Gwinnett Children's Art Museum offers
four creative summer camp programs
By Holly Calmes
Special to GwinnettForum.com

MAY 24, 2002 -- Four amazing art camps for kids ages 5-12 begin June 3 and conclude August 2 at the Gwinnett Children's Arts Museum. There will be four sessions, each lasting two weeks. Although each session has different themes and projects, each session offers a full hour per day of drawing, painting, clay and other three-dimensional design, and drama.

The "Art at Play" camp schedule consists of:

1. Journey to the Center of the Earth Camp--- June 3-14.
   
2. "Carnival of Animals" Camp---June 17-28.
   
3. "The Time Machine" Camp---July 8-19.
   
4. "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" Camp---July 22-August 2.

Camp begins at 10 a.m. and ends at 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The cost is $280 per two-week session. Early drop-off and late pick-up are available for an additional fee. Campers must bring their own brown bag lunch.

All instructors are Gwinnett County public school art teachers who lead separate age-compatible classes of only 15 kids per class. Says Nadine Aberdeen, director of Education, "This is not a craft camp. Everything campers do will teach principles of fine art while having a lot of creative fun. Unfortunately, art instruction in our public schools is being downscaled. Here we can offer a teaching alternative with a wider range of exciting media and materials. Even our early drop-off and late pick-up is structured play."

The camps have been themed with a creative purpose. Each camp will offer many projects. A few of them are as follows:

* During "Journey to the Center of the Earth Camp", kids will decide for themselves how insects that live underground might look, and create their own versions. These drawings will evolve into paper mache and found object sculptures.

* "Carnival of Animals" camp provides many fun ideas with 'critters' as a theme. Each camper will make their own accordion book featuring a never-ending parade of animals overlapping from page to page. Animal puppets will be a favorite creative endeavor.

* The "Time Machine" camp is not based on the movie! It is a way to transport campers back in time to learn about art from past ages. There will be a "time machine" group project, however, which will be a key element in the session's-end dramatic production.

* "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" camp will find campers creating a huge collaged mural depicting underwater scenes, making individual "fish hats", a diorama of sunken treasure, ceiling-suspended soft sculpture sea monsters, and their own mixed-media sea craft.

At the end of every two-week session, campers will present an original dramatic presentation open to an audience of family and friends. This production will incorporate visuals and themes learned during that session.

There is space presently available in all four camps, although space is limited due to the strict teacher-student ratio. Answers to questions and reservations can be found by calling 770-623-6002 x 103.

The Children's Arts Museum is a part of the Hudgens Center for the Arts. These institutions are supported entirely by corporations, foundations, memberships, and private giving. They are located in the Gwinnett Civic and Cultural Center complex at 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Building 300. The complex is only one block west of I-85 and Exit 108. For more information, call 770-623-6002.

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IN THE CLOUDS. If you are familiar with the Georgia Golden Isles, you might recognize this as the new bridge between Brunswick and Jekyll Island. This photo, taken from 568 feet in the air by Billy Mitchell, a construction crane operator, shows the old bridge in the left bottom part of the picture. Meanwhile, the new bridge seems to float into the clouds. Thanks to The Golden Islander of Jekyll Island, for this photo. For the most recent column by Elliott Brack, click here.

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5/24: EVEN WITH 9/11 IN MIND, ECONOMY PRETTY HEALTHY

Editor, the Forum:

What is missing from most "economic analyses" of the US economy is the understanding that most of the people in THIS country spent much of their
time for three months following 9/11 watching the news rather than working.

If one compares the actual national loss of productivity (sort of like the figures associated with the first two days of the release of "Episode 2: Attack of the Clones") with the slight dip in the US economy in the third and fourth quarters, it is amazing how healthy the US economy actually is.

-- Allan Hytowitz, Norcross

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