Blog
Another summer of ArtVenture in the books
If you’ve dropped by VisArts on a weekday this summer, no doubt you’ve seen some of our youngest artists bopping from studio to studio, donning the ArtVenture t-shirts they screenprinted themselves.
This electric summertime energy is a familiar phenomenon here at VisArts. In some iteration or another over the past 40+ years, our building consistently transforms into a buzzing, full-force summer camp for Richmond youth. VisArts’ ArtVenture Summer Camp, as it’s known today, offers our community a unique opportunity for young people to make art with some of Richmond’s most talented artists and educators. (Some of our current ArtVenture instructors—like cartoonist Kirk O’Brien—have been with us since the ‘90s!)
From June through August, we have been proud to host 799 ArtVenture campers ages 5 – 14. While some only pop in for one half-day session, many campers are enrolled in various classes throughout the full ten weeks. This year, we were excited offer more than 250 classes for these young creatives to dive into an exciting array of art practices—from fusing glass, to drawing self portraits, to experimenting with printmaking.
During our final week of ArtVenture, we reflected on the summer fun with artist and teacher, Sam Skrimpz. Sam taught three different classes this summer, but last week’s Piñata Party was bound to be a highlight.
Sam and his two Volunteer Teaching Assistants guided campers through the messy process of creating piñatas. The weeklong class involved sketching a design, applying paper mache to an inflated balloon, harnessing the patience and willpower of 6-year-olds to resist popping the balloons while the paper mache dries, and painting the piñata according to their design.
“We make two piñatas so they can have one for art to share with their family,” Sam shared, “and the second one, we destroy. I’m trying to impart onto them that we can create things, and we can destroy the things we create.”
At the end of the week, the ArtVenture campers have their moment of glory: the Friday Piñata Party. The campers gleefully—and “savagely,” Sam recounted—smashed their artworks, releasing the glow-in-the-dark lizards, stick-on mustaches, stickers, and other kid-friendly tchotchkes that were hidden inside.
These summertime art explorations really stick with our campers, and they often return to VisArts as ArtVenture Volunteers or, in special cases like Tesni Stephen, as our Director of Education. VisArts is a place where artists of all ages can find a home, embracing creativity in every season of life. To relive the magic of these past ten weeks at VisArts, scroll through our weekly recaps on Instagram; to keep the good times coming, explore our catalog of Fall Classes.
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