Young artists camp now a summer staple
Summer is traditionally the season to take some time off, but the Department of Art instead put in extra work to provide summer-vacation opportunities for children from as far away as Aiken and Orangeburg.
The department's Young Artists Workshop has been a popular annual offering in the fall and spring, but this year expanded to summer for the first time.
“We want the children to have quality experiences.”
Rising first-third graders and sixth-eighth graders created Cranimals, based on the fantasy world of Dr. Seuss; studied birds' nests to learn observational drawing; and used gelatin molds for experimental printmaking. Undergraduate and graduate art education students taught the classes in the inaugural summer program.
“Parents have been interested in summer classes for a long time,” says Minuette Floyd, an associate professor of art and director of the Young Artist Workshop. “We thought this would be a good time to start a summer program here in the art department.”
The workshop is part of the School Art Program, a class required for all art education majors. The students meet on Mondays and Wednesdays to learn about working with children and constructing lesson plans. Then for seven Fridays, the students teach their lessons to children from the Columbia community and other parts of the state.
The number of students in the class determines the number of classes offered, and students often teach with a partner. This summer, the students taught individually and prepared every aspect of the class themselves.
“One of the things that distinguishes the Young Artists Workshop is that our teachers develop their own themes. They design the lessons and have the opportunity to carry those themes and lessons all the way through,” Floyd says. “I really emphasize their learning how to construct quality art lessons before introducing them to art curricular guides.
“We talk about some of the appropriate ways to introduce lessons and how to develop a quality art lesson that includes personal relevance and adherence to national and state visual art standards. We want the children to have quality experiences.”