Art is when you hear a knocking from your soul, and you answer.
~Quote by Star Riches
For the month of February, Camp Harbor View has chosen to celebrate The Arts. When we put together the programming for the camp in 2007, we thought that it was extremely important to have a balance of different activities so that every camper would have something they loved, not just the athletes.
Our focus over the past three years has been primarily the Visual Arts with a little bit of Performing Arts. The goals of the art department have been:
• Learn how art is used to express ideas about people, history, culture, and society.
• Fostering and development of critical thinking and communication skills.
• Learn to discuss artist’s intent and evaluate art as a vehicle for communicating ideas.
• Visual literacy.
• Ongoing engagement through visual and performing arts.
• Emphasize artistic exploration and creative decision-making.
• Creating programs / projects / activities on the island that can be extended to the youth’s own communities and their own day-to-day lives.
Our campers are between the ages of 11-14, which for most youth is the difficult time of entering adolescences. It is especially important to have arts programming with this age group for a number of reasons:
• Art stimulates thinking, communication and leadership skills.
• It gives people a sense of self confidence at creating their own piece of work.
• It is proven that art raises your problem solving and educational skills, which in turn help with school as well.
• Art helps teens to feel more connected to other people
For all youth art gives them the opportunity to express themselves creatively. Picasso said, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Many of our campers experience trauma, struggle with difficulties at home, in school or in their neighborhoods, and face peer pressure and other challenges in their lives. Art is a safe way to express some of the emotions that arise from those situations.
We are excited to be expanding The Arts focus area this year to include performing arts, music, dance, and culinary arts. The greater variety of activities will give the campers more opportunities to utilize their creativity and express themselves.
February 6th will be the Spring Training day focusing on The Arts- we hope you can join us.
