGS FOR SUMMER 2011 -

Creative Clay Creations for Mixed Ages!

This new art class is offered during period 2, and is open to those campers interested in spending 3 weeks devoted to “playing” with clay!  Campers will be introduced to hand building, as well as throwing on the wheel, and will explore such techniques as building with coils, or slabs, slip molding, pinching, and press molding.  Many of these techniques have been used by sculptors and potters since primitive times. This new class is for campers ages 7-12, and it will be led by 2 art teachers who will design clay projects to suit the ages and abilities of each camper.

Magical Mask Making

In this fun, new AfY visual arts class, campers will explore different approaches to mask making, as they create several different styles of masks.  Throughout the class, campers will work with a variety of materials including Paper Mache, Metal, Card Stock, Beads, Feathers, Ribbon, Fabric, Sequins, paint, and more!  Masks have been made for thousands of years by cultures around the world, and campers will draw inspiration from these diverse cultures as they design and build their own masks.  This class will be team taught, and open to campers 7-12.

AfY 2008 Art Gallery         AfY 2009 Art Gallery