When it comes to Fantasy Week at Kimball-Jenkins art camp, you never know what you’re going to find. And that’s the whole point.
This year, some of the costume projects included LEGO men, warriors and unicorns. There was also a phoenix, Ariel (from the Little Mermaid) and a completely made up alien king. You name it and it has probably been done. A few years ago, one camper was even the Blob. No eye or arm holes, just a piece of green fabric covering his body. And if you haven’t peeked ahead (or happened to glance over the cover), we even dreamt up Insider Man, complete with a taco on his sleeve.
“Their costumes really tell you what they’re interested in,” camp director Lee Johnson said. “There’s a lot of freedom to explore.”
That’s the beauty of a fantasy-based camp. There’s no normal, and anything your creative little brain – between the ages of 6 and 13 or if you work for the Insider – can imagine is up for creation.
Fantasy Week is just one of the six-week-long summer camps offered this year at the Kimby-Jenks. Unfortunately, Comics, Cartoons and Manga Week is currently under way and World Cultures and Animal Week have already passed. But the good news is that plenty of space is still available for the final two weeks, Earth Week (Aug. 4-8) and Great Artist Week (Aug. 11-15.)
“We have a lot of kids who comes back two, three and four times because they’re interested in art,” Johnson said.
The camp is split up into three different age groups, ages 6-7, 8-10 and 11-13, to keep the subject matter at the same level. Yes, that’s right, campers at the Jenks will participate in various forms of art, such as drawing, painting and ceramics – all the while having fun while learning. They work in groups and as inpiduals. They even get instructions from some former campers, who loved it so much that they stuck around until finally getting a paid summer job, like Hallett Sargent, a 20-year-old UNH student, and Owen Geary, 16, of Contoocook.
“I’ve been here forever,” Sargent, who has been a counselor each of the last four summers and was a volunteer at age 14 after aging out of the camp, said. “Art has always been a side interest of mine.”
“I’ve been going here since I was six and I’m 16 now,” Geary said.
And the memories over the years have stuck. Sargent just discovered a small book she made during her first summer camp, and Geary remembers a dragon costume he once crafted. Geary is the one who put in all those hours recreating the Blob – or maybe it was more like minutes – and Sargent’s most memorable costume design came in the form of a three-headed dog.
“I love seeing what their minds can create,” Sargent said. “It’s so cool to see what they come up with.”
The two both started as campers, volunteered for a few summers and then got hired on to give the next set of budding artists an experience to remember.
At the beginning of the week, the campers created a banner that showed their varying interests. There were dragons, bald eagles and mermaids to go along with a giant castle and something that resembled King Koopa from Super Mario Bros.
“The projects, they can shape them to what they want,” Johnson said. “The banner is a great way of finding inspiration. You can see the different interests.”
Banner creation was Monday, as was the clay portion of the week, where each fantasy fanatic could make a flat and 3D creation. There’s also journal work and a final day art show, but the real fun comes in the form of costumes. From felt to cardboard, yarn to jewels, this portion of the week is when the imagination can run wild. How else do you think we came up with the taco on the sleeve or that catchy phrase on the cape? What does it say you ask? Well you’ll just have to turn the page to find out.
“When you sign up to work at Kimball-Jenkins for the summer, as a volunteer or a counselor, you look forward to the crazy things you crank out during Fantasy Week,” Geary said.
But the whole camp is designed to give Kimby-Jenks visitors an ability to express their artistic side. So Johnson will come up with the lesson plans and oversee all three groups, while his trusted group of counselors and volunteers make it a fun time for all. With artists working in their studios and classes going on in the Carriage House, the estate is a place that just screams creativity. Or is that the ghosts that reside in the top floor of the mansion?
They even figured out it took eight 6- and 7-year-olds to fit around the wicked old Sycamore to the left of the front entrance.
Like we said, just about anything goes when it comes to creating what you want at this camp.
“They’re learning how to be artists,” Johnson said. “When they come here, they’re artists for the week.”
For more info or to sign up for one of the final two weeks, visit kimballjenkins.com/content/spring-summer-camp-2014.
