Please find our summer art camp 2025 schedule below!
We will open camps for registration on Saturday, February 8th at 9 am.
Warmly, Christina
* keep scrolling for other studio offerings + updates:)
If you don’t get into your choice, please right away email us to get on the waiting list!
– through the contact button on our home page!!!
summer art camp 2025!
Camps open up for registration Saturday, February 8th, 9 am.
Click on the product window on the home page and it will take you to sign up then, at 9 am.
wk 1 – strawberry joy
June 9, 10, 11 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
ages 6 – 12 yrs old / $290
Strawberries will launch our summer! We will be making art + craft ALL about this topic! Imagine a mini sculpture “strawberry + local produce” food cart, berry-themed paintings + drawings, sculpture, collage, jewelry, a little berry cooking project, and berry art bags to hold our art supplies and nature treasures for the summer ahead.
wk 2 – rainbow love – 1/2 day, younger artists
June 16, 17, 18 /Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – noon 1/2 days
ages 4 – 8 yrs old / $170
Exploring the beauty, hope, and peace of nature + rainbows is so rich as artists. We will be playing with large + tiny scales making jewelry, fabric, cardboard, wood, wool, yarn, paint, making a huge rainbow and more. Making individual art and getting to paint on giant collaborative sculptural art, we will have so much fun! Mixing colors, making a rainbow color book, this 1/2 day art camp is the perfect sweet way to launch your summer!
wk 2 – baby animals – 1/2 day, younger artists
June 19, 20, / Thurs, Fri / 9 am – noon 1/2 days
ages 4 – 8 yrs old / $110
What’s one of your favorite animals? In this animal-loving ½ day camp, children will make animal books, draw, paint, and use cloth + sculpture to make their own favorite baby animals! We will create tiny animals to play with and small habitats and have lots of fun. This is always a hit theme for our youngest artists!
wk 3 – mini gardens + village by the sea
June 23, 24, 25 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
ages 6 – 12 yrs old / $290
Isn’t making tiny stuff so fun? We are so grateful to live by the sea – and this camp makes it so visual! Building mini buildings, gardens, food, and people will be the theme of this workshop! We will use recycled, upcycled, found, nature, wood, and also some dough, clay and more at this fun workshop where we make everything super small! Each child will take home their own little creation that will be a building + community/partial garden plot (we will design it as a group!) Our studio is near a community garden that we will visit and use as inspiration. Collaboratively we will put all our creations together for the final show!
wk 4 – ocean + water love – 1/2 day, younger artists
June 30, July 1, 2 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – noon 1/2 days
ages 4 – 8 yrs old / $170
Outside our studio window we can literally see the oceans! In this camp we will be making ocean-inspired paintings and sculptures while also creating some fun little natural play tools and a bag to even take to the beach. This zero-plastic camp will also integrate some play and imaginative projects like little sculpture, jellyfish, boat building and more! We will work hard to make sure all our creations will be safe if they blow into our beloved nearby ocean. This will be a camp with beautiful creations as we honor and celebrate our amazing oceans + water.
wk 5 – fashion + me – 1/2 day, younger artists
July 7, 8, 9 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – noon 1/2 days
ages 4 – 8 yrs old / $170
Isn’t it fun to make clothes? In this fun camp, we will make a little outfit for our stuffies and dolls! Collaborating with our teachers and funky materials we will bring in and collect from Maine fashion designers, we will design first as fashion illustrators, and then play with materials to see what we can come up with. We will look at contemporary artist Nick Cave and his sound suits. For this camp, please bring your favorite doll (or stuffy) so we can support them with new fashion! On one of the days, we will take our dolls on an adventure to join us for snack time. At the end of this camp, we will do a little “fashion show” to celebrate.
wk 5 – textile design! – 1/2 day, younger artists
July 10, 11 / Thurs, Fri / 9 am – noon 1/2 days
ages 4 – 8 yrs old / $110
Isn’t it fun to make our own textiles? Utilizing printing, collage, some sewing and painting, we will make a range of textiles samples, a fun textile art journal, and a creative and joyful individual cloth banner to decorate our rooms. This will be a fun little, very creative, 2-day morning art camp!
wk 6 – jam it up: art + songwriting – 1/2 day, younger artists
July 14, 15, 16 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – noon 1/2 days
ages 4 – 8 yrs old / $170
Singing and making art is a powerful combo! A song can be an affirmation, a way to support ourselves by hearing just the right messages we need to move through a tough time or to inspire us! This is our beloved special collaborative camp we do yearly. Together, we’ll write a song for ourselves. Using a multi-step process, we’ll weave together writing, melodies, and music to craft a song that we entirely author with accompaniment provided by beloved teaching musician artist Emilia Dahlin who leads and co-teaches this workshop. We will also make some cool art, including band badges, a moving picture “cranky” (each year we create new versions!) and more. Our song will be professionally recorded and we will perform for our grown-ups on the final day!
wk 7 – sunflower + wildflower pop-up shop
July 21, 22, 23 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
ages 6 – 12 yrs old / $290
The flowers will be blooming, and we are going to celebrate, study, and make art about them while also building and adding to a little pop-up shop where we can sell a piece ( or addition) of our art at a community gathering! We will explore mixed mediums using natural paints, and work with flowers, seeds, and cooking. We will also create something that we re-produce as a group and set up our own little shop, and decide as a group were the proceeds will go to support a local group with mutual aid. This will be a celebratory art camp, and wonderful for young entrepreneurs to think more about what it means to create and exchange something in and for the world and our precious earth.
wk 8 – blueberry farm
July 28, 29, 30 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
ages 6 – 12 yrs old / $290
We love our Maine farms! In this camp, we will focus on one of Maines harvests – blueberries! Create a tiny sculpture model of your own blueberry farm, a blueberry creation we eat, a recipe book that we will make, blueberry paint and dye, paper mache blueberries jewelry/sculpture and all kinds of fun things! We are so excited to launch this new theme and can’t wait to see where it takes us!
wk 8 – our shared world: artist as storyteller, tad older artists
July 31, Aug 1 / Thurs, Fri / 9 am – 3 pm
older ages 10 – 15 / $190
Making art about ourselves and our world, will lead this workshop. In this new offering for “tad older” artists, we will explore our own stories, the world around us, and the artist as storyteller. Exploring zines, public/wearable art, and integrating text into our work. Mediums like drawing, mixed media (paint/pens/collage), silk screen printing, and more will be integrated. We will have our show on the second day, and share our experiments and powerful creations!
wk 9 – fashion + me: wearable art
August 5, 6, 7 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
ages 6 – 12 yrs old / $290
Isn’t it fun to make clothes? In this fun camp, we will make a little outfit for our stuffies and dolls! Collaborating with our teachers and funky materials we will bring in and collect from Maine fashion designers, we will design first as fashion illustrators, and then play with materials to see what we can come up with. We will look at contemporary artist Nick Cave and his sound suits. For this camp, please bring your favorite doll (or stuffy) so we can support them with new fashion! On one of the days, we will take our dolls on an adventure to join us for snack time. At the end of this camp, we will do a little “fashion show” to celebrate. Please note, this year we will plan to incorporate more printed textiles + messages in our art to share with the world!
wk 10 – jam it up: art + songwriting
August 11, 12, 13 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
ages 6 – 12 yrs old / $290
Singing and making art is a powerful combo! A song can be an affirmation, a way to support ourselves by hearing just the right messages we need to move through a tough time or to inspire us! This is our beloved special collaborative camp we do yearly. Together, we’ll write a song for ourselves. Using a multi-step process, we’ll weave together writing, melodies, and music to craft a song that we entirely author with accompaniment provided by beloved teaching musician artist Emilia Dahlin who leads and co-teaches this workshop. We will also make some cool art, including band badges, a moving picture “cranky” (each year we create new versions!), and more. Our song will be professionally recorded and we will perform for our grown-ups on the final day!
*extra info
before art camp!
> We will send you a welcome email before your art camp, reminding you of the camp ahead and anything you need to remember or bring.
> Each parent/guardian must sign the online forms we will send (including a permission form, medical form, waiver form, and other important info) that will arrive in your welcome email this spring.
> Come ready to have fun and become a part of the studio! It’s always good to wear clothes it’s OK to get dirty too. We will detail all of this in our welcome email.
waiting list
Please make sure to sign up our waiting list inquiry form on our contact page and submit your camp week choices if you would like to be on our waiting list! Please also know we sometimes do open up camp spots, and we also will continue to add in 1-time workshops if there is interest to do mini versions of some of these camps, so get on that list!
cancellation policy
If you need to cancel please reach out to us, we have a policy that if you cancel before 60 days of your camp session, we can issue you a refund, less $50 for staff and processing fees. If you cancel after that, we can’t refund as if we don’t fill it, we won’t be able to make our bills as our summer art camps sustain the studio. We know when you sign up things can get confusing, just know we will work with you if you make a mistake when signing up! If you need to cancel a camp due to illness, we will make you up a big art kit to do at home, and we will layer in some make-up days so you can still have the fun! If we need to cancel a camp due to our team and illness or unforeseen circumstances, we will first try to reschedule our camp days, and if we can’t we will give out partial gift cards and art kits but no full refunds will be able to be given. For weather-related cancellations, we will offer make-up dates. We are a very smal art studio, so thank you for your partnership on this!
what
Each camp has an innovative, funky, and fun, project-based theme and curriculum that we adjust slightly to the energy and members of the group! Our projects are influenced by nature, and contemporary/historical artists and change-makers. Specific books will be carefully curated to align with the themes of each week, with thoughtful, caring discussions, playful games, nurturing fun yoga, and some singing and play interwoven into each day. All materials are high quality, sustainably, and mindfully chosen–recycled/repurposed or ethically made. Each art camp this season comes with a fun art journal! Each day, a different art process in the studio greets the children and launches our work together!
Besides the fun thematic projects, we will weave in choice time to paint on easels, play, and always choices for project work. Our creative teaching approach is inquiry-based and responsive, and we support and respect the curiosity and imagination of the young child. We will do a snack outside, and then for full-day art camp we usually have lunch in our studio courtyard, park or playground. After lunch, we play at the nearby Tying Street playground, will do an all-fruit popsicle (with parent approval), and then keep at the art and studio play!
who
We welcome and celebrate a group of mixed-age children and work to give camp choices to accommodate. Each art camp will be run by a team of highly trained and thoughtful art teachers, with support from engaged artist/creatives assistants. We always have 2 caring teachers during art camps, and sometimes a 3rd assistant!
healthy community
For the safety and health of all, we have a robust Covid process, which we will need everyone to adhere to to have a safe community. Currently, we ask everyone to make sure you are healthy to come, if you have symptoms test and wear a mask inside if negative but sniffly/coughing. We ask that everyone work with us to make sure your children come healthy to the studio. Also, we will have windows open and our air filter running all summer!
our space
Our space is fun and joyful, bright – , known as Love Lab Studio. The design is thoughtfully curated for the needs of the children. We are located at 26 Brackett Street, a mixed residential and retail neighborhood in the West End of Portland. This year, our camp will happen both inside our studio (with windows open, ceiling fans, and Hepa filters on) and outside in our temporary outside studio patio garden and park when we can. You will arrive at the bright studio usually with nice music playing, we take off your shoes, find your cubby and hooks to store your things – then wash hands at the art sink, and we have a project to get into a warm up right away! It is very calm and super engaging! The children do their warm-up project, then we gather and circle up and go through our fun activity choice areas and project themes!
some of our values
Our team of caring art teachers has professional backgrounds like: studio/craft/public artists and designers, certified and classroom art teachers, Waldorf inspired/trained, Reggio Emilia inspired/trained, advanced degrees, service learning, college teaching experience, contemporary art education pedagogy of all kinds, and more. We weave projects in every day that are directed towards opening our minds to be deeply caring and embracing of the diversity of humans and nature. Other values include:
* The whole child: social & emotional development, inclusion within a deeply caring and welcoming community
* Child as a communicator + poet: language development through participation, listening, art
* Child as co-creator: project-based, hands-on, individual learning and collaboration
* Child as informed citizen: community member, global + ecological participant. We care for each other and work to develop our ability to do that better all the time.
* Child as artist: centering arts, creativity, imagination, joy + healing in all we do!
We look forward to seeing you at the studio!
> Friday, Feb 7, 10 – 4: valentines! collage, making our own valentines + valentine mail-boxes
> Saturday, Feb 8, 10 – 4: valentines! printmaking + collage, making our own valentines + valentine mail-boxes
> Friday, Feb 14, 10 – 4: valentines! making valentine woven paper table runners + valentine mail-boxes
February Winter Break Art Camp is open for sign-ups!
You can sign up for 1, 2 or 3 days! sign up here:)
Creative Art Afterschool!
Be super creative, get cozy, build community + gain art skills
Great choices of a longer OR shorter with tad later start time, art after school.
Sign up for 1, 2, or all three winter months! Wed 3:30 – 5:15
OR Thu 4:00 – 5:15 (we are launching a shorter option this winter!)
Ages 6 – 12 (5-year-olds often love it, but check in first!)