Description
We are excited for a beautiful + creative summer 2024!
Our art camps are either 3 full or 1/2 day and happen mostly on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
We have different camp options for each age group:
Mixed-age artists (ages 6 – 12) are full days, 9 am – 3 pm
Younger artists (ages 4 – 8) are 1/2 days, 9 am – noon
For sibling sign-ups: for 10% off please use this coupon code: sibling10
Happy summer planning – Christina + Love Lab Studio team
PS If your choice fills up, please sign up on our waiting list (under the contact form on the website), this also helps us to see if we need to add more offerings!
june
wk 1 – rainbow love – 1/2 day, younger artists
June 17, 18, 19 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – noon 1/2 days
ages 4 – 8 yrs old
$170
Stuffed rainbows, rainbow sculptures, the colors of the rainbow… Exploring the beauty, hope, and peace of rainbows can also be super fun! We will be playing with fabric, cardboard, wood, wool, yarn, paint and more. Making individual art and getting to paint on giant collaborative sculptural art, we are so excited for this new art camp! Mixing colors, making a rainbow color book, this 1/2 day art camp is the perfect sweet way to launch your summer! Our youngest artists camps are super sweet, and children bring a snack. On the last day we have a small exhibit of our work to show the grown-ups before we take it home!
wk 1 (part 2 ) rainbow love – 1/2 day, younger artists
June 20, 21 / Thu, Fri / 9 am – noon 1/2 days
ages 4 – 8 yrs old
$110
Stuffed rainbows, rainbow sculptures, the colors of the rainbow… Exploring the beauty, hope, and peace of rainbows can also be super fun! We will be playing with fabric, cardboard, wood, wool, yarn, paint and more. Making individual art and getting to paint on giant collaborative sculptural art, we are so excited about this new art camp! Mixing colors, and making a rainbow color book, this 1/2 day art camp is the perfect sweet way to launch your summer! Our youngest artists camps are super sweet, and children bring a snack. On the last day we have a small exhibit of our work to show the grown-ups before we take it home! This 2-day, 1/2 day workshop is perfect for artists new to the studio or who want to get in some extra fun studio time in before the summer starts.
wk 2 – strawberry joy
June 24, 25, 26 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
Mixed ages 6 – 12 yrs old
$290
Berries! To launch the summer, this week we will be making lots of cute art and crafts all about summer fruit! This is the time of year in Maine when we go strawberry picking, so we are going to celebrate this beauty and joy. Berry-themed paintings + drawings, sculpture, collage, jewelry, and berry art bags to hold our art supplies we will dye and paint for the summer! This week will also include a little berry cooking project, which will be extra exciting.
july
wk 3 – mini tiny village by the sea
July 1, 2, 3 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
Mixed ages 6 – 12 yrs old
$290
Isn’t making tiny stuff so fun? We will be making tiny, teeny villages, rooms, food, and people will be the theme of this workshop! We will use recycled, upcycled, found, nature, wood, and also some dough, clay, wire, beads, and more at this fun workshop where we make everything super small! Each child will take home their own tiny house and get to play and build something more collaborative as we put our creations side by side to make a village. 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 fun and busy art camp!
wk 4 – ocean + beach love – 1/2 day, younger artists
July 8, 9, 10 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – noon 1/2 days
ages 4 – 8 yrs old
$170
We love learning about the ocean! Did you know we can see the ocean from our studio window?! In this camp we will be making ocean-inspired paintings and sculptures, while also makings 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 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 and super special to our Portland, Maine studio.
wk 5 – fashion, community + me – 1/2 day, younger artists
July 15, 16, 17 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – noon 1/2 days
ages 4 – 8 yrs old
$170
Isn’t it fun to make our own clothes? Collaborating with our teachers and funky materials we will bring in, we will design first as fashion illustrators, and then using both felting processes and gathered recycled/upcycled material from a local Maine fashion house will make some real creations – for our dolls and some accessories for ourselves too! We will look at contemporary artist Nick Cave, and make a fabric designed by contemporary artist Sonya Clark, also layered into our fashion work will be the idea of mending. Some of our artists may love to knit or crochet, we can layer that in as well! 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 (or more if they can fit safely in our wagon!). At the end of this camp, we will do a little “fashion show” to celebrate.
wk 6 – fashion, community + me
July 29, 30, 31 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
Mixed ages 6 – 12 yrs old
$290
Isn’t it fun to make our own clothes? Collaborating with our teachers and funky materials we will bring in, we will design first as fashion illustrators, and then using both felting processes and gathered recycled/upcycled material from a local Maine fashion house will make some real creations – for our dolls and some accessories for ourselves too! We will look at contemporary artist Nick Cave, and make a fabric designed by contemporary artist Sonya Clark, also layered into our fashion work will be the idea of mending. Some of our artists may love to knit or crochet, we can layer that in as well! 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 (or more if they can fit safely in our wagon!). At the end of this camp, we will do a little “fashion show” to celebrate.
august
wk 7 – sunflower pop up shop
August 5, 6, 7 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
Mixed ages 6 – 12 yrs old
$290
The sunflowers 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 like print, drawing, painting, and working with flowers, seeds, and cooking. We will also look at funding structures and share with our community a portion of what we decide to sell for bartering or maybe actual money. The children will work through a design process with us to make these decisions! 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.
wk 8 – jam it up: art + songwriting
August 12, 13, 14 / Mon, Tues, Wed / 9 am – 3 pm
Mixed 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 with songstress Emilia Dahlin. Collaboratively and individually, 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’s entirely authored by US with accompaniment provided by beloved teaching musician artist Emilia Dahlin who 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 9 – jam it up: art + songwriting – 1/2 day, younger artists
August 19, 20, 21 / 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 with songstress Emilia Dahlin. Collaboratively and individually, 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’s entirely authored by US with accompaniment provided by beloved teaching musician artist Emilia Dahlin who 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 our online forms that we will also send (including media form, release 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 $40 for staff and processing fees. 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 within 60 days of the camp session, we will do our best to find you a spot in another camp or find someone to take your spot, but cannot guarantee this, so spots are non-refundable. 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 also be layering 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. Thank you for your partnership on this!
what
Each camp has an innovative, funky, and fun, project-based 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 – and t-shirt! 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 as assistants engaged artist/creatives assistants. We always have 2- 3 caring teachers during art camps.
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 and renovated, 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 or 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! 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
With backgrounds as studio/craft/public artists and designers, certified art teachers, Waldorf 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!
