all about art camp
Our Mission Statement
Art Camp aims to inspire, engage, and educate small children through exposure to the wide world of fine art. The focus of Art Camp is three-fold:
- To encourage children to view art thoughtfully.
- To create innovative, hands-on art projects.
- To connect children to their own creative process, and that of all artists.
Why choose Art Camp
Learning to look at art with a critical eye, then create one's own work offers children an opportunity to grow their minds in new directions. When children add viewing and making art into their lives, they can learn to:
- Harness the power of expression, using one's personal voice
- Make connections between oneself and the larger world of artists and art history
- Place value on breaking the mold, not worrying about mistakes, and allowing "mistakes" to lead to unexpected discoveries
- Observe, envision, be persistent
- Have fun with one’s peers while doing something creative
If you want to read more, here’s a great article about how art affects children’s lives:
Art for our sake: School arts classes matter more than ever–but not for the reasons you think
By Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland
Published in The Boston Globe, September 2, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/09/02/art_for_our_sake/
Who goes to Art Camp
Art Camp is open to any child, ages 4-8. Artistic skill or previous interest in the visual arts aren’t pre-requisites! Most groups are mixed age, and siblings and friends are welcome.
Find out what former Art Campers and their parents have to say about Art Camp! Click here to read testimonials from grown-ups and kids alike.
A day at Art Camp
On an Art Camp outing, your child will come face-to-face with great works of art in one of San Francisco’s fine art museums. These small-group art adventures, led by seasoned preschool teacher Christine Brenneman, offer a fun and developmentally appropriate introduction to the wide world of paintings, sculpture, and other visual arts.
At each excursion, your child will look at artwork around a specific theme, then create a project based on what he or she saw. Art Campers will also eat a snack and play outdoors for a short time.
As an added bonus, each day of camp is documented in photographs. The children pictured on this site are actual past and present Art Campers, busy in the act of looking at and creating art. By taking these photos, we give parents and kids a chance to re-live the day’s most-loved artworks, activities, and funny occurrences.
Who started Art Camp
Art Camp is the brainchild of founder Christine Brenneman, who started the program in 2007 as a way to combine her two great passions: art and teaching young children. Miss Christine, as she’s known to the kids, holds a degree in art history and has over 13 years experience as an early childhood educator. For nine years, she worked at Calvary Nursery School in San Francisco, where she taught 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds. Currently, she is Program Manager at Stretch the Imagination preschool in San Francisco. In her free time, she loves nothing more than visiting museums and galleries, poring over art books, and screen-printing in her home studio.
