Ronald McDonald House Charities Gives $7750 to Camp Lovejoy Arts Program
The Arts Program at Camp Lovejoy enables youth to develop creativity and cultural awareness through skill development and the appreciation of the Arts (visual, performing and digital arts). The program encourages youth to be inventive, resourceful and imaginative—all things needed to be successful and productive today and in the future. Arts activities will allow youth to explore the aesthetic and technical qualities of various art media and develop critical thinking skills; learn the processes and essential elements of the discipline needed to produce work in each medium; produce completed works based on this newly acquired knowledge; develop skills and expand individual creativity; and enhance critical thinking skills to improve academic performance.
The Arts Program at Camp Lovejoy includes concentrations in Fine Arts, Pottery, Dance, Drama, Glee Club, Multi-Media, Arts & Crafts. Arts concentrations are the most popular offerings at Camp Lovejoy, with many of the concentrations wait-listed. Programming grows each year to meet that need, however Camp funding stays relatively the same. All campers participate in Dance and Arts & Crafts weekly, and up to 150 of those campers select a concentration in the Arts to participate in for two hours daily (while the remaining campers enroll in a sports, outdoor survival or STEM concentration).
The Fine Arts concentration exposes youth to drawing, painting and sculpture to name a few. Campers explore proportions, shading, new concepts, art history, color theory and more.
Pottery is a hands-on concentration where campers create both utilitarian and high-concept designs. Youth learn to prep, mold, fire and glaze their works.
Dance is both a camp-wide activity and a concentration offering. Dance focuses on technical-skill-achievement, movement, space and fitness. Youth learn both solo and group dances for performance.
Drama is an intensive seven-week concentration of script development and memorization, costume and set creation, and drama basics, culminating in a final performance in front of the entire camp and their families. This concentration capitalizes on young people’s love of drama by increasing their appreciation of this art form and building their self-confidence, sparking creativity and boosting academic achievement.
Glee was developed to capture the excitement of today’s popular music through song and dance performance. Youth create, learn and perform choreographed numbers.
Multi-Media combines technology and the arts and introduces the creative technology skills to aide youth in developing higher education goals and future career paths in graphic design/ digital arts. Campers participating in this concentration work towards designing the Camp Lovejoy Yearbook—a totally youth-driven activity from start to finish. The Yearbook allows campers to remember new friends from other schools they met at Camp Lovejoy, caring staff and new experiences. Creating lasting, positive memories is something that remains a constant since 1957 when Camp Lovejoy first opened its gates.
Arts & Crafts is a general arts activity that all campers participate in weekly. Campers create fun works that celebrate creativity and the importance of recycling/reusing materials whenever possible.
Funding will allow us to purchase much-needed arts supplies, materials and equipment to meet the growing numbers in our Arts programs and execute the programs as designed to achieve desired outcomes. Items of need include: digital cameras, general visual art supplies and materials, craft supplies and materials, laptops, easels, additional work surfaces, pottery materials (clay, glaze), stereo sound system, cloth material for costumes, backdrop materials, etc.
