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Art, Paper, Scissors! Your Weekly Connection to Camp Art Academy

Art Spotlight Animation, Illustration, Imagination

Generation! This week’s field trip is sure to be a stimulating and enriching experience that also provides inspiration for our future animators and cartoonists! Campers will tour Seeing Opera, the current exhibit at the Weston Art Gallery. The exhibit features nine local artists, many of whom are Art Academy alumni and/or faculty. The focus of this field trip is Jay Bolotin’s twenty-minute animation, Kharmen. Bolotin is an acclaimed musician and visual artist who has worked in numerous visual media and regularly performs concerts around the country. The film’s animation was created through digital manipulation of the artist’s original graphite drawings, which are presented along with the film. After viewing the film, Art Academy Instructor, experienced animator and cartoonist, Lynn Arnsperger, will discuss the animation process with the campers and guest artist David Johnson, a local Branding Strategist, will speak to us about illustration and branding in the corporate world.

Camp Art Academy is once again partnering with The Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery’s acclaimed art ambassadorial program, Docentitos. The Docentitos program trains children as docents who will guide our campers through the exhibit to ensure an exciting and enlightening field trip for our campers!

Have you heard the story about the Camp Director who walks into a classroom to find a Cooper’s hawk on the windowsill and a bunch of broken glass? No, it’s not a bad joke – it’s how Monday morning started! Crisis averted and handled (just call me “Hawk Herder”) but the bizarre encounter spurred a closer look at hawks … and camp. Google search: “Hawk Symbolism” Findings: In some traditions, Hawk totems served the role of messenger guide representing Awareness, Insight, Visionary Power, Guardianship, Strength, Initiative, Decisiveness, and Creativity. Hawk totems help a person to move forward to seek out great quests. One of the greatest gifts a hawk totem person can give to others is their vision of a better and brighter future… Maybe the hawk encounter wasn’t as random as I had thought. “Make Art, Make a Difference” is the mission for the Community Education Department at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and our guiding light at camp. Continued on Page 2

Community Education Classes

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Meet Our Team See page 2

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Check out our fall brochure for fostering creativity all year long!

Creative Quote of the Week

Just when the caterpillar thought the world would end, it became a butterfly. –Buckminster Fuller

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Take a closer look at our talented staff. Art Instructor and Art Academy Alumn, Carol Carver, is crazy about creative collaboration.

In loving memory of Bobbi Vallery, Art For Kids Director 2000-2013

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From the Director Ramona Toussaint

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The photo above is our “Make Art, Make a Difference” bulletin board at Camp Art Academy’s satellite site at the CCAC. It has pictures of campers, staff, and artwork of each staff member’s hand with the message, “Growing Every Day.” Indeed, it grows in complexity as we have grown over the summer and in the Community Education Dept. Last year we “test drove” the demand for camp downtown and had 100 enrollees. We added the CCAC location and have a total of 195 enrollees! One might think that the last week of camp means the growth stops but I have a different vision that extends beyond camp. I envision the community thriving as the Art Academy Community Education Department provides adults and children with opportunities to make and experience art that provides meaningful memorable experiences, skill development and community cohesiveness. I see an Art Instructor in every after-school program in the area. I see a cornucopia of interesting, stimulating, high-quality class offerings for adults. I see optimistic, passionate, highly skilled staff and a healthy, happy volunteer base. I see the Bobbi Vallery Memorial Fund abundant with a strong donor base so that scholarships can be provided to as many talented kids in need that want to take advantage of it. I see this and more… Use your hawk eye to soar high above to catch a glimpse of the bigger picture; join me in the vision. Call the Community Education Department today to find our how you can help make this vision become a reality! In Inspiration, Ramona Toussaint Camp Art Academy Director

From the Director…Continued

AAC: What inspired you to be an artist? I have loved making art my whole life. When I was 15, I enrolled in a landscape watercolor class and I was the youngest person in class. It was definitely a turning point in my life. I made some artwork then that hangs in my house today. AAC: You work as an art teacher during the school year, why teach art during the summer? Yes, I’ve been teaching K-5 at Princeton for 24 years. I like teaching at Camp Art Academy. In school, I only get to see the kids every three days, but camp is more immersive, making for a more impactful experience for the kids. Additionally, everyone here works together to help the students produce and display art; having people “behind the scenes” preparing materials enables teachers to do more complex projects with students. I especially love the energy you can feel when everything culminates together. AAC: What has been your favorite project so far at Camp Art Academy? My favorite projects were printing and mural painting. I really enjoyed these projects because they were a collaborative effort among the campers. This emphasized the

idea that artists can pursue art individually but there is also a collaborative effort to art, where the group’s product ends up greater than the sum of its parts. AAC: You earned your Masters of Art in Art Education at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. How else are you continuing to grow and collaborate? Yes, the masters program at the Art Academy of Cincinnati was intense and I feel it helps art teachers to revisit what drew them to art in the first place, which is making art themselves. I really liked my teachers and my fellow classmates. It was an exceptional experience. I am currently taking classes at Funky Fired Arts and working with other art and science teachers at Princeton to develop curriculums for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics).

Meet Our Staff Carol Carver – Creative Collaborator

Like a gardener with a green thumb, Carol, Camp Art Instructor, focuses her talent for creative collaboration to support life-long learning in herself and others. Camp Art Academy spoke to this Art Academy Alumn about her joy and dedication to creative process.

In loving memory of Bobbi Vallery, Art For Kids Director 2000-2013