Camp Celebration!

Friday was the last day of Summer Camp at the Coleman Center! We kicked the day off with John, as they sang and filmed railroad songs on the caboose outside the Coleman Center gallery, a relic of York's railroad heyday. Campers sang "I've been working on the railroad," "O Susannah" and "Ballin' the Jack" like stage pros, weathering the bright sun and Alabama heat. Check out the Coleman Center on Vimeo to see the video!

Campers also spent Friday morning giving the sidewalk in front of the gallery some inspirational character, including inspirational messages from Terrell and his alter ego, Ryan Dunstan.

Campers went home at noon on Friday, so that Coleman Center staff could get ready for the Camp Celebration extravaganza. At 6 pm, campers came with their families to show off all the amazing work they did in the last two weeks. Self-portraits, animations, puppets, alter-egos and paper compositions were shown throughout the room. John and Kanita each led the campers in beautiful song.

Paris Heats and Rock Stars, we are so proud of all the work you made, performances you perfected, and friendships you formed! John, Catherine, Garland, Samita, Kanita, and Frances, we couldn't have done it without you! And thank you to all the campers, families and community members who made Summer Camp a success and a joy!

Signing out till next summer :)

Digging, gathering and moving

This week at Summer Camp, all of our campers have made wonderful objects and memories, building on skills they learned last week! The Paris Heats have harvested new vegetables in the garden and created colorful character compositions out of paper. The Rock Stars have made clever, funny animations using 2-dimensional characters and backgrounds they made under Garland's superb direction. All the campers have learned new songs with John, and memorized verses to ones they sang last week.

Tomorrow is our last full day of camp! Join us Friday evening to see what our incredible campers have done in the past two weeks, and to meet these young artists! The Camp Celebration will be Friday, June 17, from 6-7pm. All are welcome!

Some of the vegetables harvested by the Paris Heats. Strawberries, cucumbers, Brussel's sprouts, okra, green peppers, tomatoes, yum!

Getting into Character

The Coleman Center welcomed our campers back today after a beautiful weekend!

The Rock Stars kicked off their week with a review and critique of each of their amazing alter egos. From a fierce trendsetter and an entrepreneurial hairdresser to an introverted emo avenger and a virtuoso do-all grandma, these alter egos are detailed, thoughtful and beautiful! Stay tuned throughout the week for portraits of Rock Stars and their alter egos! Later, the Rock Stars turned the stories of their alter egos into incredible comic strips. They also experimented with making thaumatropes, a flat disk with images on either side connected to a string that, when twirled quickly between the fingers,  rotates the disk so that the two pictures appear to combine into a single image. These thaumatropes take planning and persistence to be successful, and the Rock Stars did an amazing job!

Meanwhile, the Paris Heats used props borrowed from the University of West Alabama theater department to bring different characters and sides of their personalities to life. Check some of them out below!

A look at last Friday

Though thunderstorms and sleepiness cut short our post on Friday, here are some highlights of a wonderful day:
After the Rock Stars put together some delicious savory pizzas for lunch, the Paris Heats experimented making dessert pear pizzas with dough made by Jocelyn. Campers got to taste and touch the spongey, sticky and stretchy dough, shape it into individual sized pizza pies, and topped them with melted butter, cut up pears, and sugar. The results were yummy and beautiful!

Meanwhile, the Rock Stars learned Vera Ward Hall's song "What is the Soul of Man?" with Samita. After spending some time singing, Samita encouraged them to write and perform their own verses to the song.

Later, the Rock Stars honed their animating and story telling skills, while the Paris Heats sang and danced through the afternoon. Come to the Camp Celebration this Friday, the 17th, to see amazing animations and performances by our campers!

Friday!

The first week of camp has come to an end! Congratulations to all our campers and instructors for a wonderful week of art, music and friendship! One camper even said today was the best day of his life.

Signing out till next week. Have a good weekend everyone!

Getting Animated

Thursday was another fantastic day at the Coleman Center Summer Camp! The Paris Heats and the Rock Stars all learned new songs, new games, and new visual art skills.

The Paris Heats continued to bring out their green thumbs as they worked together to pot daisies and transplant vines in decorative containers for the Coleman Center block. Though the plants aren't edible, the new potted plants the Paris Heats put together will add beauty and color to the garden.

The Paris Heats also had their first session with Kanita and her beautifully powerful voice, who taught them gospels and new harmonies. 

With John, the Paris Heats warmed up by pretending to be statues in a museum. The warm-up helped them focus on observation skills and teamwork, to be ready for the singing ahead!

Meanwhile, the Rock Stars spent time with Garland honing drawing skills and developing their characters for animation next week. With different exercises and prompts as inspiration, each Rock Star took their characters and alter egos to new levels of creativity, detail and cleverness.

The Rock Stars also tried their hands at using iStopmotion, a program that facilitates animating. Using every day objects, like a soda bottle, a rubber band, a stapler, and a pine cone, the Rock Stars worked in small groups to make short films. They experimented with timing, story and planning to create highly original first attempts at animation!

A green wonderland

Yesterday was the middle of the first week of camp, and the Paris Heats celebrated by exploring the Coleman Center's organic community garden with Nathan and Frances. They tasted different herbs like dill, mint, oregano and sage. They picked ripe tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, Brussel's sprouts, green onions and peppers. Thanks to Frances for the beautiful photos!

Meanwhile, the Rock Stars worked with Catherine to prepare a delicious lunch of catfish sandwiches, potatoes, and three sisters soup. The Rock Stars also had a crash course in the basics of animation, to prepare for their own animation projects they will start next week. They checked out iStopmotion, a computer program that facilitates animating objects, drawings and people. Then they watched a collection of Pixar short films, which were both entertaining and illuminating. The Rock Stars thought about how long it takes for a team of professionals to produce a three-minute animated film (any guesses?), how everyday objects like bicycles can be "anthropomorphized," and how the Rock Stars can translate the skills they learned yesterday when they photographed different emotions into their animation projects. We don't have any pictures, but stay tuned for their first forays into iStopmotion this afternoon and tomorrow!